Cleland hits airwaves with ad depicting him working with Bush

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Posted 9:19AM on Thursday, July 11, 2002

WASHINGTON - Georgia Sen. Max Cleland is using a new campaign ad touting his votes for President Bush's tax and education plans as an early counter-action to GOP attacks that he is too liberal for the state. Cleland, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, is seen talking with Bush in the Oval Office during one scene of the 30-second spot. "We're showing we vote with the president in a bipartisan fashion when we think he's right," said Tommy Thompson, Cleland's campaign manager. "Both of these issues have an enormous impact on Georgians." Largely biographical, it also shows photos of Cleland from the Vietnam War, where he lost both legs and an arm in a grenade blast. It labels Cleland the "conscience of the Senate." Rep. Saxby Chambliss, the likely GOP front-runner against Cleland, called a news conference to blast the ad as deceptive. He said that although Cleland joined fellow Georgia Democrat Zell Miller and several other Democrats in supporting the Bush tax cut proposal, Cleland pushed for several amendments that would have watered it down. "He really edits the truth here," Chambliss said. "That is totally misleading to say he helped pass a tax cut for every American." Despite a campaign warchest expected to top $2 million when quarterly financial reports are released next week, Chambliss' campaign hasn't yet purchased television time for his primary against state Rep. Bob Irvin. Irvin has appeared on only a few spot ads. Thompson said Cleland's early purchase of the television ad, which began running statewide Tuesday on all four major networks, shouldn't be viewed as a sign of desperation. Georgia's Aug. 20 primary is one of the last in the nation, and the Senate race figures to be a major battleground in the fall. Cleland's campaign has about $4.3 million cash on hand, but the ad purchase was deducted from that sum. University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock said the commercial was clearly intended to fend off inevitable attacks that Cleland's voting record is far different from that of Miller, a more conservative popular former governor. "Cleland senses his vulnerability is that he'll be labeled as a liberal, so if he can show he's supportive of Bush, he won't be," Bullock said. "The Republican ads in the fall will try to make Cleland look like he's Teddy Kennedy's first cousin rather than George Bush's next of kin." Thompson called the liberal allegations of Cleland's foes predictable but unjustified. "It's common campaign tactics to attempt to identify or label your opponent," Thompson said. "You can't allow that to happen in a vaccuum." __