The mud flies

Pub date September 20, 2011
WriterTim Redmond
SectionPolitics Blog

Dennis Herrera is out with an ad attacking Ed Lee — and it’s just the beginning of what we’re going to see as the top-tier candidates try to knock the front-runner down.

All the credible polls show Lee at least 10 points out in front. They also show that he has about 30 percent of the voters — which means 70 percent are either undecided or like another candidate. So he’s hardly invincible.

But with so many candidates in the race — most of them competing in the mashup in the middle, without strikingly different policy ideas — the strategists for Leland Yee, Jeff Adachi and Herrera have all decided that attack ads are in order. And the ads all seem to have the same basic theme: Lee is controlled by outside interests.

“Ed Lee says he gets things done,” the new Herrera ad says. “But what’s he doing — and who’s he doing it for?”

There’s a picture of Lee and Rose Pak. There’s a swipe at the Central Subway. There’s a pretty damning charge about Lee trying to raise garbage rates and then getting campaign help from Recology, the local garbage monopoly. And there’s an obvious shot at Lee for calling PG&E “a great corporation.”

The ad ends with some odd Republican lapel pins on the jackets of some unidentified dark-suited gentlemen as the voice-over says:

“Ed Lee’s getting it done — for his friends and his contributors, not for us.”

Hmmm. I didn’t see the Republican connection, but Matt Dorsey, Herrera’s press person, told me that one of the independent expenditure committees raising soft money for Lee is run by a big Republican player. Not sure how many people will get that — but on the other hand, there’s just so much in this ad. The Herrera camp has to figure some of it will stick.

Nothing new, really,  nothing others haven’t brought up. But it’s just the start; expect a lot more trash talk over the next few weeks as Lee tries to stay above the fray and his opponents try to force him to fight.