CAMPAIGN AD REALITY CHECK

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006 | 7:27 a.m.

Clark County Commission race

What the ad says:

Announcer: When new County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald said no to a 41 percent union pay raise, union bosses vowed revenge and teamed up with Susan Brager. They stalked Lynette, secretly videotaped her young children and are even trying to get her family's personal medical records. But, we already knew to expect the worst from Susan Brager. Brager has failed our children and made our schools among the worst in America. Don't let Susan Brager do to the rest of Clark County what she's done to our schools.

What the ad's trying to do

Boggs McDonald has few options. With questions about her residency, she has to change the focus. She has tried to make voters think about her opponent, school trustee Susan Brager, in a previous ad. This one has two purposes.

First, she tries to portray herself as the target of a police union vendetta. Then at the end of the spot, Boggs McDonald shifts the blame away from the unions and puts it directly on Brager while creating a nexus to her stewardship of the county's schools. That was the message in Boggs McDonald's first ad this year. And that last line - "Don't let Susan Brager do to the rest of Clark County what she's done to our schools" - is the message Boggs McDonald hopes voters remember when they start voting Saturday.

What's accurate

So did the unions stalk Boggs McDonald? Yes. They hired a private eye to follow her and see where she lived. Were her children caught on videotape? Yes. Boggs McDonald has claimed her kids were scared by the surveillance, but the unions say she has blamed them for taping that they did not do. The video in this ad was staged by her campaign.

As for getting her family's personal medical records, union lawyers did send a letter to a family doctor, telling him to expect a subpoena. That surely was part of the evidence-collecting process to prove where the commissioner really lives.

What's wrong or misleading

That 41 percent figure is not what the cops asked for from the County Commission. They asked for a 26 percent raise over four years, though critics said it would have been over 40 percent if you include merit raises that most officers receive. But the higher figure sounds better for her case.