Lazio: Gotcha, Hillary!

NY Democratic Party Says It Wasn't Planned

(CBS)  The CBS News Political Unit is tracking the latest campaign commercials. Francesca Gessner checks out a new ad from New York GOP Senate hopeful Rick Lazio. The ad reveals a "ringer" in one of Hillary's recent ads, again calling the first lady's trustworthiness into question.

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The Ad: New York Republican Senate candidate Rep. Rick Lazio has a new 15-second TV ad titled Ringer. Lazio's new commercial attacks a New York Democratic Party ad released last week called Stand that featured average New Yorkers reacting to news that Lazio supported Newt Gingrich's measures. Ringer contends that one of the supposed "real voters" interviewed in Stand is in fact a retired Democratic Party employee. The ad is airing statewide in New York.

Audio: Announcer: "Seen Hillary Clinton's new negative ad? Just who are these 'real voters'? Meet Carol - eight years on the Democratic Assembly payroll. Another phony ad from Hillary Clinton. You just can't trust her."

Visual: The ad opens with a picture of Hillary Clinton and underneath a TV showing the Democratic Party ad Stand, with the text, "New Negative Ad." The ad then shows Carol Madow-Kolberg with the text "Carol - 8 years on the Democratic Assembly payroll." The ad concludes with white letters on a black screen that read, "HILLARY CLINTON. You Just Can't Trust Her."

Fact check: Carol Madow-Kolberg was an office manager to Bronx Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman and has been retired for two years. The New York State Democratic Party says they had no idea who Carol was when they interviewed her in front of a supermarket in White Plains, N.Y. "The interview was completely random, the answers unscripted," says Peter Kauffman, a spokesman for the New York State Democratic Party.

The Strategy: Ringer is the third in a string of hard-hitting ads released in the last week by the Lazio campaign sounding the common theme that Hillary Clinton cannot be trusted. Last week Lazio released two ads questioning Hillary's trustworthiness: one featuring Sen. John McCain saying, "Rick Lazio - he's the candidate you can trust"; the other using the same tag-line as in Ringer: "Hillary Clinton. You just can't trust her." The ads reflect a new strategy in the Lazio campaign to make Clinton's character a central issue in the New York Senate race. In a race that remains a dead-heat, the Lazio campaign is hoping to use the character question to sway undecided voters.