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Of the seven candidates for state attorney general, four try to bob above the rest with ads.
By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2002
The Southwest Airlines agents were sifting through Buddy Dyer's bag when they stopped and peered at the senator. Chosen for a random security check, Dyer figured he had been fingered as a suspected terrorist.
Wrong.
"They said, 'You're the one with the mother commercial,' " said Dyer, the front-runner in Tuesday's Democratic attorney general primary.
Behold the power of television.
With a recent St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll showing two-thirds of Democrats still up for grabs, Dyer is flooding Tampa Bay airwaves with pictures of his mother and promises to keep yours safe. Democratic opponent Scott Maddox is hitting TV with ads as well, as is Republican front-runner Charlie Crist, who spent about $1-million on TV ads.
Democrat George Sheldon pairs up with agriculture commissioner candidate Mary Barley in a television ad that was scheduled to start running Saturday in Central and South Florida. The ad was paid for by the Democratic Party.
The other three candidates in the attorney general race, Democrat Walter Dartland and Republicans Locke Burt and Tom Warner, are more surgical: They are using e-mail or sending fliers to "super voters," who have historically voted in their parties' primaries, and are forgoing television until after the primary, if they get the chance to use it at all.
Warner also has Spanish-language radio spots running in South Florida, telling Cuban-Americans that a good conservative will be needed in the attorney general's chair should Democrat Janet Reno be elected governor. Many Cuban-Americans are still simmering over Reno's decision as U.S. attorney general to return little Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba.
But it's the television ads that have people talking, those tough-on-crime ads that seem to run as frequently as pitches for car sales and allergy pills.
And it's television that's most likely to convert the undecided.
"Television remains the 800-pound gorilla of political communication," said Paul Taylor, founder and director of the Washington-based Alliance for Better Campaigns. The group tracks political spending, especially in mass media.
Political commercials "remain the most effective thing out there," Taylor said. And unfortunately for voters, it's often the negative ads that stick.
"It is easier to persuade a person not to vote than to make a sale," Taylor said.
The attorney general candidates turning to TV are hoping to make that sale.
Dyer is running three ads statewide at a price of about $850,000. One features his mother, who was attacked in 1999: "I'll never forget that day. My mom, while closing her store, was beaten, robbed and left for dead." Dyer's voice and a shadowy image of his mother fill the screen. Her glasses fall to the ground.
"And that's why I'm running for attorney general, to keep my mom and everyone's mom safe." As a senator, Dyer supported legislation that required criminals to serve 85 percent of their sentences. It was the same bill Crist sponsored and mentions in his own ad.
Dyer said he decided to use his mother in the ad, risking accusations that he was exploiting the attack, because he thinks it helps people understand what he means by protecting elders.
Another Dyer commercial features his plan to curb corporate wrongdoing: "You worked hard, played by the rules, saved and invested for your future," Dyer's voice is heard as a white-haired woman is shown shuffling bills at her kitchen counter.
"But they broke the rules," and a picture of the Enron logo pops up, along with an executive testifying. "If they break the rules, they won't just pay a fine, they'll do jail time." The third commercial reminds Democrats that Dyer has received endorsements from the state's largest newspapers.
"We're running this campaign with an eye toward November and establishing ourselves in the eyes of Republicans and independents," Dyer said. Focusing on the so-called super voters may help win a primary, but "then you come out with Charlie Crist having 70 percent name recognition and you've talked to 300,000 or 400,000 Democrats," Dyer said.
"The importance of TV at this stage of the game is to build name recognition."
And that's one thing Crist has lots of, plus a telegenic smile. His dark, harsh ad that features violent criminals is in sharp contrast to Crist's soft-spoken manners and unfailing politeness.
His latest ad names two criminals, cop-killer Hank Earl Carr and child-murderer Mark Dean Schwab, who served minimal jail time for other offenses before being released back into the public and killing. Crist sponsored a bill in 1995 that required inmates to serve 85 percent of their sentences.
"Victims contacted Charlie Crist. Crist sponsored the STOP bill," says an announcer in the ad. STOP stands for Stop Turning Out Prisoners, and Crist is shown in the ad with a large stop sign.
"Today, criminals are required to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences," a female announcer says.
In Maddox's commercial, a family is shown at the dinner table when the phone rings. "Another annoying junk call. Don't get mad, get Maddox," said an announcer. Maddox promises in the ads to go after telemarketers who call people at home after they've been told to stop.
The picture changes to an older woman looking at a pill bottle. "Tired of the high cost of prescription drugs? Don't get mad, get Maddox," the announcer continued.
Rather than rely on mass media at this stage, Burt has distributed an eight-minute video of his history and background to Republican clubs and groups around the state, and has mailed fliers featuring his parents to Republican voters around the state.
And Dartland has eschewed contributions and endorsements altogether, relying on e-mail and the Internet to get his word out.
"We'll reach thousands of people and tell them to reach thousands of people," Dartland said last month, explaining his campaign strategy. "The electronic thing just may be the great equalizer."