Broadcast campaign ads and mailers are growing increasingly negative in the race for governor, with both sides accusing each other of lies and distortions.
The harshest in the past week have come from Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s campaign, using radio and TV spots to attack Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley?s record on crime. This weekend a new Ehrlich mailer charged that “the FBI is investigating Martin O?Malley?s leadership of the police department,” illustrated with a fingerprint card and crime scene tape.
“We expect [the ads] to get worse as we get closer to the election,” said O?Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese. He said there is no current investigation of Baltimore police. “These are desperate lies from a desperate candidate,” he said.
The FBI does not confirm or deny ongoing investigations, but newspapers have reported earlier probes, and agents have called The Examiner to follow-up on reports of police misconduct. There is no indication at all that the mayor himself is under investigation, as the mailer implies.
An independent group known as the Maryland Fund has been airing ads associating Ehrlich with President Bush.
“Like George Bush, Bob Ehrlich lets big business call the shots at the expense of the middle class,” says one 15-second spot, accusing him of trying to give amnesty to corporations that refused to pay taxes, a reference to a dispute over taxes for Delaware corporations.
A second ad says Ehrlich “supported raising tuition at the Maryland colleges by 40 percent.”
Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said, “There have been minimal calls to the governor?s office. In fact, several callers have called to voice their support for the governor and their disgust with the attack ads.”
The governor did cut university funding in his first two years to avoid budget deficits, but it was the university regents who raised tuitions.
In an e-mail to supporters Tuesday, Ehrlich said the fund?s members include a consultant who worked in O?Malley?s 1999 campaign. “The Fund?s only purpose is to spread lies about me and misinformation about my record as Governor; NOTHING ELSE!” the governor wrote. “That way O?Malley can claim that he is running a positive campaign, while behind the scenes his backers are funneling money into attacks against me.”
