PITTSBURGH (AP) — Gubernatorial candidates Edward G. Rendell and Mike Fisher attacked each other for airing negative campaign ads — and both pointed out inaccuracies in the others’ ads — in a debate that was taped Friday at a Pittsburgh television station.
The three-part forum allowed the candidates to question one another, comment on each other’s television ads, and answer questions from the moderators, KDKA news anchor Ken Rice and Madelyn Ross, managing editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The hourlong debate will air at 7 p.m. Monday on KDKA.
The forum opened with a snippet of a Fisher ad in which an actor posing as a Philadelphia cab driver calls Rendell a “limousine liberal” who wants to raise taxes for $9 billion in new state spending and a 50 percent increase in the state budget.
Rendell, the Democratic former Philadelphia mayor, said the ad violated Fisher’s pledge to not air negative ads, and said The Philadelphia Inquirer has determined Fisher’s claim that Rendell wants to increase the state budget by 50 percent is “preposterous.”
“I don’t regret it. First of all, I don’t think it was a negative ad,” said Fisher, the Republican state attorney general.
Instead, Fisher called the first negative ad of the campaign a “pretty humorous” attempt to point out differences between the candidates. “It was not a hard-hitting ad like some of the ad’s he’s run against me,” Fisher said.
Rice noted that Rendell also swore off using negative ads.
“I took the position if somebody did a negative ad against me, I wasn’t going to be Mike Dukakis and sit there and take it,” Rendell said.
But after airing a Rendell attack ad, Rice noted the ad “didn’t merely respond but also struck back.”
“Mr. Rendell, you had the opposition research ready. You had the grainy black-and-white footage that you both use (to portray the opposing candidate in the negative ads) … so, really, what was this pledge?” Rice said.
Fisher said the Rendell ad, which attacked Fisher for voting to raise the state income tax in 1991, was misleading because Rendell favored the tax hike. The ad says Fisher voted for the largest tax increase in state history. The vote raised the state income tax from 2.1 percent to 3.1 percent, but the tax was rolled back to the current 2.8 percent.
“He called me and asked me to vote for that bill when he was about to become mayor” of Philadelphia, Fisher said, noting the Legislature hiked taxes to cover a deficit leftover from the Democratic administration of then-Gov. Robert P. Casey.
“But you did it!” Rendell answered.
“But you asked me to do it, Ed!” Fisher shot back.
Rendell also questioned the honesty of another Fisher ad, which reels off a list of tax increases Rendell supposedly enacted as mayor, including a 40 percent hike of the city’s hotel tax and a 1 percent sales tax hike.
Rendell noted that the sales tax hike was passed by the Legislature, although Fisher said Rendell supported it.
Rendell said the hotel tax was passed before he became mayor, but took effect after he was in office. Fisher’s ad wrongly claims Rendell raised the tax, Rendell said.
“If he didn’t want the tax, he could have asked city council to roll the tax back,” Fisher said.
“Gosh, he just said it,” Rendell said, noting that Fisher admitted his ad was false.
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On the Net:
Rendell campaign: http://www.rendellforgovernor.com/
Fisher campaign: http://www.mikefisher.com/
