The hot race to replace Rep. Wayne Gilchrest in the 1st Congressional District has turned negative with charges flying from both sides about inaccurate television ads.
Democrat Frank Kratovil raised more money in the third quarter than Republican Andy Harris, and a new poll Kratovil paid for shows him with a slight lead.
Harris, though, still has almost $200,000 more cash than the Democrat — almost $750,000 — and in the past week, the Club for Growth has thrown $200,000 more into television ads attacking Kratovil.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dumped more than $1 million into ads portraying Harris as ultraconservative.
The ads have become the latest source of controversy, with both campaigns claiming distortions from the other side.
In the latest flap, Harris is airing an ad in which Kratovil is quoted as saying, “We solved the crisis” with the congressional vote Oct. 3 on the financial rescue plan.
Harris opposed the bailout, and eventually so did Kratovil, but Harris used the comment to bludgeon Kratovil as “clueless, liberal and very wrong,” and out of touch with average voters facing trouble with their mortgages or retirement plans.
Kratovil press secretary Kevin Lawlor said the bailout statement, quoted from a speech in Salisbury in an Oct. 7 Salisbury Daily Times article, was inaccurate, and demanded the Harris campaign pull the ad.
But Harris campaign manager Chris Meekins said the campaign has no intention of doing so, even after the newspaper Thursday said it was “an inaccurate version.”
The Salisbury Daily Times even quoted a tape of Kratovil’s comments taken from the speech: “You often in time deal with a crisis, we solve a crisis, but we don’t always deal with long-term issues that lead to the crisis.”
Meekins said Harris’ campaign hasn’t seen a correction.
“We disagreed that that is an inaccurate version,” he said.
Lawlor said that if Harris refuses to stop airing the ad, his campaign will reach a new low.
“Blatantly and intentionally lying to voters speaks to a profound lack of personal integrity and makes Andy Harris completely unfit for the office he’s seeking,” he said.
Lawlor released a new poll Monday taken the previous week by the Garin Hart Yang firm that showed Kratovil at 43 percent and Harris at 41 percent, with 16 percent undecided. The poll of 401 likely voters had margin of error of 5 percent.
“This company doesn’t have any credibility,” Meekins said. He declined to release Harris’ internal polling for “strategic reasons,” but said it continued to show Kratovil as “too liberal” for the district.
AT A GLANCE
1st Congressional District fundraising
Frank Kratovil, D
Third quarter: $596,843
Cash on hand (as of Sept. 30): $517,602
Total funds raised: $1,386,720
Andy Harris, R
Third quarter: $556,822
Cash on hand (as of Sept. 30): $749,060
Total funds raised: $2,464,197
District 1 consist of the entire Eastern Shore, as well as parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties.
