Also at The Albany Project
TV ads for the nationally significant 20th Congressional District special election between Democratic candidate Scott Murphy and Republican candidate Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco are all over the airwaves on Albany stations.
There are plenty of negative ads on both sides, and there's also a retooled positive ad for Tedisco that he's so proud of he told Fred Dicker it's "pretty good."
One odd thing in the ad, titled "Jim Tedisco -- He's fighting for us," caught my attention, and inspired this closer look and bloggy analysis.
Details of lies and misleadings in 30 seconds, below.
Here's the ad:
It features, as most of you can see, "people like us" talking about how great Tedisco is, with some text running undeneath to amplify their points.
One part of that text struck me as unusual -- five seconds or so near the end of "Proven record of public service," attributed to R8NY.com.
I wondered, naturally, if one of the writers at Room 8, a top New York City political blog, had said such a thing about Tedisco.
Well, it turns out that no poster or even commenter at Room 8 said that -- they had just posted Tedisco's self-serving press release about officially launching his Congressional campaign, as they do with other political press releases.
So I decided to nitpick the ad to see what other misleading stuff was in there.
And, as one might expect in any Tedisco ad, I found several lies and misrepresentations in a mere 30-second "positive" ad.
The ad begins with two short shots of a doctor/actor/Assembly staffer examining a young girl, and saying, "Jim Tedisco single-handedly saved that health clinic."
The ad presumably refers to the Schenectady Free Health Clinic, which uses volunteer doctors and other health professionals, many of them retired, to provide free health care to "low-income, uninsured and underinsured adults in Schenectady County who have no other source of medical care."
If Tedisco helped out the clinic with member items (New York's version of earmarks), good for him. But he did not do it "single-handedly" -- state Sen. Hugh Farley provided $350,000 to the clinic in the 2008-09 fiscal year.
As a member of the late Republican Senate majority, Farley had a lot more money and influence than Tedisco with which to help worthy nonprofits like the clinic. The ad's "single-handedly" claim is misleading enough to be a lie.
Next up in the ad is a soccer mom/actress/Assembly staffer, in the same kitchen that was in the first "one of us" ad, who says, "Told Spitzer no driver's licenses for illegal aliens." The text underneath is, "Spitzer abandons drivers licenses for illegals," and sources Fox News.
Tedisco did indeed make a big deal about Spitzer's ill-timed and badly explained proposal. And, as is his wont, he got plenty of face time on local TV, and on Fox, saying typically showboating stuff like this:
"This is a congressional issue. They haven't done their job on a federal level. We have to do something about our immigration process, but the way to solve that is not to make our individual states like the great state of New York less secure."
Tedisco said Spitzer's plan could have opened the state to attacks like those seen in on the World Trade Center in 1993 and on Sept. 11, 2001.
"The answer to the federal problem is not to make us less secure. ... The answer is to make us more secure and to put pressure on the federal government to do the right thing and develop a plan that allows individuals. to come ... here legally."
Spitzer's plan was unpopular, and Tedisco sensed that and got a lot of free press as a result. Which he is recalling in this ad as "positive" stuff.
That's not misleading, but the next related bit is.
The next "person like us" is a 50ish guy who says, "No one else would."
This obviously refers back to Tedisco's opposition to Spitzer's driver's licenses for "illegal aliens" proposal, which was opposed by every Republican in the state and many Democrats.
The idea that Tedisco was the lonely champion of that cause is so absurd that "no one else would" qualifies as another lie.
Next up is a mom/actress/Assembly staffer, with her "husband" and two "sons" outside on a porch, saying, "Jim stands for this family when he goes after Wall Street greed." The text underneath this segment is a link to Tedisco's campaign website.
Though this is mostly a positive, Jim-is-great ad, this bit complements, in a sneaky dog-whistle way, the negative ads that Tedisco has been running, slurring Murphy as "just another Wall Street millionaire, who's hiding a past that threatens our future."
Tedisco briefly appears mid-ad, bothering workers at a small kitchen-countertop business that was in the first "one of us" ad, and is presumably owned by one of his supporters. The website link remains underneath for this bit.
The next "person like us" is another soccer mom/actress/Assembly staffer, in the same kitchen as the earlier one, saying, "Because he's from a working family."
This snippet is related to the previous dig at Wall Street and Murphy, who is the son of a postal worker and a teacher. The implication that Tedisco is the only candidate from a "working family" is misleading, but not lie-level.
Next up is yet another, somewhat older, soccer mom/actress/Assembly staffer, in the same kitchen again, whose short script is: "Tax relief ... jobs ... health care."
While she speaks, the text underneath says, "$18.8B in tax cuts & STAR rebate checks," citing two Senate bills and New York State Assembly records.
To be fair, Assembly Republicans, before Tedisco got into a leadership position, did originate the STAR school property tax relief program, which provides a minor measure of tax relief for owners of owner-occupied residences.
But he was just a back-bench supporter of, not a major player in enacting, this popular program.
When the somewhat older soccer mom/actress/Assembly staffer says, "Jobs," there's another shot of someone working on finishing a countertop, without Tedisco bothering him this time.
When she says "health care," there's another quick shot of the doctor/actor/Assembly staffer "treating" the young girl, with her "mother" smiling broadly in the background.
The next three bits all have the tell-tale "Proven to be a leader" phrase underneath.
In order, they are:
A senior citizen actor/Assembly staffer saying, "Boy, can we use Tedisco in Washington."
Yet another soccer mom/actress/Assembly staffer from the same kitchen saying, "Jim Tedisco's one of us."
And the great man himself, saying nothing, but acting like he's a basketball coach talking to a team of kids who are, according to the scoreboard in the background, involved in a close game early in the second half.
Tedisco then gives the same close as in the first "one of us" ad, speaking evidently from the kitchen-counter place:
I'm Jim Tedisco, and I approved this message because I'm fighting for jobs, lower taxes and you.
But it's not over yet. Another senior citizen guy, with his "wife" beside him, repeats the basic message of the ad, "He's fighting for us."
And the mom/actress/Assembly staffer with her "husband" and two "sons" on a porch reappears with the final statement -- "Because he's one of us."
The ad is impressive in only two ways -- it got nine people (actors, Assembly staffers, maybe a 20th constituent or two, whatever) to say nice things, mostly in sentence fragments, about Tedisco in 30 seconds, and it stayed on message.
But it also contained at least two verifiable lies and several other misleading statements and/or text.
And the whole "one of us, fighting for us" meme is essentially absurd, since Tedisco has never lived in the 20th Congressional district, and would only move into the district if he wins on March 31.
Tedisco is also a career politician with a jock/bully temperament and related sense of entitlement. His angry, attack-dog persona has attracted lots of free media, but gotten very little accomplished of note.
Scott Murphy is none of that, and will, if elected, be a solid Democrat who will support President Obama and deliver for the district much better than the loudmouth, ultra-conservative, stuck-in-the-minority obstructionist that Tedisco would be.
Please do whatever you can to help Murphy defeat Tedisco.