When do you “Attack” your Political Opponent in an election?

[Frank Bellamy, MAP Masters of Applied Politics]

When do you "Attack" your Political Opponent in an election?

Answer; Only after you have defined yourself to the voters in your district.  Attack them as a response to an attack on your campaign. Attack them if you are behind in an election.
Avoid attacking at the beginning of your campaign, to do so is fool hearty unless the Media is attacking your opponent, then attack from an empathic position.

The recent Trumbull County Sheriff's and Engineer's races were so noisy with mindless attacks and counter attacks made it difficult for most voters to follow the elections.  More importantly these races wasted a lot of money on advertising that was not directed towards "Persuading the Voters" to vote for them or "Turing Out the Voters on Election Day.  Those attacks all seemed personal and the political combatants were the only people paying attention to these ads.