"If they get one of these ads and they get a visceral reaction to it, then they do go vote, quite frankly it'll work!" UL Lafayette Political Science Professor Pearson Cross says attack ads work.
And Cross says expect the pace of these ads to pick up heading into the final days of the campaign. "There was an ad put out that tried to tie Eddie Rispone to David Duke," Cross says referring to the ad voiced by New Orleans City Councilman Jay Banks and funded by BOLD, Black Organization for Leadership Diversity.
"That's gotten a lot of push back and its a clear ploy to get more black voters to go out and vote and go out and care about this election," Cross says.
"It's odd that it's waited this long in this campaign to get to this level," says Cross. "Frankly this is a campaign in which you have very strong feeling, you have people on both sides who feel the future of the state's in doubt and they're willing to do whatever they can to get their people to the polls."
So with smear after smear--John Bel Edwards tied to Nancy Pelosi and Eddie Rispone called a dishonest businessman and number one fan of Bobby Jindal--Cross says its Louisiana politics as usual.
"This is by no means a new level in Louisiana politics," Cross replies. "These kind of smear campaigns and these kinds of allegations have been going on since time immemorial."
