Tulsa World: Tulsa mayoral candidates debate records, TV ad

MAKE US YOUR HOMEPAGE | Saturday, November 21, 2009 | WIRELESS

Home > News > Article

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Tulsa mayoral candidates debate records, TV ad

Mayoral candidates Tom Adelson (right) and Dewey Bartlett (left). MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World

By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
Published: 10/21/2009 5:46 PM
Last Modified: 10/21/2009 10:48 PM

Documents: View the latest responses from the Adelson and Bartlett campaigns.

Tulsa Elections: Read bios of candidates for mayor, City Council and city auditor and view a map of City Council districts.

Dispute over the validity of a political attack ad that portrays mayoral candidate Tom Adelson as soft on child molesters continued Wednesday through news releases between the Democratic state senator and his Republican opponent, Dewey Bartlett Jr.

Adelson’s attorney, James Connor, also issued a second letter demanding that media outlets remove the “blatantly false” and “malicious” TV commercial and that accurate and appropriate retractions be aired.

Adelson held a news conference Tuesday blasting Bartlett for his “dirty campaign tactics” after the ad began appearing on local television stations.

Adelson said Wednesday that Bartlett’s campaign continues to spend thousands of dollars broadcasting the false ad “and refuses to own up to its dishonesty.” Bartlett said he stands behind what he called a “truthful” ad.

Adelson said the ad accuses him of wanting to change existing law that mandates life sentence for repeat child molesters.

“Dewey says that I wouldn’t let juries give child molesters life without parole and that is absolutely false and defamatory,” he said.

Bartlett said the ad is strictly about Adelson’s vote on Senate Bill 1800, not whether his vote affected a jury’s ability to impose life-without-parole punishments.

Adelson did vote against the bill in 2006, which mandated twice-convicted sex offenders whose victims were under age 14 to be punished by death or imprisonment for life without parole.

At the time and currently, state law mandates life-without-parole sentences for repeat child molesters and does not define the age of the victim.

Adelson said he voted against the bill because the death penalty aspect was unconstitutional and he knew the life-without-parole sentence would not be affected.

Bartlett claimed Tuesday that there was no discussion about the constitutionality of the law when it was considered in the Senate, but a press release in 2006 by the bill’s author, Sen. Jonathon Nichols, indicates otherwise.

Bartlett said Wednesday that he meant there was “no proof” that Adelson participated in any such discussion.

Although the bill was signed into law, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 ruled it unconstitutional.

Bartlett said Adelson voted against the bill and when called on to defend his vote, he “hides behind the liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Adelson said he has always supported “tough penalties for despicable criminals who prey upon citizens, especially our children.” He supported an unsuccessful effort to allow chemical castration of rapists and sex offenders.

Adelson said Bartlett is repeating “gutter tactics” that he used in his last mayoral campaign in 1992.

Bartlett said he was “deeply disturbed” when he learned about Adelson’s vote over the course of the campaign and he thought “Tulsans needed to know about it."

By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Reader Comments

Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Video: Punches continue in mayoral race," which was published on 10/22/2009. So far, 34 comments have been made.