Lenthall really hates this commercial

May 19, 2008

County Supervisor Jerry Lenthall is threatening KSBY with legal action if the station doesn’t cease airing an opponent’s campaign commercial.

Lenthall’s threat centers on a comment made by his District 3 opponent, Adam Hill, which ironically is similar to one Lenthall aimed at a different adversary last election.

“Imagine that, increasing his salary while cutting our services,” says a voice in a television commercial boosting the candidacy of Adam Hill that prompted the letter.

Lenthall contends Hill’s claim is false and deceptive.

“According to San Luis Obispo County Manager David Edge, the county has not had to cut any services because of the ‘pay raise’ by the County Board of Supervisors,” Lenthall’s attorney, Thomas Hiltachk of Sacramento, wrote in a letter to station officials.

During Dave Congalton’s 920KVEC Home Town Radio talk show Friday, Hiltachk and Hill campaign consultant Chris Crotty debated the merits of the commercial. A caller claimed Lenthall had used the same campaign tactic during a tight race for the third district county supervisor seat in 2004.

In a Tribune-sponsored debate, Lenthall noted opponent Patty Andreen’s vote for a pay raise during financially unsettling times.

According to an Oct. 27, 2004, article in The Tribune, Lenthall said during that debate, “Patty, you have said how you were fiscally responsible for cutting almost $10 million on the school board, but you are on record during this time of initial financial crisis of proposing a pay raise for yourself and other board members when you are literally laying off teachers. Doesn’t that send a mixed message?”

KSBY continues to air Hill’s commercial. Evan Pappas, General Manager, KSBY-TV, said in a statement today:

“Although our practice is not to comment on our clients, I can tell you that in the case of political advertisers, if one side has a grievance with another side, we try to have them speak directly to one another and/or assist them in conveying their concerns to one another. Our practices are to enforce the rules and regulations of the FCC.”