Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s campaign manager has demanded that Doug Duncan?s campaign pull television ads it started running Friday because the spot is “blatantly lying” about the governor?s record on assault weapons.
In the commercials for Duncan?s campaign for governor, airing on Baltimore stations, the Montgomery County executive attacks both his fellow Democrat, Mayor Martin O?Malley, and the governor.
Standing next to a cardboard cutout of O?Malley, Duncan says: “This guy says crime?s dropped by 40 percent … but he?s got a problem with numbers.” With an Ehrlich cutout, Duncan says: “This guy thinks we need more assault weapons on the street. Like that?s gonna help us.”
The Duncan campaign cites a March 7 report on WJZ-TV and a Sept. 11, 2004, article in the Baltimore Sun. Both reports describe Ehrlich?s opposition to a wider state ban on assault weapons.
“They?re not allowed to knowingly air demonstrably false information,” Ehrlich campaign manager Bo Harmon said. “To make that claim is ridiculous on its face, and certainly inconsistent with his position.” Harmon said he will write letters to the stations, asking them to pull the ads, a move which “happens all the time,” he said.
Harmon said that Ehrlich does not want more assault weapons on the street, but instead favors getting more people who commit gun crimes off the street. Harmon noted that in 2003, the legislature rejected the governor?s proposal for mandatory sentences for crimes involving firearms. “In the second ad of his campaign, the seemingly kind-hearted lion has finally shed his guise and joined his primary opponent in the use of lies and scare tactics,” Harmon said.
In a statement, Harmon said, “Governor Ehrlich has never supported repealing the assault weapons ban.” But Sarah Brady of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence saidthat as a member of Congress in 1996, Ehrlich voted to repeal the federal ban. “Ehrlich has indicated repeatedly for years that he would veto a state ban if one was sent to him for signature,” contrary to what Harmon?s statement also implies, Brady said. “The Ehrlich campaign should be ashamed.”
Duncan press secretary Jody Couser said: “It seems that the governor is just as sensitive about his record as the mayor. Governor Ehrlich knows his position on assault weapons is wrong and not in the best interest of Marylanders. That?s why he doesn?t want the people of Maryland to know about his record.”
