Ad Watch: Dissecting Altmire vs. Hart ad war
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THE CANDIDATES:
U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, and Democratic challenger Jason Altmire of McCandless for the 4th Congressional District.
THE TELEVISION ADS:
Mr. Altmire began airing a commercial weeks ago saying Ms. Hart "blindly follows George Bush and Rick Santorum 98 percent of the time." He accused her of voting seven times to "raid" the Social Security trust fund, and of voting to cut veterans benefits by $13 billion and student loans by $14 billion.
Ms. Hart responded with an ad in which she contended, apparently in reference to the challenger's commercial, that he has run "a negative campaign full of lies instead of ideas." She called herself an independent voice for the district.
ANALYSIS:
Democratic challengers in many congressional races around the country have attempted to turn each individual contest into a referendum on how voters feel about President Bush and his administration's policies. The hope is to take advantage of the ebb in the president's popularity since 1994, when he carried the heavily Democratic 4th District north of Pittsburgh, as well as the national electorate.
In Mr. Altmire's case, he's aiming for additional guilt-by-association in tying Ms. Hart to Mr. Santorum, as they are longtime conservative allies. Mr. Altmire has a poll that he says shows the Republican senator badly trails Democratic candidate Bob Casey in the district.
Mr. Altmire has the advantage of trying to pick apart an incumbent's voting record, even on matters where it would have been difficult for her to exert particular influence, while she can do no such thing to him as a newcomer to politics. While Ms. Hart has clearly been a strong supporter of the White House, there's no independent, documented basis for the claim she was with it and the senator 98 percent of the time.
The nonpartisan Congressional Quarterly, however, has done evaluations of 35 votes taken in the House in 2006 on issues on which the president's position was known. That evaluation listed Ms. Hart as voting with the president 89 percent of the time, showing consistent support but still somewhat less than five other of Pennsylvania's 12 Republican members of Congress. CQ also said she voted with the president 89 percent of the time in 2005, which that year placed her first among the 12.
Ms. Hart has been in a sticky position, reluctant to criticize a president and Republican congressional leadership that she has supported throughout her three terms, but also wanting to maintain whatever distance she can from them this fall. Hence, her advertised pronouncements of "independence."
As for the nine questioned votes of Ms. Hart's that flash by on-screen in the ad, they represent measures that passed the Republican-controlled House between 2002 and 2005. They were all votes that took place largely along party lines, with perhaps 10 to 15 GOP defectors -- Ms. Hart never among them.
Any blame for the legislation, however, lies with the Republican leadership rather than any one lawmaker. Several were the kind of massive budget-related bills that cover a wide range of programs, so it is not hard for Democrats to sort through and find something that might seem objectionable to voters today.
The accusation that seven of the votes represented "raids" on Social Security might confuse voters into falsely believing the incumbent took part in actual votes to cut benefits, which did not occur. Because of federal budget deficits, congressional spending bills commonly refer to an accounting gimmick in which the government borrows from the existing Social Security surplus to cover costs. Not everyone likes that method, but it has been done by Democratic congressional leaders in the past, as well as Republicans today. Ms. Hart herself is largely irrelevant to that practice or debate.
The votes allegedly to cut veterans benefits and student loans also were not as clear or sharp as the ad portrays. Even a printed analysis from House Democrats acknowledged the veterans-related vote on April 28, 2005, would keep benefits on pace with the rise in inflation in 2006. The spending amount over a full five years could drop benefits compared to inflation by $13 billion in that span, the analysis said. But Congress is able to revisit that issue in new spending bills annually.
The bill that included student loans on Nov. 18, 2005, also involved cuts that Democrats said amounted to $14 billion over five years, not one year. Much of that spending change covered administrative issues such as lender subsidies and insurance requirements for certain loans, in addition to some new fees on students. But the measure also increased the maximum amount of loans students could obtain, and extended the loan forgiveness period for them.
First Published October 24, 2006 12:00 am
