Tory TV row déja vu

Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 US presidential election despite an early lead

The Tories have attacked Labour as "soft on crime" from time immemorial, but rarely have they adopted tactics as blunt as their latest election broadcast.

Tuesday night's broadcast featured stark images of actors playing criminals, including two rapists said to have struck again after being released early under Labour.

The broadcast and the furore surrounding it echo one of the most damaging political adverts ever screened in the US.

The Bush campaign was more generally regarded as a dirty campaign

Prof Tom Patterson
Kennedy School of Government

With Democrat candidate Michael Dukakis ahead in the polls prior to the 1988 presidential elections, it was widely agreed that George Bush's campaign needed a shot in the arm.

Willie Horton's mugshot has remained an enduring image in American political campaigning since it was used in a TV advert during the election.

An advert paid for by a Republican-supporting independent group told Horton's story while depicting Dukakis as "soft on crime" compared to his death penalty-supporting Republican opponent.

'Weekend furlough'

Horton had been serving life imprisonment at a prison in Massachusetts, where Dukakis was state governor.

Despite being a rapist who had been convicted of first degree murder for his part in a stabbing, he was released on a "weekend furlough" from which he did not return.

Instead, he broke into a couple's home in Maryland attacking and stabbing a man and raping his girlfriend.

One of the infamous adverts came to a blunt conclusion, "Weekend prison passes - Michael Dukakis on crime".

'Revolving doors'

Many political commentators were outraged, primarily because of the perceived racial overtones in choosing a black criminal who had raped a white woman over other furlough offenders.

William Hague has previously accused Tony Blair of presiding over a "revolving door" prison policy and this is exactly the tack George Bush Sr pursued.

The Horton case was picked up by the official campaign and became the inspiration for an advert associating Dukakis with images of prisoners passing through "revolving doors" in an ad mentioning the escaped rapist.

In the ensuing media melée there was no mention of the fact that the furlough policy had been introduced to Massachusetts by a Republican predecessor of Dukakis.

Democrats angered

Bush won the 1988 election and many felt despite the controversy, the Horton coverage had helped.

Tom Patterson, professor of government and press at Harvard University's Kennedy School of government, told BBC News Online the advert had had an impact in a very different political climate.

He said: "Context is just about everything. In the 1988 campaign, that was the time when people were concerned about crime.

"Race was out there and it was probably out there in a larger way than it is today. There was outrage in the African-American community and [the adverts] angered Democrats."

Press attention

But Prof Patterson said the Bush campaign had been more interested in the publicity than its critical reception.

"The press kicked in and it acted as a megaphone. Commentators were pretty critical of Bush for the tactic and that had a megaphone effect.

"[Republicans] were more interested in the attention than how it was spun.

"There were a number that were in this kind of category, [Dukakis was] 'soft on crime', 'soft on patriotism'."

Campaign reaction

It is difficult to know whether the Tories' borrowing of same tactics will damage Labour or whether it suggests the beginning of a dirtier campaign on both sides.

Prof Patterson said Horton-style adverts would probably not have the same impact on the current electorate.

Andrew Miga, of the Boston Herald, spent two years covering the Dukakis campaign and remembers the story's impact on the governor's camp.

The networks played the ad over and over again - any disclaimers and explanatory material pales by comparison

Andrew Miga
Boston Herald

He said Horton's crime had been widely covered in the Massachusetts newspapers and the state's furlough scheme had been brought up against Dukakis by Al Gore in a primary debate in New York.

But it was only after the first shocking advert and the Bush tactics it inspired that it became a key national story in a "volatile" campaign.

Corrective coverage

"It became a byword. Dukakis people found it very racist.

"I travelled in the Dukakis plane and I remember [campaign organiser] Susan Estrich, I could see she was very, very angry and upset that this was hurting them.

"There was no effective way to come back on it. They crafted a response, did the usual thing of getting the facts out but the corrective coverage never caught up.

"The networks played the ad over and over again - any disclaimers and explanatory material pales by comparison."