Latest Singh-Allen mailer unveils traffic plan; online ads go negative on Ly in Elk Grove Mayoral race

In her campaign to unseat Elk Grove Mayor Steve Ly, Bobbie Singh-Allen appears to be deploying parallel strategies to broaden her appeal and weaken Ly's based on advertising over the last few days.

In a widely distributed mailer received over the last two days, Singh-Allen, a Trustee on for the ELk Grove Unified School District, unveiled a five-point plan to address the city's growing traffic problems. Additionally, several EGN readers said they have started seeing Singh-Allen scrolling ads, particularly on mobile devices.  

In the screenshots from two separate online advertisements provided by a reader from their mobile devise, which can be viewed in the video posted below, Singh-Allen questions if Ly is a misogynist and suggests he is responsible for the failure to have the unfinished and now demolished Outlet Collection at Elk Grove to open. 

Construction on the facility, known locally as the Ghost Mall, began in 2007 and came to an abrupt stop in 2008 amidst the worldwide credit collapse that led to the Great Recession. Ly was elected to the Elk Grove City Council in 2014.

Paid political advertisement

The ads also mention the proposed controversial Calfornia Northstate University $900 million hospital project, which Ly has supported since its late 2018 unveiling. Singh-Allen has not directly addressed her position on the project, which is supported by labor unions and business interest groups but faces stiff opposition from many Elk Grove residents and environmental groups.    

Although negative advertising in Elk Grove races has not been the norm, it has not been void of it either. In 2006 when Elk Grove City Councilmember Pat Hume first ran for elected office, his campaign was hit with a mailer from incumbent Rick Soares with a graphic of a bottle of near-empty liquor bottle reminding voters Hume had a DUI. 

In 2018 an independent expenditure committee calling itself the Alliance to Support the Middle Class ran a series of attack online and mailer advertisements attacking Ly, who was being challenged by Elk Grove City Councilmember Darren Suen. Facing outcry from voters, Suen renounced the attack ads, which were run independently of his campaign.

In 2006 Hume withstood the attacks and beat Soares for the city council seat he has held since then. Likewise, the attack ads launched against Ly in 2018 did not affect his reelection to his current term, and he easily beat Suen and Tracie Stafford.

In addition to the two ads provided by a reader, there are other scrolling online ads circulated by the Singh-Allen campaign that features California Assemblymember Jim Cooper. Since first running for elected office in 2012, Ly generally has avoided using his campaign funds to launch negative online or mailer advertisements against opponents. 

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