Dirty Water In Big Apple?
The CBS News Political Unit is tracking the latest campaign commercials. Francesca Gessner analyzes a new ad that says New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is far from green on environmental issues.
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The Ad:
The 30-second TV ad by the Sierra Club - entitled Reservoirs - targets Giuliani's environmental record. It began running on Tuesday in New York City and its suburbs. It's part of a larger Sierra Club ad campaign directed at four Senate and thirteen House races around the country.
Audio:
Female Announcer: "New York's drinking water - cleansed and protected by lands upstate - once the best in the nation. Now, threatened by pollution, sewage waste and sprawling development because Mayor Giuliani isn't keeping his promise. In 1997, the Mayor made an agreement with the federal government to protect the lands that protect our water. But now Mayor Giuilani is allowing development and sewage plants to threaten our drinking water. Call Mayor Giuliani and tell him to protect our drinking water - for our families, for our future."
Video:
The ad opens with a mother giving her toddler son a glass of water, and then cuts to a sign that reads, "Kensico Reservoir, New York City Water Supply." Next we see a yellow warning sign posted by water that reads, "Warning! Health Advisory! Eating Fish from this area may be hazardous to your health." We then see images of sewage spilling into a river and a tractor carrying large amounts of dirt, while the announcer speaks of "sprawling development." The image of a swan on a clean lake cuts to a contrasting image of polluted water. Finally, we return to the same mother in a kitchen with two young boys, handing them both glasses of water.
The camera then focuses on one of the boys drinking his water, while text across the screen reads, "Call Mayor Giuliani at (212) 788-9600. Tell him to protect New York's drinking water."
Fact Check:
Giuliani's office says the city has set aside $75 million to upgrade 102 sewage treatment plants as required by the federal government. Eight city-owned sewage plants have been upgraded, but as for the remaining 96 plants that are not city-owned, the mayor says it is up to the communities to upgrade them with city money. The Sierra Club disagrees, saying the EPA expects the mayor to coordinate with the communities. Giuliani aides also say the city has increased the number of security personnel patrolling the upstate reservoirs from 39 in 1996 to 142 workers currently. The Sierra Club confirms this, but says the patrols are ineffectual since the officers have no boats or planes to patrol the reservoirs.
The Strategy:
The ad is part of a 17-state ad blitz by the Sierra Club, which is targeting tight Senate and House races across the country in an attempt to make the environment a hot political issue in the falelections. Giuliani aides are charging that the Sierra Club is colluding with Hillary Clinton's campaign; that the ad is an example of soft money being misused.
When asked about the ad on Monday, Giuliani said the Sierra Club has "an extreme ideological bias" and "the reason why we have to raise and then possibly use soft money is because left-wing groups go around spending lots of money."
Sierra Club spokeswoman Susan Holmes says there is "absolutely no collusion" with the Clinton campaign and that the group has been working on the New York watershed issue for years.