U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy's new ad features his neighbor and portrays him as a fiscal watchdog.
But the spot, Murphy's first of the 2010 cycle, is less than truthful, asserts Murphy's Republican opponent, Sam Caligiuri. The ad "is a blatant attempt to mislead voters about his record and the failed, fiscally irresponsible policies he has supported in Congress,'' Caligiuri said in a press release.
The ad says that Murphy, a Democrat, voted against 'the budget', but in fact, he "he has voted for every federal budget that has come before him. The only thing he voted against was a procedural budget vote, after this Congress became the first in 35 years to fail to pass a budget resolution,'' Caligiuri said.
"He threw in this election year 'no' vote because he knows that his record of being a tax-and-spend Pelosi loyalist means that he is out of step with that voters in Connecticut's Fifth District want. He has an utter lack of credibility as a fiscal conservative, having voted for trillions of dollars in deficit spending with his 'yes' votes to the Wall Street bailouts, the federal takeover of health care, the pork-filled stimulus package, and every federal budget since he has been in Congress. When he makes false claims like this, how can we trust anything else he says?" Caligiuri said.
Murphy's campaign, Kenny Curran, lashed back at Caligiuri for going negative. "We are getting a great response from Chris' positive television ad because it represents exactly the kind of representative Chris is - one who listens to people in Connecticut, stands by his word even when it means taking an unpopular vote with his party's leadership, and works with Republicans and Democrats to create jobs in Connecticut,'' Curran said in an email. "It says a lot about Senator Caligiuri that he chooses to attack Chris over a purely positive ad.''
Then Curran lobs a jab of his own. "Caligiuri just keeps attacking without offering any real solutions, because he knows his record on fiscal responsibility is pretty awful. Whether it was running Waterbury's budget into bankruptcy as the President of the Board of Alderman, engineering a $10 million tax increase at the last minute to try to fix the mess he created, or using his position as State Senator to push for earmarks for skate ramps, water parks, and golf courses, Senator Caligiuri's got a lot to answer for.''
Curran is apparently referring to a vote in Dec., 2000, when Caligiuri served as an alderman in Waterbury. As reported here before, the city was on the brink of insolvency and Mayor Philip A. Giordano sought the emergency, $10 million tax increase as a way to stave off a state takeover of the city's finances.
The supplemental property tax levy cost the average homeowner in the Brass City an extra $130. Along with the tax hike, the board of alderman endorsed a spending cap and directed the mayor to cut spending by 3 percent.
Caliguri was president of the board and worked on the plan with Giordano. It was approved by the Republican-controlled board by a vote of 8-7, which broke along party lines.
The Murphy camp is borrowing a page from the playbook of former Caligiuri opponent Mark Greenberg, who used a similar tactic in advance of the GOP primary in August.