Reid, Sandoval launch attack ads

By Anjeanette Damon

Monday, Sept. 20, 2010 | 2:47 p.m.

A pair of new attack ads are out in the governor’s race, a signal that the two candidates are ramping up against each other as early voting nears.

Republican Brian Sandoval launched his first English-language ad of the general election campaign today. He accuses his Democratic rival Rory Reid of liberal spending, poor leadership and running a “campaign of lies.”

The ad follows a spot released by Reid last week accusing Sandoval of being beholden to special interest lobbyists.

Reid doubled down on that attack with a second ad today.

The new spot uses Sandoval’s own words against him, taking comments from a news interview in which he admits the lobbyists talked with him about running for office and now are advising his campaign.

The ad, however, describes them as lobbyist for “big banks.” Pete Ernaut and Greg Ferraro, the lobbyists in question, have only one banking client. Ferraro represented JP Morgan Chase in the last session. Ernaut has no banking clients.

Reid also brings up a bill Sandoval introduced on banking deregulation that was written by a banking lobbyist in 1997. His point? That lobbyists can talk Sandoval into carrying their water.

But Reid’s ad ignores the fact that the lobbyist who wrote the banking bill is one of Reid’s law partners. That lobbyist, Dan Reaser, is a partner in Reid’s law firm. He wrote the bill before Reid joined the firm.