FORT MITCHELL — Last week state Senate candidates Jack Westwood and Jaimie Henson were battling over debates. This week, it's campaign ads. Both skirmishes indicate how heated the race for the 23rd Senate District seat in Kenton County has become with the election less than a week away.

        The latest conflict involves a television commercial the Henson campaign began running on Northern Kentucky cable channels Monday.

        The ads take Mr. Westwood, the Republican incumbent from Erlanger, to task for votes he made during his one term in the Kentucky General Assembly.

        Mr. Westwood's campaign was mute on some points in the ads, such as the vote Mr. Westwood made in support of raising lawmakers' pensions. He has since said that the bill was confusing — a point made by several other lawmakers — and that he will move to have the pension raise repealed when the legislature next convenes.

        But the Westwood campaign reacted quickly to a charge made by Mrs. Henson, an Independence Democrat, regarding Mr. Westwood's vote on a tourism bill passed earlier this year.

        The bill allows the fiscal courts in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties to increase the region's hotel tax by 1 percent. That would raise about $1 million a year and would be used to pro mote tourism and bring convention business to Greater Cincinnati, which includes downtown Cincinnati as well as Northern Kentucky.

        Mrs. Henson claims that by voting for the bill, Mr. Westwood is sending Kentucky tax dollars to Cincinnati.

        “If I am elected I will represent the people of Kenton County, not Hamilton County,” Mrs. Henson said. “This is just one more example of Jack Westwood's confusion about his role as state senator.”

        By casting the vote, Mr. Westwood also broke a pledge that he would not raise taxes, Mrs. Henson said.

        The votes are also examples of why Mr. Westwood has refused to debate, Mrs. Henson said.

        “The votes highlighted by these new TV ads just cannot be defended, and Mr. Westwood knows that,” she said.

        Mr. Westwood defended the vote on the tourism bill, which was pushed heavily by the Northern Kentucky

        Chamber of Commerce, as well as by restaurant and hotel owners and operators.

        In a letter sent Wednesday to Insight cable, which is running the ad on a number of cable stations, Mr. Westwood asked that the ad be pulled from the air because it is untrue.

        Mr. Westwood said the ad's claim that he “voted to increase taxes on tourism, then send the money to Ohio” is false.

        Mr. Westwood also said the bill does not raise taxes, but merely allows county governments to do so. And the bill specifically states that no money raised by the tax increase can be used to build or renovate any convention center outside the state.

        “Mrs. Henson is becoming the Al Gore of Northern Kentucky,” said Marc Wilson, Mr. Westwood's campaign manager. “She's willing to say or do anything to get elected.”

        Insight advertising managers could not be reached to comment, but they did inform the Henson campaign Wednesday that the ad would stay on the air, said lawyer David Kramer, an adviser to the Henson campaign.

        While a station could pull a false ad placed by a third party or special-interest group, federal law dictates that ads placed by political candidates must be broadcast.

        “First of all, this ad is true, and, second, federal law prohibits Insight from censoring the ad,” Mr. Kramer said. “They're shooting blanks.”

        The Henson campaign defended the ad, saying Mr. Westwood did break his pledge not to raise taxes because the bill does permit an increase in the hotel tax.

        While none of the counties has moved to increase the tax, during debate on the bill in Frankfort, it was widely viewed as legislation that raised taxes.

        During early debate on the bill in the General Assembly session, supporters ran into trouble finding votes because the money raised by the tax was earmarked to help Cincinnati expand its downtown convention center.

        But sensing the bill was doomed, supporters reworked it to keep the money — an estimated $10 million over 10 years — in Northern Kentucky but spend it on marketing Greater Cincinnati.

        That way the Greater Cincinnati Convention & Visitors Bureau would then have more money available for convention center expansion because Northern Kentucky would be paying for marketing with money raised by the hotel tax.

        “The legislators who supported this bill basically played an old-fashioned shell game,” said Shannon Pratt, Mrs. Henson's campaign manager.

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