1B supporters take heat for ‘deceptive’ ad

AUGUSTA – Charges of deceptive advertising practices continued to fly Tuesday in the three-way referendum showdown on property tax relief. Question 1C proponents accused their Question 1B adversaries of misrepresenting the editorial endorsement of Maine’s largest Sunday newspaper.

On Oct. 12, the Maine Sunday Telegram endorsed Question 1C, but Robert Stone of Lewiston maintains no one would ever know it from watching Question 1B’s television ads. Stone, who represents Question 1C’s political action committee, Common Sense for Maine Taxpayers, lambasted Question 1B supporters for their “blatant, deceitful attempt to mislead Maine voters into thinking that the Maine Sunday Telegram has endorsed Question 1B.”

“I can’t tell you how shocked and dismayed I was to see the heavy rotation television ad of the 1B campaign,” he said. “The truth is that the Telegram has clearly endorsed 1C.”

John Porter, editorial page editor for the Telegram, said the paper’s endorsement of 1C had been clearly stated and chose not to evaluate the implications of the 1B ad.

“Our editorial says what it says,” Porter said.

Voters will go to the polls on Nov. 4 to determine the fate of Question 1A that was spearheaded by the Maine Municipal Association, a lobbying and consultant group for municipalities. The initiative requires the Legislature to identify funding sources to raise the state’s share of local education costs next year to 55 percent, a goal identified by the Legislature nearly 20 years ago. The state currently funds education costs at about 41.4 percent.

Mainers For Responsible Property Tax Relief support Question 1B, a competing measure crafted by Gov. John E. Baldacci and the Maine Legislature that phases in additional education funds over a five-year period until the 55 percent goal is reached. Question 1C allows voters to reject both the citizen initiative and the competing measure.

The Telegram’s editorial devoted more than half of its space to some fairly scathing analysis of Question 1A and the attack did not go unnoticed by Question 1B proponents. Within a week, the 1B political action committee produced a 30-second television spot featuring the editorial’s headline “Passage of Question 1A will bring higher taxes” and quoted some of its most critical passages in the ad.

The 1B advertisement did not mention the criticisms the Telegram editorial levied against its proposal, specifically that “1B lacks … any kind of cap on municipal spending. In this way it is like 1A in that it promises no real reduction in the overall tax burden of Maine people.” The editorial also stated, “1B falls far short of the reform Mainers deserve and is not worthy of support.”

More egregious than its failure to mention its own shortcomings, as characterized by the Maine Sunday Telegram, was what Stone perceived as 1A’s irresponsible decision to omit the fact the paper endorsed 1C.

“The 1B television spot uses much of the anti-1A positions covered in the 1C endorsement and then literally steals them in a concluding statement urging the voters to support 1B,” he said. “The 1B ad infers that the Telegram is supporting 1B, when it is not.”

Larry Benoit, representing Question 1B, defended the ad Tuesday and maintained it was never the intent of his political action committee to mislead the voters or misrepresent the Telegram endorsement. He acknowledged extrapolating portions of the editorial that supported his PAC’s position while omitting those sections that were dismissive of 1B.

“We don’t agree with their conclusions,” Benoit said of the Telegram’s assessment of 1B. “A lot of the news articles that we quote [in our ads] cannot be included in television advertisements that extend for only 30 seconds.”

Stone did not buy Benoit’s explanation for excluding two key and crucial points – that the Telegram rejected 1B and endorsed 1C – in the editorial that 1B proponents crafted to promote their position.

“We think the voters of Maine need to be told the truth,” he said. “Shame on them.”