As I’ve written before, I live in the 26th Congressional District, where Democrat Kathy Hochul, Republican Jane Corwin and Independent Jack Davis are running for the seat vacated by Christopher Lee.

I don’t know any of them. Davis does play tennis on Saturday mornings on a court near me. He has played on weekends during the campaign, so I don’t know how serious he is about winning.

The only thing I knew about Hochul before the race came when I waited to make a change in my mortgage at County Hall. Some of her county workers openly criticized the changes she made in handling things, which surprised me considering all the good press she has had as Erie County  clerk.

I have never seen Corwin and had no opinion of her before the race other than she is very rich and pretty enough to be a TV news anchor.

But living in the district, I have taken such a keen interest in this race that as you read this I am even driving home from New York City to cast my vote today.

I mean after having to endure all those ads, I had to have my say.

Of course, with all the commercials running on local TV, everyone in Western New York has been forced to pay attention even though they aren’t all in the district and eligible to vote.

The winners in this race are clear – the local TV stations that have collected all the money from the campaigns and the out-of-town PACs that are spreading lies about both candidates.

The political ads have become an issue. They are legalized lies. The TV stations can’t edit them, but they can review them and Channel 2 has done a very good job at that.

The chutzpah award goes to Corwin, who repeatedly runs a deceitful ad that basically says that Hochul is bad for seniors who are fearful of losing Medicare when anyone who watched a debate carried by Channel 2 debate knew that Corwin is the one who supports a Republican plan to change Medicare to the displeasure of seniors.

Since only 1.2 percent of Buffalo viewers watched the debate and many of them can’t vote, Corwin’s campaign may have thought that it could get away with the Medicare lie. However, it was such a blatant lie that the Buffalo News did a story about it.

The Hochul camp also is guilty of exaggeration, saying that Corwin supports a plan that “essentially” ends Medicare. “Essentially” is a qualifying word that means it doesn’t end Medicare.

The problem with political ad reviews is that the lies often aren’t measured for size. On a scale of things, the Hochul ad is a lie the size of a Clarence street, the Corwin lie is as big as Erie County.

The ridiculous award goes to the Republican ad in which Hochul and Davis are depicted as puppets of Nancy Pelosi. It was funny the first time, annoying and just “Saturday Night Live” silly after that.

The smartest ad is the Hochol ad that just reads snippets of editorials by The Buffalo News and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle that support Hochul and indirectly address the lies in the Corwin campaign in a straightforward manner.

Of course, ads aren’t the only things that determine the winner. News coverage also paints a picture of the candidates.

Corwin has gotten more coverage than Hochul because her campaign has gotten in more hot water. The silliness in which Corwin’s Assembly chief of staff was shown filming Davis before the candidate took a swipe at his camera got days and days of coverage.

Corwin was right — it got too much coverage. But that was Corwin’s fault. She extended the coverage by foolishly saying that she wouldn’t discipline the guy because he was doing something outside of his Assembly work.

As I’ve written before, the 26th District seat is vacant because Chris Lee did something outside of his congressional work. People are suspended, fired and resign all the time for doing embarrassing things outside of work.

Corwin should have just suspended or fired the guy and ended a controversy that really said little about the issues that will be addressed in Congress by the winner. Her handling of the silliness, advertising, and just about everything else in the campaign make one wonder how effective she would be in Washington, D.C.

The irony about the Puppet Ad is that Corwin appears to have been a puppet in her own campaign.

If she loses in a heavily Republican district, the national networks and their Sunday morning pundits may erroneously view it as a condemnation of the new Republican majority in the House. In reality, a Corwin loss would just mean that the old Republican campaign playbook doesn’t work in a community that is paying attention to the issues and only has to focus on one race with three candidates.

If she wins, it will be another triumph for negative and false advertising and the theory that any attention one gets from the news is beneficial even if it is negative attention.

pergament@msn.com

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