WILKES-BARRE - As his opponent railed Thursday against an attack ad that "stepped over the line," U.S. Rep. Tim Holden conceded that the bitter primary campaign in his 17th Congressional District had gone "too far" and, in a late strategy shift, urged only positive advertising through the April 24 vote.
Holden, a Democrat from Saint Clair, issued a statement minutes before challenger Matt Cartwright spoke on the issue, saying he took "responsibility" for the negative advertising produced by his campaign and would air only ads focusing on issues such as Social Security for the remainder of the race.
Holden adviser Eric Nagy said the 10-term incumbent decided to pull the negative ads Wednesday after seeing them first-hand. Nagy acknowledged some "people definitely weren't happy" with the negative tone of the campaign, but said Holden did not feel pressured to remove the ads.
"Holden was watching TV and he's like, 'You know what, this is enough. I've had enough. Forget it. These negative ads are done,' " Nagy said. "And he decided to pull it right there."
Cartwright campaign manager Shane Seaver called Holden's ceasefire a "ploy" and "a last-ditch effort to save face." Asked if Cartwright would agree to run only positive ads through election day, Seaver defended the factuality of the campaign's pieces on Holden and said a final mailing sent Thursday would highlight the challenger's goals if elected.
Wilkes University political science professor Thomas Baldino said Holden's decision Thursday to go positive is "akin to trying to have the last word." Baldino, a member of the Luzerne County election board, said the incumbent's strategy to attack and then retreat might limit Cartwright's ability to answer back when going negative could be seen as verboten.
Holden's move toward positivity came as Cartwright, of Moosic, rallied outside the Luzerne County Courthouse with the plaintiff and one of the jurors in a $3 million medical malpractice case highlighted in Holden's attack ad.
Cartwright and the plaintiff, Michelle Kachurak, said they objected to the 30-second television commercial because it implied his law firm, Munley, Munley & Cartwright, helped bankroll ex-Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Toole's election to secure a favorable verdict in the malpractice case.
Kachurak, who sued two doctors after they wrongly diagnosed her with cancer and subjected her to 12 rounds of unnecessary chemotherapy, called Cartwright in tears after seeing the commercial.
"I could not believe what was happening," Kachurak said. "I endured a long trial and won it on the merits and the truth of the malpractice."
The ad, which aired until Wednesday, painted the $3,500 in contributions made by the law firm's political-action committee in 2003 and the $3 million malpractice verdict in 2007 as a virtual quid pro quo.
While Toole is serving a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for accepting free use of a vacation home from an attorney who won a favorable ruling in his court and for failing to pay taxes on a $30,000 payment, the judge's corruption had no influence on the malpractice case, Cartwright said.
"A jury brought her justice. The judge was irrelevant," Cartwright said. "Holden is shameful. I don't expect an apology but he owes one to Michelle for making her painful ordeal part of his nasty campaign."
The ad so forcefully rebuked by Cartwright was the latest in a series of attacks that had defined the race in the 17th District.
Cartwright's commercials and mailers have accused Holden of accepting contributions from former Vice President Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the energy-services firm that Cheney once headed. Holden adviser Nagy said the allegations were "just ridiculous."
"Matt Cartwright is offended by all negative ads except the ones that go out against us," Nagy said. "He is not innocent in this in any way. Much of what he put out in the mail were blatant lies."
Seaver said the claims, highlighted in Cartwright mailers and in television commercials produced by the League of Conservation Voters, centered on Holden's vote in favor of the Cheney-backed Energy Policy Act of 2005, which excludes fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing of natural gas from a number of federal environmental regulations. The exemption has been dubbed by critics as the "Halliburton loophole."
Holden has accused Cartwright and his firm of supporting the two judges convicted in the so-called "kids-for-cash" corruption probe, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan, and of funding the campaigns of other judges they tried cases before.
"In the end, as much as he wants to call our mail negative, every single mail piece that we have sent out has been strictly about the issues," Seaver said. "His new claim that we're trying to tie him to Dick Cheney and Halliburton is not the case there. The point is, he voted for a bill that was heavily lobbied for by Halliburton and Dick Cheney."
King's College political science professor David Sosar said the truth has become increasingly endangered in political campaigns as the country becomes more polarized. Attacks, he said, fit easier into 30-second spots than detailed discussions of policy.
"Ads about opponents don't have to be really true anymore," Sosar said. "Most campaigns and their so-called media specialists believe that one can take an ounce of truth and twist and turn it into an ad that benefits their candidate. It's easier to point out negatives like this instead of talking about the issues."