Collins for Senate Campaign comments on Tom Allen positive campaign pledge

May 21, 2008

Does this mean Allen will finally denounce ads his allies ran against Collins last summer?

PORTLAND, ME -- The Collins for Senator campaign today welcomed news that Tom Allen, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate, is about to come around 180 degrees from his previous behavior regarding negative third party political ads.

In a media advisory announcing a Monday morning news conference on the topic, the Allen Campaign declares that “Tom Allen's intention is to have an honest conversation with Mainers about the change they desire for our state and nation,’’said Carol Andrews, Allen Campaign Communications Director “On Monday, Congressman Allen will send a strong message to third parties who wish to obscure that conversation with negative, personal attacks.’"

“This would be a welcome departure from Congressman Allen’s position last summer when his 3rd party allies ran nearly a million dollars worth of negative ads against Senator Collins,” said Felicia Knight, Deputy Campaign Manager for the Collins campaign. “At that time he failed to criticize the groups, even when they featured ads with children in military fatigues and solicitations with Senator Collins’s teeth blacked out. Senator Collins has always discouraged outside groups from running negative ads on her behalf, dating back to her first Senate run in 1996 when she wrote the National Republican Senatorial Committee and insisted that it not run negative ads on her behalf.

“What is Congressman Allen’s position on those ads now? How will he react when similar ads start up again. Will he speak out against ads like those when they begin to appear this summer? Will he condemn Moveon.org, which channeled $365,000 to his campaign, if it runs ads like the 'General BetrayUs' ad that ran in the New York Times last year and uses other negative tactics like it did last summer? The answers to these questions will help define how serious Congressman Allen is about his new position,” said Knight. “If he refuses to condemn those ads, then we know it is business as usual from him.”

Knight then added, “One of the biggest sources of negative ads are the national parties. We would make Congressman Allen this offer – if he will tell the Democratic Party not to run any television or radio ads in this campaign, we would make the same demand of the Republican Party. An arrangement such as that would be a huge step toward ensuring that the campaigns control the tone and the content of the television ads in this campaign.”

###