Anchorage mayoral candidate Amy Demboski's campaign launched a negative radio ad with partisan themes this week, linking her opponent Ethan Berkowitz to President Barack Obama and painting him as a big spender who "never saw a tax hike he didn't like."
The ad makes numerous claims about Berkowitz's support for taxation and spending as a member of the Alaska Legislature. It also included what its narrator described as a clip of Berkowitz speaking to members of the Alaska AFL-CIO.
Berkowitz's campaign manager said in a recent phone interview the ad contains inaccuracies and distracts from issues like public safety and homelessness.
"It's unfortunate and disappointing that her campaign has decided to go negative like this, with some obvious distortions of Ethan's record," said his campaign manager, Susanne Fleek-Green. "To me that says that they see their tone and the substance of their campaign is not appealing to Anchorage voters."
Asked about the various claims in the new ad, a spokesman for Demboski, David Boyle, provided a one-sentence response in an email: "Our ad is an accurate reflection of Mr. Berkowitz' record."
The ad, coming a week before the runoff election, opens up with audio of a car engine revving. The narrator states that Berkowitz "campaigned for Barack Obama, championed Obamacare, the largest tax increase in American history." The ad then claims Berkowitz supported a state income tax, higher alcohol taxes, a cruise ship head tax and "raiding our Permanent Fund for more spending."
The ad also claims Berkowitz opposed tax exemptions for churches and religious nonprofits as a state legislator, and cites a "92 percent rating with the environmental lobby."
It concludes with a clip of Berkowitz's voice: "To me, it doesn't matter if it's Obama, O'Begich or O'Berkowitz, we're going to change things."
Listeners then hear the sound of a car crashing.
Fleek-Green said Berkowitz, a Democrat, campaigned at the same time as the president in 2008, not for him. She also disputed that Berkowitz had "championed" Obamacare. She said Berkowitz was out of public service at the time the health insurance law passed, and she said he has made "several statements" about problems with the law.
She also described the claim about Berkowitz's support for an income tax as lacking context. In 2002, Berkowitz voted in the state House for a state fiscal plan that emerged from a bipartisan fiscal policy caucus. That plan included a proposal for a state income tax. The plan's other supporters included then-state Reps. Lisa Murkowski and Andrew Halcro, both elected as Republicans from Anchorage.
At the time, oil was $9 a barrel and the state government was running a deficit, Fleek-Green said.
"The context was trying to balance a budget when revenues were down," Fleek-Green said. "If you take that and compare it to the city's situation now, I don't see how it's different than what the Assembly is currently doing, which is looking at the tax exemptions that some of these religious nonprofits have in Anchorage."
An Anchorage commission produced a report earlier this year saying that property owners are unfairly subsidizing tens of millions of dollars' worth of property taxes for nonprofits, government agencies, churches and other entities, and called on the Assembly to close legal loopholes. Among the churches with residential property exempt from taxation is the Anchorage Baptist Temple, whose lead pastor, the Rev. Jerry Prevo, attacked Berkowitz from the pulpit Sunday.
Demboski has regularly referenced the report and said that she supports eliminating tax exemptions for nonprofits that don't qualify for them. But at a debate Wednesday, she said she supported exemptions for churches.
Fleek-Green also said it's also unclear where Demboski is basing the claim about Berkowitz raiding the Alaska Permanent Fund. She said Berkowitz had voted several times as a state legislator to put more money into the fund.
Tuesday's ad marked the most direct attack by Demboski on the airwaves in the election. A little over a month before the April 7 election, a radio ad produced by Americans for Prosperity also attacked Berkowitz through references to Obama and an income tax.
Berkowitz's campaign has so far stuck to positive advertising. The campaign's most recent radio ad features supportive statements from two current business partners, as well as a former colleague from his two years as a prosecutor in the early 1990s.
Two other radio ads produced by unions feature police officers, detectives and firefighters voicing support for Berkowitz and discussing his record on public safety.
Anchorage political consultant Marc Hellenthal, who worked for fourth-place finisher Dan Coffey in the general election and said he's now "on the sidelines," said the ad was effective, but showed Demboski might be in trouble.
"There's an old adage: 'You can tell who's behind by who starts the negative,'" Hellenthal said.
In his email, Boyle did not respond to a request for comment on the timing of the ad.