Tulsa World: Tulsa mayoral candidate blasts TV ad's content

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Tulsa mayoral candidate blasts TV ad's content

With his wife Julie by his side, Tulsa Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Adelson addresses the media during a press conference at a playground near 18th Street and Riverside Drive on Tuesday. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World

By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
Published: 10/20/2009 4:13 PM
Last Modified: 10/20/2009 7:19 PM

Tulsa Elections: View all TV campaign ads, read bios of candidates for mayor, City Council and city auditor, and view a map of City Council districts.

Read a letter from Tom Adelson's attorney asking local media to stop playing Dewey Bartlett Jr.'s latest campaign ad.

Mayoral candidate Tom Adelson said his opponent, Dewey Bartlett Jr., has taken his campaign into the gutter with a new “misleading, downright false” TV ad implying that he is soft on child molesters.

“I deeply resent the defamatory attack from the Bartlett campaign,” Adelson said during a news conference Tuesday at a River Parks playground near 18th Street.

“I was just shocked. It’s sickening and grotesque,” Adelson said of first viewing the commercial.

“This is a person, as you know, who last time he ran for mayor, his campaign tactics were called ‘despicable’ and certainly will stoop to any means,” Adelson said.

“I think it’s the nastiest ad I’ve seen in about 10 years,” he said.

The commercial opens with a colorful playground of children playing and a voice-over stating: “Nothing that the Tulsa mayor does is more important than keeping families safe. That is why Tom Adelson’s

record on crime is troubling.”

Then a suspicious-looking man in a hooded sweatshirt sneaks up on the park, lurking behind a tree, and the color ad goes to black and white.

The ad goes on to state that “Adelson voted against the death penalty for twice-convicted child molesters, the worst of criminals. He wouldn’t even let the jury give child molesters life without parole.”

Adelson, a Democratic state senator, said he voted against a 2006 bill that would have allowed the death penalty for twice-convicted child molesters because it was unconstitutional. The legislation ultimately was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

But Bartlett, a Republican, said that at the time of the vote there was never any discussion about the constitutionality of the bill.

“Tom had an opportunity to vote on the side of the child and didn’t do so,” he said in an interview after Adelson’s news conference.

Bartlett said his ad brings up a “very relevant issue because the mayor is by charter the manager of the city and thus the leader of the police department.”

Adelson said the bill also never took away the jury’s ability to send repeat offenders to prison without the possibility of parole.

“That was always the law and my vote had no impact on ensuring that repeat offenders go away for life,” he said.

Adelson said he supported “chemical castration” for the worst offenders and he thinks they ought to stay in jail forever.

Bartlett’s ad goes on to say that Adelson voted for budget cuts to the state Department of Public Safety.

Adelson said the vote that Bartlett is talking about was unanimous.

“This year in a budget crisis we’ve had cut backs among every agency, and I think it’s unfortunate that Mr. Bartlett thinks this is political opportunity rather than recognizing we’re in one of the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression,” he said.

Adelson said Bartlett will “do and say anything” to be mayor.

“Shame on that campaign. It’s a disgrace to the city,” he said.

Adelson said he and his wife are the proud parents of four children and like all parents “we care nothing more above all else than the health, safety and security of our kids.”

Adelson said he has co-authored a law that gives increased investigative authority to police in cases of suspected child predators and another to strengthen the law involving Internet child porn.

Adelson said he challenged Bartlett at a debate last week to run clean campaigns but Bartlett refused.

Bartlett said “actions speak louder that words” but would not say whether he will stop the negative ads.

Bartlett said his ad is truthful, unlike Adelson’s ad against him involving Great Plains Airline, which accused him of a criminal offense.

“For him (Adelson) to suddenly attempt to act holier-than-now is laughable.” Bartlett said.

Adelson’s attorney Jim Connor sent a two-page letter to media outlets demanding they not run the Bartlett ad, saying it is “not just sleazy and disgusting politics, it is false and defamatory.”

Adelson said Connor will be contacting Bartlett’s campaign as well.

Watch the campaign ad below.

By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "'Misleading' molester ad denounced by Adelson," which was published on 10/21/2009. So far, 134 comments have been made.