By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

Democratic congressional candidate Nick Clooney, a former television journalist in his first bid for elected office, returned to the small screen last week with a commercial that stresses his Kentucky roots and stakes out a position as a social conservative.

"I'm against abortion, and I believe marriage is between a man and a woman," Clooney says in the 30-second spot, taped at the ferry landing in Augusta, the city where Clooney and his wife have lived for 29 years and raised their two children.

The ad has aired in three markets - Lexington, Louisville and Charleston, W.Va., which broadcasts in the eastern end of the 4th Congressional District - and will hit Cincinnati TV stations later this month, said Clooney campaign manager B.J. Neidhardt.

But positions taken by Clooney in the ad contradict those he's written about in a Cincinnati Post newspaper column prior to his candidacy, claims a spokesman for his opponent, Republican Geoff Davis.

"He's trying to wipe away a 20-year record of advocating for liberal causes," said Davis campaign manager Justin Brasell, calling the spots "a great fiction, straight from Hollywood."

Republicans have accused Clooney of sharing the "Hollywood liberal" values of his son, actor George Clooney, who has raised money for his father's campaign.

Clooney reminds viewers that he was born in Maysville, as were his parents and grandparents - a swipe at Davis, who grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to Boone County 15 years ago.

"In Congress, I'll always vote for our Kentucky way of life," Clooney says in the ad.

Brasell downplays Clooney's Kentucky roots, saying that the Democrat has written that his views are out of step with most of his Blue Grass neighbors, a reference to a January 1999 column Clooney wrote about impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton.

The Davis campaign's Web site contains a partial quote from that column in a news release about gun ownership rights, which Clooney has questioned.

"Geoff Davis believes hunting and fishing and the right to bear arms are a part of the Kentucky way of life," Brasell said.

Both candidates are Army veterans, and Clooney says in the TV ad that he supports a strong military, but Brasell blasts the Democrat for opposing the war in Iraq.

"Nick Clooney has a position on the war on terror more extreme than (Democratic presidential candidate) John Kerry," Brasell said.

Kerry has said he supports the war in Iraq, but he has been critical of the plan enacted by the Bush administration, which he repeated Wednesday in Cincinnati.

The Davis campaign will air its first ad later this month, but Brasell would not reveal its contents.

He declined to comment about which markets would be targeted first.