Nethercutt, Term Limits Trade Punches Group Notes Congressman Had Only Three Local Donors Early Last Year, But He Says New Report Shows He Has ‘Broad Support’
The punch and counterpunch of political advertising returned to Spokane this week after a mere two-month vacation.
U.S. Term Limits resumed its attack on Rep. George Nethercutt with a radio commercial patterned after the hit television show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
The Spokane Republican responded by releasing details of his new campaign report some two weeks before it will be filed with the federal government.
Meanwhile, on television, Texas Gov. George W. Bush began wooing Washington voters with brief descriptions of his record on education, the environment and taxes. He’s the first White House hopeful to advertise locally, but others are expected as Washington’s Feb. 29 presidential primary and March 7 precinct caucuses approach.
And an environmental group, Washington Conservation Voters, unveiled ads Thursday on clean air and clean water that feature “Bill Nye, the Science Guy.”
Before this week, the airwaves had been relatively free of political ads since the city’s Nov. 2 elections.
In the term limits ad, the Washington, D.C., group jabs Nethercutt over his first campaign fund-raising report. A quiz show host asks a contestant, “On his latest fund-raising report, how many donors did George Nethercutt list from Eastern Washington - 10,000 local supporters, 500 or just three?”
Replies the contestant: “I don’t know anyone who’s backing Nethercutt, so I’ll say only three local supporters.”
The moderator says that’s correct. Technically, the number is. Nethercutt’s Federal Election Commission reports for campaign contributions in the first half of 1999 list only three people from Eastern Washington’s 5th Congressional District who sent him personal contributions. Most of his money in that time period came from political action committees, although they include local corporations such as Avista and Kaiser Aluminum.
Nethercutt has contended he had so few local donors because he didn’t announce his re-election plans until June 13 and didn’t have time to send campaign appeals to local supporters.
On Wednesday, his campaign took the unusual step of announcing details of its FEC report for the second half of 1999 more than two weeks before it is due. That report will show he has collected nearly $131,000 from more than 1,100 personal donors, campaign spokeswoman Emily Sue Pike said. About 1,000 are from Eastern Washington and half of the remainder are from elsewhere in the state, she said.
Nethercutt said Thursday the announcement was a direct response to the U.S. Term Limits ad campaign. “I’m not going to let them terrorize our constituents with their tactics of deceit,” he said. “I have broad support.”
Nethercutt has collected about $126,000 from PACs and another $60,000 from Republican sources, Pike said.
The Term Limits campaign plans to run commercials indefinitely, executive director Paul Jacob said, but it will change them from time to time with new questions and answers.