The gloves are coming off in the Republican race for the 2016 presidential nomination. While Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have been dominating polls in Iowa, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie (among others) will try to inch into third place by attacking their nearest rivals. Although the race has already been mired in vitriol, with character assassinations and insults coming from all directions, it appears voters will see an entirely new side of the candidates as they aggressively try to discredit their competitors. As the new year begins, the mud slinging that often remains dormant until the South Carolina primaries has seeped up to the surface.
According to the New York Times, the campaigns of Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee are prepared to release an onslaught of attack ads in the weeks before the February 1st caucus.
"You're going to see even sharper elbows" starting this week, said Jon Seaton, a Republican strategist with no allegiance to any campaign. "And by the middle of January, everybody will have their pads on and helmets buckled."
Although lobbing insults and epithets has worked for Republican front-runner Donald Trump, the tactic has proved more elusive for former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Bush spent a large sum of money on negative ads in Iowa, attacking Marco Rubio for his time in the Senate, Chris Christie for his governance of New Jersey, and John Kasich's record in Ohio. Apparently, these tactics have been more successful than Bush's recent criticism of Donald Trump.
"That's part of the reason why you saw Bush and Christie go after Rubio," said Carl Forti, a Republican strategist not affiliated with any of the campaigns. "They don't gain much from hitting Trump at this point. Cruz is the one who immediately benefits from a Trump downfall."
