ShareThisTuesday, November 07, 2006
The fiercely contested 2006 elections for Congress have produced a bumper crop of negative, often personal attack ads. Among them:
_ "Call me!"' _ This ad against Democratic Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee, paid for by the Republican National Committee and produced by a former associate of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, has stirred charges of playing to racial sentiments in this Southern state. Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman denies the charge, but pulled the ad off the air.
See it: youtube.com/watch?v=cWkrwENN5CQ&mode=related&search=
_ "Pays for sex" _ The ad, aired by Republican Vernon Robinson against Democratic Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, alleges that Miller "voted to spend your money to study the sex lives of Vietnamese prostitutes in San Francisco." Independent observers say the ad distorts Miller's vote. A similar ad was run against Democratic Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin.
See it: www.factcheck.org/article442.html (click on "video" in upper right corner)
_ "Drug deal" _ This ad by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee accuses Florida Republican Rep. Clay Shaw of "putting profit in his own pocket" by selling drug company stock after voting for the Medicare prescription drug bill. Factcheck.org, a nonpartisan group, said the evidence was "flimsy at best."
See it: factcheck.org/article448.html (click on "video" in the upper right corner)
_ "Seven-year-olds, tased!" _ This ad by the National Republican Congressional Committee alleges that Democrat John Cranley of Ohio "voted to allow children as young as 7 to be tased." It didn't mention that Cincinnati police approved tasers as a non-lethal alternative to pepper spray or batons.
See it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa5XY0PITE8&eurl=
_ "Just once" _ This radio ad by California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo attacks Democrat Jerry McNerney's claim to be a wind company CEO, saying he's "just the CEO of an answering machine in his house." McNerney, who has two patents for wind turbine technologies, says his business is on hold while he campaigns.
Listen to it: www.richardpombo.com/index.html (click on radio ad "Just once")
"Lost limbs" _ Democrat Jerry McNerney accuses Rep. Richard Pombo in a TV ad of voting to cut funding for veterans' benefits and research to improve prosthetic limbs. Pombo says he's voted for more than $800 million in veteran's benefits and prosthetic research over the past two years.
See it: www.jerrymcnerney.org/multimedia.asp
Sources: Factcheck.org; San Francisco Chronicle staff report
