Politics

GOP Ads Target Clinton Affair

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 28, 1998 / 11:12 AM EST / CBS

A $10 million Republican ad blitz in the final days of the election focuses on President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

"For seven months, he lied to us," one woman tells another in one of the ads that makes an issue of President Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky.

The new ads began airing nationally Tuesday night.

The National Republican Congressional Committee ad buy underscores the dramatic spending disadvantage facing Democrats, whose issue ad budget is a fraction of the GOP total. Republicans are trying to widen their 11-seat majority in the House.

"These ads spell out very clearly for the public what the differences are between Republicans and Democrats in terms of what direction we want to lead the country," NRCC spokeswoman Mary Crawford said.

Democrats swiftly denounced the ads.

"This is the kind of desperation we can expect from Republicans as we get so close to Election Day," said Vice President Al Gore.

CBS Senior White House Correspondent Scott Pelley reports Mr. Clinton suggested that voters should go to the polls to vote on the issues, not his fitness to be president.

"It wouldn't be a very persuasive argument to me if I were a citizen out there," Mr. Clinton said of the ads, "because I would always be trying to think as a citizen, what is best for my family, for my children, for my community, and for my country."

The three GOP commercials will air only in congressional districts where polls show voters are concerned about the investigation of the president.

The ads are aimed at different groups of voters. They vary in the directness with which they depict the scandal, but all suggest that voters should not trust Clinton because he denied for seven months that he had sexual relations with the former White House intern.

One of the ads features a conversation between two women in their 30s in which one asks, "What did you tell your kids?" and the other responds, "I didn't know what to say." The first goes on, "It's wrong. For seven months he lied to us."

The ad ends with a list of what Republicans say they have accomplished, including cutting taxes, balancing the budget, reforming welfare and coming up with a plan to save Social Security.

A second ad does not mention the scandal at all and promotes Republican initiatives. But it ends with the famous video of Clinton wagging his finger when he declared he never had sexual relations with Lewinsky but with a voice over saying "Remember, it's your choice. For balance, vote Republican."

Republicans plan to run those two ads in some large media markets in the few days left before Tuesday's mid-term election.

Republican say the third and toughest TV commercial is running only in the South. The ad targets three vulnerable Democratic congressmen, John Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, Sanford Bishop of Georgia and Bob Etheridge of North Carolina.

Called "Reward," it says, "This year, the question is: Should we reward Bill Clinton? Should we make the Democrats more powerful?"

It accuses Clinton's party of being for big government and against welfare reform, then says, "Should we reward not telling the truth? That is the question of this election: Reward Bill Clinton. Or, vote Republican."

The three ads, plus the 29 tailor-made spots, will run in 74 TV markets. However, Republican operatives are leaving themselves flexible to run new ads or shift the current spots to different markets if the political environment changes before Election Day.

The campaign replaces a $7 million ad buy last week that issued a subtle criticism of Clinton. Focusing only on the budget, the spot said, "Remember the double-talk?"

Republican operatives debated all weekend over whether to take a more direct approach in the campaign's final days. Many GOP officials expressed concern that raising the issue would inflame hard-core Democrats, making them more likely to vote, without increasing Republican turnout.

Indeed, Chris Gorman on Tuesday joined a handful of Democratic candidates using TV ads to attack Republicans on the issue. Running against Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky., Gorman says in his ad, "They're so focused on getting Bill Clinton that they've forgotten about the rest of us."

A Republican strategist involved in shaping the ads said party leaders decided that the Lewinsky issue is too pervasive to avoid. The ads are designed to show Republicans in a favorable contrast to Clinton, the strategist said.

Targeting incumbent Democrats like Spratt and Bishop highlights the most optimistic projections of Republican officials. While strategists with both parties are predicting a 10- to 15-seat GOP pickup in the House in the current atmosphere, they believe Republicans would pick up 25 to 30 seats if incumbents like Spratt are defeated in a final wave of momentum.

Before this week's buy, the NRCC had already spent at least $12 million on issue ads; its counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has a 1998 issue ad budget of $7 million.
The disparity has created friction between congressional Democrats and the White House.

Clinton, who raised $1.5 million for the Democratic party at two Washington receptions Tuesday night, lamented that Democrats would still be "breathtakingly outspent" by Republicans.