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Kryzan’s ad targets Powers and Davis in congressional race
Kryzan to argumentative opponents: "Boys, take it somewhere else."
By Jerry Zremski NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
August 26, 2008
If the race between Jon Powers and Jack Davis for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 26th District seems like a wrestling match to you, well, that’s just the way it seems to Alice Kryzan, too.
And now the third candidate in the race, often on the sidelines of the dustups between the party-backed Powers and the widely known millionaire Davis, is taking her opponents to task for their fisticuffs.
Kryzan’s new ad features a boyish fellow who resembles the 30- year-old Powers ambling up to an old man on a park bench who looks like the 75-year-old Davis.
“Hey, that’s my seat!” the Powers clone says. “It’s mine! I bought it,” replies the guy who looks like Davis, a candidate who has vowed to spend $3 million of his own money on his campaign.
And then they’re off, launching into the insults that have marked this campaign, going nose-to-nose and finally tussling like two angry schoolboys.
At that point, Kryzan, 60, an environmental lawyer who has lagged behind Powers and Davis in funding and media attention, takes to the screen.
“That fighting isn’t going to create jobs, fix health care or change our energy policy,” says Kryzan, who then calls herself “a problem solver, community leader and a real Democrat my whole life.”
Looking back at the scuffle going on behind her, she adds: “Boys, take it somewhere else.”
Not surprisingly, the Powers and Davis campaigns offered radically different reactions to the ad.
“It is unfortunate that Alice Kryzan is attacking Jon Powers when he is the only candidate talking to voters in all seven counties about his plans to bring good-paying jobs to Western New York, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and bring our troops home from Iraq safely, securely and soon,” said Victoria Dillon, a spokeswoman for Powers.
Meanwhile, Joy Langley, communications director for the Davis campaign, said the ad had “a plucky script.”
“If plucky scripts created jobs, we wouldn’t need Jack Davis in Congress,” she said. “But they don’t, and we do. Jack, not Jon or Alice, brings a lifetime of creating jobs and solving problems to the table.”
Anne Wadsworth, the manager of the Kryzan campaign, indicated the ad reflects a fundamental truth about the campaign.
“Jack Davis and Jon Powers have spent this whole campaign going after each other,” she said. “We are trying to get the focus back on the issues that are important to the voters of the 26th and on the candidate who is raising those issues and has the experience to tackle them: Alice Kryzan.”
The ad, produced by the Chicago firm Adelstein/Liston, began airing Monday during the “Today” show. Wadsworth said it would air again tonight during network coverage of the Democratic National Convention.
