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Politics

State Senate campaign heats up with disputed ad

By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published November 3, 2006

The state Senate campaign in eastern Hillsborough County is boiling over in its final days.

After a Ronda Storms commercial showed Stephen Gorham and others tinged in red, Gorham cried foul. The image, he claimed, had been lifted from a Web site without permission and manipulated to make Gorham and another man appear sinister.

Gorham, the Democratic candidate in District 10, was shown at a Brandon restaurant visiting a group called Drinking Liberally. Because group founder Ben Whetstone fought in the Gulf War, Gorham accused Storms of "stealing from one veteran in a shallow attempt to smear another." Whetstone was shown seated beside Gorham, whom the commercial labeled a tax-and-spend liberal. The Republican Party of Florida paid for the commercial.

Nothing in the law prevents the airing of the image of an opponent on the campaign trail, said Kathy Harris, an attorney for the Hillsborough County supervisor of elections.

Gorham's camp fired off a cease-and-desist letter to five television stations, demanding they drop the commercial. Two of the stations complied with the request.

"It is interesting to note that they could not deny the contention of the ad - that Gorham is too liberal for Tampa Bay," Republican spokesman Jeff Sadosky said. "They were forced to rely on a technicality."

Republicans pulled the advertisement on Monday. It had run its course, Sadosky said.

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 05:57:45]