Democrats fuming over wrong woman in commercial

Ed Koch and Benjamin Grove

Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 | 10:59 a.m.

Shelley Berkley and Anna Eshoo are both women, both Democratic congresswomen running for re-election and both have short brown hair.

But when the National Republican Congressional Committee inadvertently put Eshoo's image in a television campaign commercial critical of Berkley, representatives of both women said they don't look that much alike.

Eshoo's and Berkley's representatives say it was irresponsible for the organization not to check its facts before it ran the ad where the narrator attacks Berkley while a short video of Eshoo is shown.

"It's a case of the gang that couldn't shoot straight," said John Flaherty, spokesman for Eshoo, noting that she has written a letter to the NRCC demanding an apology.

"The NRCC is putting out this kind of trash -- loose charges, badly done. And putting it out so quickly, mistakes like this are bound to happen."

Stacey D'Aquila, press secretary for Berkley, said the snafu ad is part of $1 million in so-called "third party" money that has been pumped into Nevada in recent weeks to attempt to defeat Berkley, who is running against Republican State Sen. Jon Porter. According to polls, Berkley has about a 10-point lead.

"It shows that these out-of-state people in their attacks of the congresswoman don't know the issues -- they don't even know who she is," D'Aquila said.

NRCC spokeswoman Marit Babin said the mistake was not intentional.

"Apparently her picture looks like Berkley," Babin said. "It was a simple mistake."

Babin said the advertisement began airing Tuesday, but the mistake was caught Thursday and a corrected version with Berkley's image is now running again today.