BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Ohio Democratic Party is boosting cash-poor Senate candidate Mary Boyle with a statewide TV ad blasting the education record of her opponent, Gov. George Voinovich.
A Voinovich campaign spokeswoman said the ad, which begins running today, is full of "lies and deceit."
The Boyle campaign has yet to air any TV ads of its own, so the Ohio Democratic Party has stepped in with one that does not mention Ms. Boyle but tells voters to call Mr. Voinovich and "tell him to stop gambling with our kids' future."
The Ohio Democratic Party ad is a response to a commercial the Voinovich campaign began running earlier this week.
In it, the Voinovich campaign says "no governor has done as much for schools and kids as George Voinovich."
The ad goes on to say that, under the Voinovich administration, Ohio leads the nation in funding Head Start and says the governor "launched the most ambitious effort in history to repair and replace school buildings."
The 30-second Democratic Party ad accuses Mr. Voinovich of "doing nothing" to repair Ohio schools.
The Voinovich campaign said the Voinovich administration has committed more than $1 billion to school repairs since 1993. The Democratic ad also says Ohio's school dropout rate has doubled since Mr. Voinovich took office in 1991.
The Voinovich campaign said the rate decreased in 1997 and that Ohio ranks 11th among the 50 states in the percentage of residents who have graduated from high school.
"Before running a single, positive ad saying what Mary Boyle stands for or why she may be qualified to be a U.S. senator, the Boyle camp has instead run a negative ad, once gain resorting to lies and deceit," Voinovich campaign spokeswoman Caryn Candisky said. David Leland, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said the Boyle campaign had nothing to do with the ad.
"We wanted to get the message out that (Mr. Voinovich) has not been the education governor he promised to be," Mr. Leland said. "He may not be the education governor, but he plays one on TV." Mr. Leland would not say how much the party spent on its ad.
Under federal election law, political parties and special interest groups can spend an unlimited amount of money on "issue ads" -- ones that do not advocate election of any candidate, but often criticize one candidate's record.
The independent groups are not allowed to coordinate their advertising with a candidate's campaign.
