DeWine’s attack ad found to be incorrect

Toledo Blade

On the eve of a Toledo debate with his Democratic challenger, Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine was forced yesterday to correct another attack ad for accuracy.

Mr. DeWine (R., Cedarville) and U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D., Avon) will meet at 7 tonight at the Stranahan Theater, in an event sponsored by The Blade and WTVG-TV, Channel 13. WTVG will broadcast it live locally, and C-SPAN will carry it nationwide on tape delay.

It's Round 3 of a so-far bruising series of debates. And it appears the candidates will have plenty new to talk about.

State officials said yesterday that Mr. Brown's congressional campaign settled a delinquent unemployment tax bill in 1994, four months after it was filed. The revelation contradicted an ad Mr.

DeWine launched hours earlier, in which an elderly woman tells Mr. Brown "I just don't trust you" because "you didn't pay your outstanding tax bill for 12 years."

The Republican National Committee aired a similar spot this week, which accused Mr. Brown of not paying unemployment taxes for 13 years.

Democrats accused Mr. DeWine and the RNC of lying and threatened lawsuits to boot the ad off television.

...In July, Mr. DeWine revised an ad attacking Mr. Brown on national security, after U.S. News & World Report magazine discovered the ad featured a doctored image of the burning World Trade Center in New York.

Yesterday, the senator said he did not know whether he would recall the tax bill ad. "We'll have to find out what the facts are," he said. Later, a spokesman admitted the campaign will revise the ad to reflect "the facts."

An RNC spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the committee would continue to air its ad.

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10/19/2006 / Permalink / (all tags)