Despite pledges by two congressional candidates to run clean campaigns, an Iowa State professor believes the good intentions will not last long.

Republican Rep. Jim Lightfoot signed a pledge Monday to keep negative campaign advertising out of the Harkin-Lightfoot campaign. The next day, Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin released a similar pledge, yet neither have agreed on the specifics of the agreement.

While Lightfoot said that he would not run negative advertising on television and radio so long as his opponent did the same, Harkin went even further, calling for candidates, political parties and advocacy groups to refrain from running negative advertising on the television, on radio, in the print media or through the mail.

“There have always been negative attacks in campaigns, it’s just a larger percentage than what it has been in the past,” Patrick James, chair of the Department of Political Science, said. “The media reflects what the public generally wants. People want a negative campaign; it’s more entertaining. It’s much more fun seeing people going at each other’s throats than just a listing of the candidate’s planks.”

“Lightfoot traveled around the state the last few days, saying that he wanted a clean campaign,” Jeff Link, Harkin’s campaign manager, said. “We decided to take it to the next step. We would keep it positive, but also end the negative attacks by third-party groups.”

Link said Lightfoot would not sign the Harkin pledge because “he’s not in charge of his own campaign. Al D’Amatto [head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee] and the special interest groups couldn’t win a clean campaign.”

Monte Shaw, Lightfoot’s deputy campaign manager, said Harkin’s addition of the stipulations was “a clear sign that he is looking for any excuse to launch attacks against Jim Lightfoot.”

“Only yesterday Tom Harkin’s own campaign manager proclaimed they couldn’t control third-party organizations. If he wanted to avoid negative ads, he could have signed our pledge … and been done with it,” Shaw said.

However, Link said often it is third persons or special interest groups that launch the negative ads, and cited D’Amatto specifically.

In Minnesota, the National Republican Senatorial Committee was running negative ads against Sen. Paul Wellstone. On June 25, Sen. Rod Grahams wrote a letter to the NRSC, asking it to stop the negative campaign because it was hurting his chance of election. A similar situation occurred in Montana a few days later.

Link said the issues are the most important part of a political campaign.

“This is not entertaining, it’s serious. People in Congress decide how much we pay in taxes, what happens to Medicare. They make very important decisions and the people decide who is going to represent them,” Link said. “If voters have an opportunity to hear what he (Harkin) has done, his plans, his ideas for the future, he’ll get reelected. If it’s a slash and burn campaign, I think things will be more up in the air.”

James said the clean campaign pledge puts the pressure on Lightfoot.

“The incumbent usually has the advantage, with the other person coming in from behind. They’re the one that typically resorts to attacks before the incumbent does. Since Harkin is ahead, it puts pressure on the other side,” James said.

“Even if both sign the pledge, it’s going to last about a minute,” he said. “Both sides know perfectly well that there are going to be attacks in the campaign. It’s just who starts it and who can be blamed for breaking the no-negative-campaign pledge.”