PROVIDENCE, R.I.—State Rep. Peter Kilmartin put out a negative TV ad in his campaign for attorney general on Wednesday attacking his Democratic primary opponents with questionable claims.
The 30-second ad is the first TV attack ad to be released from any Rhode Island campaign in this year's election season. Kilmartin's campaign would not say how much it's spending, but the campaign of opponent Joe Fernandez, citing publicly available records, said Kilmartin has spent $125,000 on TV ads for the two weeks leading up to the Sept. 14 primary.
The ad starts by going after Fernandez, who was city solicitor in Providence when the brother of Mayor David Cicilline twice submitted to the city bad checks for $75,000 that were meant to cover the outstanding taxes of one of his law clients.
"Joe Fernandez didn't have the guts to prosecute him," the ad says.
The mayor's brother was never prosecuted, but not because of Fernandez. A city solicitor doesn't typically prosecute felonies. That's the job of the attorney general's office. In the Cicilline case, state police investigated, and the office of Attorney General Patrick Lynch decided last year there was not enough evidence of criminal wrongdoing to prosecute.
Fernandez spokesman Dan Herkert called the claim "completely false."
"The facts are not on their side," he said. "Maybe he should go ask the attorney general's office why they didn't prosecute."
Kilmartin spokesman Brett Broesder said Kilmartin believes Fernandez should have "prosecuted" the mayor's brother by suing him in civil court. Broesder did not immediately know what kind of a lawsuit Fernandez should have filed.
On his other opponent, Steve Archambault, Kilmartin's ad says he is "a politician who tried to bully a police officer and cover up allegations of corruption."
Archambault, a Smithfield town councilman, got into an argument in 2008 with an officer from the law enforcement division of the Department of Environmental Management, according to a DEM report posted on GoLocalProv.com. According to the report, Archambault told the officer he planned to run for attorney general and win and threatened to call the DEM director if the officer filed a report.
Archambault spokesman Rob Horwitz disputed the report, saying Archambault never made any threats. He said the officer acted inappropriately.
On corruption, Kilmartin's campaign cited Archambault's 2007 vote to keep private the minutes of a town council meeting at which they discussed the resignation of the town manager. The campaign cited a Providence Journal article when asked to back up the claim that he "tried to cover up allegations of corruption."
The article contained no allegations about corruption. It did discuss accusations, made in an open letter by town department heads, that some of them were being forced out in favor of political friends of council members.
Horwitz said Archambault voted to keep the meeting minutes sealed on the advice of the city solicitor because it was a personnel matter. He said there was no allegation of corruption and called Kilmartin's ad "desperate."
"This is like throwing something against the wall to see if it will stick," he said.
Kilmartin, Archambault and Fernandez are trying to succeed Lynch, a fellow Democrat who's term-limited and ran an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign, which he abandoned in July. The Democratic primary winner is expected to face Republican Erik Wallin and Moderate Chris Little in the general election on Nov. 2.
