KALAMAZOO -- Voters may complain about the use of negative campaigning, but candidates use it because it works. There is a lot of it on the air right now, most of it being used by non-incumbent candidates who hope to take advantage of the anti-government mood to win in the upcoming primary.

State Senate Candidate Robert Jones says he thinks it is damaging their efforts to attract developers. He says he hears what the politicians are saying about the state of the state, and they believe it and go somewhere else. Industrial Economist Brian Long says its not just politicians.

He says some economists with an agenda are predicting gloom and doom, and he fears we could talk ourselves into a double dip recession. He says if people don’t spend, businesses don’t expand and investors don’t invest because they are all in a national funk, whether it’s real or not, the recovery is slowed or reversed.