Rank Order

As part of Restoring Respect's efforts to promote civility, we established the Restoring Respect Campaign Civility Project. Our three judge panel monitored and rated selected campaign ads for the San Diego Mayoral Race, the 52nd District Congressional Race and several state propositions. In all 24 ads were evaluated using the Shepard's Rules of Civil Campaigning.

We've ranked ordered them and given our first biennial awards for The Hat's off to the Most Civil Ad and the Shame On You Most Shameful ad of 2012.

Hat's Off Civility Award: King Family Endorsement, Nathan Fletcher Campaign – 34.5/36 points = Grade of A.
Runner Up: Brian Bilbray Protects Jobs, Bilbray Campaign 30/36 points = Grade of A.
Disqualified: Obama Democrat, DeMaio Campaign*

* The ad "Obama Democrat" aired by the Carl DeMaio For Mayor campaign actually got the highest point total (36/A) but was disqualified by our judges from consideration because of the,Machiavellian nature of the ad. The purpose of the ad for the DeMaio campaign was to manipulate viewers into voting for Bob Filner over rival Nathan Fletcher, Bob Filner having been seen by the DeMaio campaign at the time as an easier opponent to beat. As such,, while civil in tone the deceptive purpose of the ad disqualified it from consideration.

Shame, On You : Scott Peters Is Obscenely Rich, Republican Congressional Campaign in Support of Brian Bilbray
Runner Up: Bob Filner Is Unfit To Serve In Office , Carl DeMaio Campaign
Disqualified: Carl DeMaio is Dangerous, Anonymous**

** While this ad actually received our lowest score (-36 points/F) the anonymous nature of the ad and its subsequent removal from the internet forces us to drop it from consideration. But shame the ad did/does deserve.

IN SUMMARY:

We reviewed a total of 24 internet and television ads. Of these 7 received a grade of A, 7 received a B, 7 received a C, 2 received a D and there was one F. The median grade given was a "B." On the positive side, for as negative as ads can appear to be with their constant onslaught during the campaign, on the whole most of the ads we looked at qualified as mostly civil, which was an unexpected result. However the limited number of ads reviewed for the limited number of campaigns and our focus mostly on television ads has produced only an analysis of a narrow slice of all advertising during the 2012 San Diego campaign season. It is our intent to expand this analysis to include more ads and campaigns during the 2014 midterm elections. And look for our rankings during the upcoming slew of special elections to be held in San Diego during the coming winter and spring.

Grades Assigned: A=7, B: 7, C: 7, D: 2, F: 1