What does it mean when candidates shift to the right?
Yesterday, the Grand Rapid Press published a story about how several Republican candidates for Governor in Michigan were moving to the right just before the August 3rd Primary. The print version of the Press was headlined, “Candidates sharpen focus,” with a subheading of “A week before primary, GOP governor hopefuls appeal to party base.”
The MLive version of the story had a much different headline, which read, “Several Republican candidates for governor move to the right in primary campaign, but not Snyder.” Interesting that there is such a clear difference in what is emphasized and how the different headlines frame the story.
Beyond the headlines the article provides readers with two example of this “move to the right” or “appeal to the party base.” The first example involves an endorsement from Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio of gubernatorial candidate Mike Bouchard. The Press reporter refers to Arpaio as “the Republican sheriff who has gained national attention for setting up “Tent City” outside of his county jail, and has been featured as a strong proponent of the new Arizona immigration law set to take effect this week.”
Using the terms “Tent City” and “a strong proponent of the new Arizona immigration law” hardly reflect the realities of the tactics and policies that Sheriff Arpaio uses to enforce his brand of the law. The Phoenix New Times refers to the lawman’s policies as a “Reign of Terror” and the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium has a long list of documented human rights violations and abuses under Sheriff Arpaio.
Besides being under investigation by the US Justice Department and the FBI, the conditions in Arpaio’s jail are unconstitutional, he threatens lawyers who challenge him, has roughly 2,700 lawsuits against him, conducts “crime suppression sweeps” in Latino communities and in 2009 forced a mother to give birth while handcuffed to her jail bed. Unfortunately these realities are not conveyed in the Press article about Arpaio’s endorsement of Bouchard.
The other example of candidates moving to the right is the announcement that Pete Hoekstra is now part of the newly formed Tea Party Caucus. However, the Press article does not explore the significance of this announcement, both at the local and national level, especially considering the Tea Party’s far right leanings on race, immigration, war and the economy.
Instead, our local daily monopoly paper decided it was more important to quote “political analyst” Craig Ruff from Public Sector Consultants who speculates why candidates move to the left or right before primaries. Once again, the Press fails to adequately explore the implication of far right policies and politicians for those living in West Michigan.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
And of course none of the corporate media will acknowledge its own role in “moving” the Republican base “to the right,” such as the disproportionate amount of media time given to the so-called Tea Party movement or, more importantly, the fact that expensive paid media time drives the campaigns and determines a candidate’s chance of success.