The typical division of labor in campaigns nowadays is for the candidate to stay mostly positive when communicating with voters, while political parties or outside groups do the hatchet work on opponents. That pattern is already developing in the race for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat. Democratic candidate Bruce Braley is touting his record and his stands on the issues as a way to get his name out and identify supporters. Meanwhile, the Iowa Democratic Party has taken a few shots at candidates seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

If future salvos look anything like the website the Iowa Democratic Party created to mock David Young, Braley might be better off without their help.

I considered writing this post more than a month ago, when the Iowa Democratic Party launched its “Welcome David Young to Iowa” site. I held off for two reasons. First, I did not want to be accused of reacting emotionally to an insult toward Iowans like me. (After living here from birth through high school, I studied or worked out of state for about 15 years, visiting regularly but not moving back until my husband and I were ready to start a family.)

Second, I figured that before long, the mocking website would look even more idiotic than it did at first glance.

Young’s resume presents an obvious line of attack. He has worked as a senior GOP staffer in the U.S. Senate for 17 years. During that time, the Senate has become increasingly dysfunctional and unable to conduct normal business. A primary reason is Republicans’ abuse of the filibuster, now a routine way to force a super-majority for almost every Senate motion. The last thing Iowa needs is a new senator steeped in that culture.

The Iowa Democratic Party took a different tack, labeling Young as a “Washington D.C. insider” who doesn’t understand even the basics about our state.

Humor can work in political advertising but must be used with care. Living outside the state of Iowa is not a mental defect. No one who grew up here develops amnesia from living in another part of the country.

By the way, the last two Democratic governors of Iowa were raised and educated in east-coast states. Also, two likely Democratic candidates in the first Congressional district were born outside this country: Anesa Kajtazovic and Swati Dandekar. Their life experiences differ from the norm in our state but do not undermine their ability to represent Iowans well. On the contrary.

Young reacted to the putdown with class:

Although he’s flattered that the Iowa Democratic Party has a website devoted to introducing him to Iowa, Young says it’s not necessary.

Sure, he’s spent the past 20 years working in Washington, the last seven as Sen. Chuck Grassley’s chief of staff, but Young says he’s an Iowan through-and-through.

“Growing up, I worked on farms, I baled hay, I walked beans and scooped a lot of you-know-what,” he said this morning. He also waited tables, delivered newspapers and worked at the Iowa State Fair.

Given the number of Iowans working in Grassley’s office and visiting it each day, “It’s like you never left Iowa.”

The Iowa Democratic Party should not have picked this fight. No one benefits from making the Senate race a pissing match over who’s a “real Iowan.”

A little further down the screen, the website makes fun of Young’s house.

Gee, who was the Iowa Democratic Party’s last nominee for U.S. Senate? Oh, I remember, it was the woman who lives in a house assessed at more than $1.7 million–that’s Des Moines real estate values, not Washington, DC.

The Iowa Democratic Party’s new hopeful in the third Congressional district put her Warren County home on the market for an asking price of $1.5 million earlier this year.

Retiring Senator Tom Harkin doesn’t exactly live in a poorhouse either.

The Senate race shouldn’t be about whether one candidate lives in too fancy a house, but about what the candidates stand for.

The Iowa Democratic Party did get around to Young’s temperament, using his own words to depict him as resistant to compromise.

Nice try. Next time don’t use a stock photo of Canadians when you’re trying to portray “real Iowans.”

I don’t mean to exaggerate the significance of a website viewed mainly by political junkies, but “Welcome David Young to Iowa” points toward a troubling attitude at Iowa Democratic Party headquarters. The site appears to have been slapped together without anyone thinking the message through, or how this mockery might reflect on past and future Democratic candidates for high office.

I doubt Republican primary voters will choose a professional Congressional staffer as their Senate nominee, but as stronger contenders enter the race, like Joni Ernst and Mark Jacobs, the Iowa Democratic Party needs to respond with more than lazy cheap shots.

If this were an isolated case, I might not have bothered to write this post. Unfortunately, the Iowa Democratic Party’s messaging in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles left a lot to be desired. I’m all for a hard-hitting, issue-based spot like the television commercial the party ran against “personhood” supporter Matt Reisetter in Senate district 30. But it’s wrong (not to mention stupid) to run a deceptive personal attack like the party’s tv ad against Jane Jech in Senate district 36.

Shortly after being chosen as the new state party chair, Scott Brennan told O.Kay Henderson that he plans to focus on fundraising and working with Republican Party leaders to help keep Iowa first in the presidential nominating process. I would suggest that Brennan and other party leaders focus more attention on messaging, so Democrats’ independent expenditures next year don’t end up hurting the candidates they are trying to help.

UPDATE: I missed Erin Murphy’s piece in the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald when it first came out in mid-June. Hope Iowa Democratic Party leaders will read carefully.

SECOND UPDATE: Although there’s no link, I think John Deeth had this post in mind when he wrote,

While we’re at it with the Ernst announcement, there was kvetching in the Twittersphere and what’s left of the blogosphere about the Democratic Party being “too negative” toward the GOP candidates when a press release labeled her “establishment approved.” Complaints about negative campaigning have existed since Ogg and Ugg ran against each other for chief of the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer tribe in One Million BC: “Ugg? More like Ugg-Ly. Me Ogg, me approve this message.”

You know what would stop negativity? If it stopped working.

To be clear, I am not against all negative messaging. If you read carefully above, I explained what I consider a reasonable case against David Young and cited an effective negative ad from the last election cycle.

That said, I strongly reject the premise that the Iowa Democratic Party’s negative messaging has been “working” in recent years. A lot of the direct mail, radio and television commercials have been of poor quality. There’s no doubt in my mind that shoddy attack ads have cost us votes and in a few cases, seats. Exhibit A would be the 2010 Iowa Senate race in Sioux City, which Rick Mullin lost by about 200 votes after days of headline local news coverage about his misleading television commercial. Of course no single factor explains a close loss, especially in a terrible year like 2010. But the Iowa Democratic Party’s communication team didn’t help Mullin’s cause.

Leaving campaign materials aside, I’ve seen a lot of too-clever-by-half, lame attempts by Iowa Democrats to win a news cycle. Case in point: thanking Mitt Romney for health care reform. I understand that the point was to underscore Romney’s hypocrisy on the issue, but the sarcasm just didn’t work.

Finally, “establishment approved” is a stupid message against Joni Ernst when the whole Democratic establishment has closed ranks around our nominee for U.S. Senate.