Brown
SACRAMENTO (Legal Newsline) - California Attorney General Jerry Brown is calling out gubernatorial opponent Meg Whitman on her "false" and "misleading" ads in a new Web ad of his own. In an e-mail to supporters Wednesday, Brown's campaign manager Steven Glazer tells them, "It seems like almost every week that Meg launches a new, false attack ad, and we quickly debunk it. "But it's not just our campaign -- independent and non-partisan newspapers, news broadcasts, and bloggers are all calling her ads false and misleading," he wrote. "But despite all the independent fact checks, Meg keeps spouting the same lies." Brown's new Web ad, released Wednesday, is titled "Pants on Fire" -- as in, "Liar, liar..." The ad comes as Whitman, the former eBay CEO, is running a television ad calling Brown a man without a plan. In Brown's newest video, Viveca Novak of FactCheck.org is shown saying of Whitman's recent ad, "There are a lot of false statements or misleading statements in this ad." The Republican Whitman claims in her ad the crime rate soared in Oakland during Brown's previous tenure as governor. However, Novak is shown saying in Brown's ad that crime rate actually went down by 13 percent. Whitman's recent ad also charged Brown, a Democrat, with damaging the state's school system. But Brown's ad contends problems with the school system proceeded him. During the video, Whitman is shown interjecting, saying she "stands by" her ads. But some say her strategy may be in doubt after poll results, also released Wednesday, show her behind Brown. Whitman is behind Brown 37 percent to 34 percent, according to a survey released by the Public Policy Institute of California. Her attempt to appeal to Latino voters hasn't yet paid dividends, with Brown's lead over Whitman among Latinos more than double -- 42-18. The poll also found Brown holds a slight lead among independents, 30-28. The poll surveyed 1,321 likely voters from July 6-20 with a margin of error of 2.7 percent. Political observers say the numbers show that Whitman's strategy of using the typically slower summer months to attack the attorney general may not be working. "Coming so soon after the primary campaign, people might be tuning out," Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, told the Contra Costa Times. "In the summer, people aren't eager to pay attention to ads, and perhaps when they see another Meg Whitman ad, they virtually go someplace else. It may be that her message isn't connecting."