Ad that criticizes Corker not 'false'

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 9/8/6 | TOM HUMPHREY

[SmithL]

A nonpartisan organization that checks the accuracy of political advertising found no major faults with a Democratic ad attacking Republican U.S. Senate nominee Bob Corker, despite the Corker campaign's claim that it was "blatantly false."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad in question, which has been running only in East Tennessee, says that "thanks to Bob Corker's failures as mayor, more than 31,000" calls to 911 for emergency help went unanswered in Chattanooga.

After the Corker campaign complained about the ad last week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's attorney wrote broadcasters a letter warning that "you are subjecting your station to potential liability" if they continue to run the committee commercial

The Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, however, said its review found only "a quibble" or two with the content of the DSCC ad.

"We find that the 31,000 number may be a bit high, but the rate of unanswered calls did get worse while Corker was mayor, reaching nearly 15 percent in his last full year in office. Tens of thousands of emergency calls did go unanswered," says the report, which may be found on the Web at www.factcheck.org.

The document noted that official reports show 30,819 Chattanooga calls went unanswered in 2005, the year Democrats said they were citing, rather than "more than 31,000."

Ben Mitchell, Corker's campaign manager, said it was unfair to use 2005 figures since Corker left office as mayor in April of that year.

The Annenberg report says the campaign has a point, "but it's a small one."

"Whether Corker can fairly be held accountable for all of 2005 is a matter of opinion, and depends on how quickly his successor could be expected to change the deteriorating system he inherited from Corker. The ad can't fairly be called 'false' because it attributes the 31,000 missed calls to Corker's 'failures as mayor,' and doesn't claim they were all missed while he was actually in office," the report said.

The report also says that some of the missed calls probably came from people who tried again until they finally got through. Still, it said the ad could easily and accurately have said that "one in seven calls went unanswered in Corker's last full year as mayor."

Mitchell said the Corker campaign "respectfully disagrees" with the Annenberg assessment.

"We believe when voters apply Tennessee common sense to this issue, they'll agree with us that it's dirty politics to run an attack ad against Bob Corker about the functions of city government when he wasn't even mayor," said Mitchell.

Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said the Democratic committee was actually less critical of the former Chattanooga mayor than warranted. During Corker's tenure as mayor, a total of 82,914 calls to 911 went unanswered, he said.

The rate of unanswered calls more than doubled during the period Corker was mayor "and he did absolutely nothing about it," said Powell.

When police began paying more overtime to have staff on hand to answer the calls, Powell said, Corker responded by ordering a 50 percent cut in police department overtime.

Mitchell said Corker added two people to the 911 staff while he was mayor, raising the total from 66 to 68, and otherwise had dealt appropriately with public safety issues. Mitchell said he was unaware of the police overtime situation but that violent crime in Chattanooga declined 51 percent during Corker's tenure.

"Congressman Ford has a problem with simple facts, but that's really understandable given that he spent the last 10 years in Washington," he said.

• Gov. Phil Bredesen begins airing the first TV ad of his re-election campaign today, touting his gubernatorial accomplishments and declaring a belief in "taking personal responsibility."

  The ad was immediately denounced by state Republican Party Chairman Bob Davis in a news release. The ad is hypocritical, said Davis, because Bredesen "has not taken responsibility for a number of ethical lapses in his administration."

  Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson, who has substantially less campaign funding available than Bredesen, has not aired a TV commercial yet. In a recent interview, he declined to say when that might happen.

[SampleMan]

I've generally found that any organization that describes itself as "nonpartisan" is first and foremost partisan.