Characterizing votes
“Bullets,” a 30-second TV ad by the Patty Murray campaign, attacks George Nethercutt’s voting record on a range of issues and claims that Nethercutt is “too extreme for Washington.” The ad says Nethercutt opposed banning “cop-killer” bullets, led an effort to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, voted against funding to reduce class size and sided with polluters to weaken water standards and increase arsenic levels in drinking water.
Nethercutt’s stance “She put out three negative ads in two days following the release of our latest Osama bin Laden ad,” spokesman Alex Conant said, referring to a Nethercutt ad that gives the impression that Murray is sympathetic to the terrorist. “Clearly she’s trying to get the focus off of her comments.” | Murray’s stance ”(Nethercutt’s) votes, his record, don’t match what he says,” Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass said. “He’s out of step with the people here in Washington state.” Glass said the Murray camp created “Bullets” before the bin Laden piece was released Sept. 29, although it didn’t air until Oct. 1. |
The ad dedicates mere seconds to each of these issues. Cop-killer bullets: The ad states Nethercutt opposed a ban on “cop-killer bullets,” which can pierce body armor, but that’s misleading. House Bill 2703 was a broad anti-terrorism bill that Nethercutt voted against. The bill involved a study of cop-killer bullets, not a ban on them. Conant said the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives completed that study in 1997 and found that no new laws regarding cop-killing bullets were necessary. An independent verification of that study’s findings couldn’t be made Monday afternoon. Education: As the ad says, Nethercutt co-sponsored legislation to eliminate the Department of Education in the late 1990s. He wanted to “send a message that it wasn’t serving the needs of our students,” Conant said, and redirect department money to the states. Nethercutt no longer supports doing this because President Bush’s No Child Left Behind is bringing about the accountability he was seeking, Conant said. Although Conant said Nethercutt has supported big increases in education spending, No Child Left Behind critics say the federal government isn’t providing the money it takes to implement the act’s changes. Water quality: The ad says Nethercutt voted to weaken water standards and increase the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water. His camp says communities – especially rural ones – would have had to pay millions of dollars to comply with the water-quality standards put in by the Clinton administration during its final days. But editorials in The Seattle Times and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer scolded the House of Representatives and the Bush Administration for threatening the safety of drinking water through the two pieces of legislation Murray refers to in the ad. | |
Ad watch is an analysis of campaign advertising that will run regularly during election season. Contact Megan Cooley at (509) 927-2165 or meganc@spokesman.com | For more information on the election, and to see selected campaign advertisements, visit the online election guide at: www.spokesmanreview.com/elections |