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The gloves come off in the 6th District

When the sun came up Tuesday morning, the Democratic primary between Doug Pike and Manan Trivedi was just another intra-party contest, competitive but relatively civil.

But by Wednesday afternoon, one op-ed, three press releases later and some negative Google text ads later, the race in the 6th Congressional District had devolved into one of the most contentious primaries in the state, rivaled only by the party’s bitter Senate race. When it was over, arguably little had been learned about the candidates themselves—for the record, both say they are pro-choice and opposed to the Stupak amendment before Congress. But if there was any doubt before, Tuesday’s back-and-forth attacks made it abundantly clear that the fight could end up being an nasty one. And it revealed small snapshots of the strategic decisions to come.

In the end, both campaigns sought to claim the moral high ground, and both looked to paint the other as having gone negative first. All the while, some party insiders were quietly wondering if the veneer of civility would ever be restored.

It started Tuesday morning when Pike, in an op-ed on pa2010.com, claimed that he was the only “publicly” pro-choice candidate in the race, words couched carefully enough to challenge his opponent, even while the implication was clear. But little time went by before Trivedi’s campaign shot back affirming its candidate’s pro-choice views—and also pointing out an article Pike wrote almost 20 years ago. The quick response made clear that Pike’s years as an editorial writer for The Inquirer have provided his opponents with material they feel ready and able to use. Soon, Pike’s campaign was calling for “reasoned discussion,” Trivedi’s was bringing back to life a two-month old incident of negative online comments, and, in seemingly getting the last word Wednesday afternoon, Pike’s campaign was claiming to have stayed “positive in the face of attacks.”

By later that afternoon, Google searches for “Doug Pike” were turning up text ads from the Trivedi campaign with headlines like “Is Doug Pike Kidding?” and “Doug Pike Punk’d You.”

Even as tensions cooled somewhat as Trivedi turned his attention to President Obama’s plans for Afghanistan, there was little reason to believe they won’t flare up again soon.

“The Pike campaign has probably figured out by now that they’re not going to have a free ride on this,” Daren Berringer, Trivedi’s senior political adviser, told pa2010.com late Wednesday. “They can’t just go around saying whatever they want.”

He waved off any suggestion that pointing out Pike’s past writings or the past actions of his campaign manager could be considered negative campaigning.

“If they want to say we’re going negative by pointing out facts, then they have the look themselves in the mirror,” he said.

Pike’s campaign manager, Andrew Eldredge-Martin, spoke in strikingly similar terms—though he continued to adamantly refuse any public discussion of the incident that led him to be barred from commenting on the liberal blog Daily Kos.

“I really don’t think there’s anything negative about asking a candidate to address an issue,” he said. “The tone of that op-ed was not negative, and I think it’s unfortunate that Manan’s campaign began something so negative.

“It makrs a significant change in the tone coming from their campaign,” Eldredge-Martin added.

Berringer wouldn’t make any predictions about the tone of the campaign going forward.

“Only the future can tell,” he said.

But with all the attacks thus far having been made through surrogates, there seems to be plenty of room for this one to get uglier.

December 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Doug Pike, Manan Trivedi, PA-6

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