Friday, March 10, 2000
Holcomb ads show killers he sent away
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Four somber male faces, three with shaved heads, peer from the newspaper political ad. None appears ready to break into a smile or a song.
These four men and three others named but not pictured are convicted murderers. All seven are unwittingly assisting in the re-election campaign of Butler County Prosecutor John Holcomb.
They would not be pleased by that. After all, within the past four months, Mr. Holcomb's office succeeded in putting them behind bars for a long time. And that's his point.
“It's just to show that when I take murder cases, I don't lose,” Mr. Holcomb said.
The ad ran this week in several local newspapers. It's an eye-catching reminder that the Butler County prosecutor's race already has heated up — even though the November general election is nearly eight months away.
Mr. Holcomb, a Democrat who has been prosecutor for 27 years, is running against Robin Piper, a Republican who served as his assistant prosecutor for 14 years.
This is Mr. Holcomb's first contested election in 12 years, and he is under attack. In recent months he has:
• Clashed with county officials.
• Been criticized over the way he runs the prosecutor's office and raises campaign funds.
• Faced concerns about his health.
Mr. Holcomb said he plans more newspaper ads and will begin running TV ads later in the campaign.
Mr. Piper has run no newspaper ads, but said he has spent $11,000 on cable TV ads. The first was broadcast in November throughout the county, while a second one ran in the first week of March in Butler's rapidly growing southeastern quadrant.
Mr. Holcomb's newspaper ad attracts attention.
In bold, black letters above the four photos are the underlined words, ALL SEVEN CONVICTED AS CHARGED. At the bottom of the ad in even larger type, it says: “Holcomb. Toughest on Crime.”
One famous political ad featuring a convict was made by George Bush's camp in the 1988 presidential race. It focused on Willie Horton, a convicted murderer who raped a woman while on a weekend pass from a Massachusetts state prison.
The Bush ad offered the Horton incident as proof that Michael Dukakis, then Massachusetts governor, was soft on crime.
It's fairly uncommon for photos of convicts to be used in political ad campaigns, said Mike Chanslor, archive and research specialist at the Julian P. Kantor Political Commercial Archive at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. (It's the largest television and radio political ad archive in the world.)
Unlike Mr. Holcomb's ad, those using photos of convicts almost always attack a political opponent, Mr. Chanslor said.
“This is unusual in that it's an ad in favor of a candidate, not a negative ad,” he said. “I don't recall examples of this advertising technique being used in a positive manner.”
Mr. Piper called the ad “political sensationalism at its worst” and said it misleads people into thinking that Mr. Holcomb had a larger role in prosecuting those seven murder cases than he actually did.
“I don't plan on using any type of sensationalism to take things out of context and play on people's fears,” Mr. Piper said.
Of the seven cases, Mr. Holcomb had a visible courtroom role only in the trial of Kevin Walls, Mr. Piper said. Mr. Walls was convicted in October of aggravated murder in the 1985 slaying of an elderly woman.
During the trial, the prosecution played a videotape of Mr. Holcomb questioning county Coroner Dr. Richard Burkhardt. Besides raising numerous objections, Mr. Holcomb also presented the closing argument to the jury.
“His role was extremely limited,” Mr. Piper said. “He was in court really just so he could say he's had a trial.”
Mr. Holcomb said he had meaningful roles in all seven cases. County prosecutors don't need to be in court to direct the work on a particular case, he said.
“The police chief isn't on the corner directing traffic, is he?” Mr. Holcomb said.
The ad, he said, is meant to illustrate that he has been an effective prosecutor despite public criticism from Republicans in the past few months.
“With all this foolishness going on all around me, affecting my professional and my personal life,” he said, “I'm still doing my job.”
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