Campaign ads show semantics of politics

In a race colored by partisanship, this year's Senate candidates try to paint their opponents as enemies of Florida's seniors.

By ADAM C. SMITH and SHELBY OPPEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 2000

As sure as winter visitors flock south to escape the cold back home, politicians start trying to scare Florida seniors as elections approach.

Both political parties are launching television attacks painting U.S. Senate candidates Bill McCollum and Bill Nelson as enemies of seniors. Combine those with the negative presidential campaign spots targeting elderly residents, and the resulting blur implies that everybody's gunning to slash Medicare and take away grandma's prescription drugs.

"In Washington, Nelson voted to slash $44-billion from Medicare ... Insurance and drug money for Nelson, a raw deal for seniors," says the latest Florida GOP ad airing statewide.

"Which Congressman voted to cut Medicare eight times? Congressman Bill McCollum ... Cuts of billions that would harm Florida seniors," the Florida Democratic Party says in another TV spot.

The ads reflect the importance of seniors in any statewide Florida race. And both include distortions.

What the Democrats refer to as McCollum votes to "cut" Medicare were in fact votes for smaller spending increases than the Clinton administration proposed.

It's partly a question of semantics, but where McCollum voted for smaller Medicare increases some of his Republican colleagues supported the Clinton spending plans, including U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis of Palm Harbor.

Still, McCollum campaign spokeswoman Shannon Gravitte said, "It's lying about Bill McCollum's record in order to scare seniors. If you're getting an increase in funding every year, you can't say you're cutting Medicare."

Last week, Florida GOP Chairman Al Cardenas joined McCollum in demanding that the Democrats yank the ad, calling it a "Mediscare" tactic.

The next morning, the GOP's similarly toned anti-Nelson ad started hitting the airwaves. That ad suggests seniors shouldn't trust Nelson on health care issues because he "cozied up" to insurance interests and took at least $148,000 in campaign contributions.

It says drug companies are financing Nelson's attacks on McCollum because they contributed more than $1-million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

What the ad doesn't say is that McCollum's campaign has received at least $95,000 from insurance companies or that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has received more money than the Democrats from drug and health industry interests.

Nelson said Republicans complaining about the Democratic anti-McCollum ad were merely putting out a "smokescreen" for their own attack ad.

Nelson's 1990 vote to cut $44-billion from Medicare, attacked in the Republicans' ad, "is a vote I'm proud of," Nelson said, because it was part of then-President George Bush's plan to balance the federal budget.

He conceded a 1985 vote against a cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients as well, but said it was a one-time event that was crucial to balancing an "out of control" federal budget.

On a campaign swing through the Panhandle on Monday, Nelson also dug up a bill sponsored by McCollum two years ago in Congress that would have weakened the federal government's ability to crack down on Medicare fraud.

In 1998, McCollum introduced a bill backed by the American Hospital Association that critics said would have made it harder to prosecute federal contractors who violate the False Claims Act -- such as Medicare providers who bill the government for services they don't perform.

Sometimes called the "whistleblower act," the law encourages employees to bring companies' wrongdoing to light.

Gravitte, McCollum's spokeswoman, said McCollum's goal was to stop overzealous federal prosecutors from going after doctors and hospitals for petty "clerical errors," leading to investigations and fines that ultimately drive up medical costs for seniors. McCollum's bill failed.

If elected, Nelson said he would work instead to add teeth to the False Claims Act by, among other measures, expanding federal investigators' power to search and arrest suspected violators and by requiring criminal background checks on any new Medicare providers.

"This is again a clear choice between who's looking out for the special interests and who's looking out for the people's interest," Nelson said.

Kathy Marma of AARP said Florida seniors likely will pay close attention to upcoming Senate debates. AARP planned its own debate on Senate issues, but McCollum said he could not attend because of a scheduling conflict.

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