Bush ad calls Kerry’s economic record ‘troubling’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush began airing a new campaign ad Thursday that accuses Democratic rival John Kerry of a “troubling” economic record, while a pro-Kerry group fired back with a spot accusing Bush of tailoring tax policy to the rich.
The latest round of television commercials reflects both sides’ sensitivity to importance of the economy in the November presidential election. A recent AP poll showed the economy is the most important issue to voters, 53 percent of whom think the Massachusetts senator is best suited to create jobs.
Bush put up two new ads Thursday, one focused on his economic stewardship and the other criticizing Kerry. They are scheduled to air for about 10 days in 18 states.
Bush’s anti-Kerry ad, also produced in Spanish, accuses him of voting to increase taxes on Social Security benefits and to boost gas taxes by 50-cents-a-gallon, opposing small business tax credits and planning a $900 billion tax hike.
“John Kerry’s economic record: Troubling,” the announcer says in the ad.
Democratic interests fired back.
The Media Fund, a liberal interest group working on behalf of Democrats, is spending $3 million to run its ad in 17 states for about a week, starting this weekend. The group is legally barred from coordinating with Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The new ad touts Kerry’s support for cutting taxes on the middle class, some married couples and families with children and for reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
By contrast, the spot says, Bush “raided Social Security to pay for a tax cut for millionaires” and backed tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas.
“Bush’s priorities won’t strengthen America,” the announcer says.
Meanwhile, an ad study released Thursday found that Bush’s re-election campaign has far to go to catch up with the negative advertising done by the Democratic candidates during the primaries as well as Kerry and Democratic-leaning groups since early this month.
The Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that $32.5 million was spent by Democrats in battleground states during their party’s primary season, mostly in New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona. The study analyzed ad spending in the nation’s top 100 markets through March 22.
According to the study, Bush’s re-election campaign has spent more than $15 million to advertise in battleground states, almost matched by about $11.5 million worth of ads by the Democratic opposition, much of it by independent groups, since Kerry emerged as the presumptive nominee earlier this month.
Bush, who is still raising money despite reaching his record $170 million goal, faced no primary opponent and first went on the air this month.
During the primary campaign, half of the ads aired by all the Democratic candidates — and an overwhelming majority of ads by independent groups — criticized or mentioned Bush, the report found.
Bush’s new ad mines Kerry’s 19-year record of speeches, comments and votes in the Senate for material.
Kerry voted for a 4.3-cent increase in the per-gallon gas tax in 1993 as a deficit-reduction measure. A year later, he told the Boston Globe of his “support for a 50-cent increase in the gas tax,” but later said he no longer held that view. He also noted that he had never proposed or voted for it.
The ad cites Kerry’s 2001 vote against tax credits for small businesses to buy health insurance, but his campaign claims he repeatedly has voted to cut taxes for small businesses.
Kerry also has never proposed a $900 billion tax increase, as the ad suggests. Bush’s campaign reaches the $900 billion figure by calculating the cost of Kerry’s programs, which he has yet to detail.
“This president clearly has a credibility problem,” said Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter. “He may be optimistic about the economy, but Americans are not optimistic about him. This president has led the nation into record deficits, record job losses, and record fiscal ruin.”
Bush’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on the Media Fund ad.
That commercial’s reference to tapping Social Security is a reminder of how the surpluses that existed before Bush came into office have evolved into record deficits approaching $500 billion. The terrorist attacks, a sluggish economy and Bush-backed tax cuts passed over the last three years are part of the reason, and Democrats have repeatedly criticized the tax reductions for tilting too heavily toward the wealthy.
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Associated Press Writer Will Lester in Washington contributed to this report.