Today the campaign came out swinging with a cable-TV ad meant to tie Huey with Sarah Palin and the Tea Party.
Considering how little the general public knows about Huey and his views (having never held elected office before, he has no record to point to), Hahn's people will need to define the candidate to a wider audience before he can define himself.
This ad clearly shows they're aware of this need and will be aggressively working towards that goal.
To date, other efforts haven't worked as well for Hahn.
Previously Hahn had pointed towards Huey's radical views on reproductive choice. But Huey was able to deflect the criticism by pointing to his own personal history - as an adopted child.
Huey responded by saying that the U.S. Supreme Court has established that abortion is legal.
"Congress cannot change that," Huey said. "I personally believe that life begins at conception and that it should be cherished and protected.
"As one who was adopted as a child, I hope that women considering abortion would take a serious look at the option of putting their baby up for adoption instead."
Dave Gilliard, Huey's campaign consultant, accused Hahn of misdirection.
"Instead of talking about the economic issues that people in this district care about, Janice Hahn is resorting to her worn-out playbook of negative campaign attacks," Gilliard said.
"It won't work. Voters in the 36th (Congressional District) are smarter than that and they want to hear what the candidates have to say about jobs, taxes and debt."
Then last week Hahn dusted off the same campaign tactic that baited Marcy Winograd into the race, and "invited" Huey to sign on to a pledge supporting the troops.
It was a pledge that Huey promptly blew off.
Councilwoman Janice Hahn won a strategic victory during her Congressional primary with a pledge of support for Israel. Secretary of State Debra Bowen signed it within two hours, perhaps sealing her defeat.
Hahn's campaign must have figured that if it worked once, why not try it again. On Memorial Day, Hahn sent a pledge to her general election opponent, conservative marketing guy Craig Huey, calling for upgrades in veterans' health care and an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Huey has handled it a little differently than Bowen did. His campaign didn't respond until today. The answer: Buzz off with your stupid pledge.
"It's a stunt on her part," said Jimmy Camp, Huey's campaign manager. "We're not as gullible as Debra Bowen was. Our issues are our issues and we're not going to let her frame what we have to say."
Camp also said that Huey's campaign hadn't actually received the pledge, except via Twitter. "We don't respond to tweets," he said.
If Bowen had tried that approach, who knows if things would have been different.
Indeed.
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