He is by instinct a negative campaigner.

But Mr. Garth is not known as a particularly effective negative campaigner, and he generally relies on more informational, statistics-crammed ads.

Because of the possible harm that can come from being seen as a negative campaigner, candidates often pledge to refrain from negative attacks.

He later seemed to change his position on that and became one of the most negative campaigners to date, mainly attacking governor Mitt Romney.

Soon the rebuttals chipped away at Dole's credibility and made him seem to be an increasingly negative campaigner.

The truth is he was a very negative campaigner, but the polls didn't really show it because he kept that nice smile on his face the whole time.

Mr. Cuomo blamed the Republicans, describing them as the negative campaigners so far.

That said, Mr. Stone is an exuberant negative campaigner, known for drawing journalists to seamy rumors.

"Some of D'Amato's arguments ring completely untrue to people - he has an image as a rough-and-tough negative campaigner," Mr. Morris added.

For the Lieberman campaign, this advertisement fit their strategy of portraying Mr. Lamont as a negative campaigner, unworthy of Connecticut voters.