PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 Gubernatorial candidates Edward G. Rendell and Mike Fisher attacked each other for airing negative campaign ads \u2014 and both pointed out inaccuracies in the others\u2019 ads \u2014 in a debate that was taped Friday at a Pittsburgh television station.
\nThe three-part forum allowed the candidates to question one another, comment on each other\u2019s 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.
\nThe forum opened with a snippet of a Fisher ad in which an actor posing as a Philadelphia cab driver calls Rendell a \u201climousine liberal\u201d who wants to raise taxes for $9 billion in new state spending and a 50 percent increase in the state budget.
\nRendell, the Democratic former Philadelphia mayor, said the ad violated Fisher\u2019s pledge to not air negative ads, and said The Philadelphia Inquirer has determined Fisher\u2019s claim that Rendell wants to increase the state budget by 50 percent is \u201cpreposterous.\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t regret it. First of all, I don\u2019t think it was a negative ad,\u201d said Fisher, the Republican state attorney general.
\nInstead, Fisher called the first negative ad of the campaign a \u201cpretty humorous\u201d attempt to point out differences between the candidates. \u201cIt was not a hard-hitting ad like some of the ad\u2019s he\u2019s run against me,\u201d Fisher said.
\nRice noted that Rendell also swore off using negative ads.
\n\u201cI took the position if somebody did a negative ad against me, I wasn\u2019t going to be Mike Dukakis and sit there and take it,\u201d Rendell said.
\nBut after airing a Rendell attack ad, Rice noted the ad \u201cdidn\u2019t merely respond but also struck back.\u201d
\n\u201cMr. 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?\u201d Rice said.
\nFisher 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.
\n\u201cHe called me and asked me to vote for that bill when he was about to become mayor\u201d of Philadelphia, Fisher said, noting the Legislature hiked taxes to cover a deficit leftover from the Democratic administration of then-Gov. Robert P. Casey.
\n\u201cBut you did it!\u201d Rendell answered.
\n\u201cBut you asked me to do it, Ed!\u201d Fisher shot back.
\nRendell 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\u2019s hotel tax and a 1 percent sales tax hike.
\nRendell noted that the sales tax hike was passed by the Legislature, although Fisher said Rendell supported it.
\nRendell said the hotel tax was passed before he became mayor, but took effect after he was in office. Fisher\u2019s ad wrongly claims Rendell raised the tax, Rendell said.
\n\u201cIf he didn\u2019t want the tax, he could have asked city council to roll the tax back,\u201d Fisher said.
\n\u201cGosh, he just said it,\u201d Rendell said, noting that Fisher admitted his ad was false.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014
\nOn the Net:
\nRendell campaign: http:\/\/www.rendellforgovernor.com\/
\nFisher campaign: http:\/\/www.mikefisher.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 Gubernatorial candidates Edward G. Rendell and Mike Fisher attacked each other for airing negative campaign ads \u2014 and both pointed out inaccuracies in the others\u2019 ads \u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}