Media

Throughout the course of the race, the media coverage for the Attorney General candidates has been scarce to say the least. There has not been much, if any coverage on the news, and only a few news articles about the candidates and their "fight" for the position.
One topic has received the majority of the coverage, and that is the Kratz sexting scandal. Hassett has claimed that Van Hollen knew about the situation beforehand, and that Van Hollen did nothing to stop it. Van Hollen, however did do something. He opened an investigation after the original complaint was filed, but that is pretty much it. The investigation was only open for a few days, and Kratz himself was never even questioned. The situation does seem fairly sketchy from the outside, but the media has been on both sides of the issue. Some people ignore Hassett's claims as outlandish, while others cry out in protest at Van Hollen's lack of action. In reality, the coverage of the story isn't nearly enough to sway many voter's opinions for or against either opponent. None of the coverage seems to be, because like I said, there really isn't that much out there.
Both candidates have produced commercials. Hassett's commercial focuses entirely on the Kratz scandal, while Van Hollen's focuses on what a good job he has done while in office while claiming that his opponent has never even prosecuted a single case. Hassett's commercial may not sway the voting, simply because that seems to be the only thing Hassett is using against Van Hollen. Van Hollen's commercial might affect people's views whether they look into Hassett's background for themselves or not. Hassett was a trail lawyer before he headed up the DNR, so while he may not have prosecuted any cases, he has defended them. His defense experience might not match up against Van Hollen's past as a prosecutor for the state. As a whole, Hassett's plights against Van Hollen and the Kratz scandal seem to be falling on deaf ears, whereas Van Hollen's complaints are making his case even stronger. Pair that with the expected rise for the Republicans, and it seems like Hassett doesn't stand a chance.
The commercials that the two put out, did not receive much air time. In fact, I never saw either of the ads on TV. The ads were promoted in their newsletters, and were posted on their respective websites.
So why was there little commercial time for the candidates, and why was there little news coverage of the race? There is one main reasons.
1st: The bigger races are stealing all the lime light. You can't turn on the TV without seeing a senate candidate commercial, or a governor commercial, and you can't watch the news without news of the two big races coming out on top. The truth is, more people care about the senate seat and the election of a new governor. Simple as that. Those races are taking all the commercial and news time, leaving little to none for the Attorney General race, or many other races for that matter.