Republican candidate for attorney general Jack McMullen is using two new ads to take aim at incumbent Bill Sorrell’s record on crime and on fighting Supreme Court cases.
The first ad, featuring a drug deal, a battered woman, and a solemn-looking McMullen telling Vermonters they have the right to feel safe in their communities, makes the claim that Sorrell hasn’t done enough to address crime in Vermont.
McMullen’s ad says “home invasions,” “armed robberies,” and “serial burglaries” are on the rise. The information is derived, he said, from corrections commissioner Andy Pallito and state police representatives.
No statewide data on drug-related crime exists, explained Vermont Criminal Information Center director Jeff Wallin. “There’s no way to know why someone broke into someone’s house or stole something,” said Wallin. “Trying to assign motive is a hard thing.”
Anecdotally, however, Cindy Maguire, assistant attorney general in the criminal division, said that law enforcement “agree that there does seem to be an increase in drug-related crimes…Say, the number of burglaries since January, the number of armed robberies or car breaks.”
The cornerstone of the second ad is the number 5.5 million, which, according to McMullen’s calculations, is what Sorrell’s losses in court have cost the state so far. McMullen arrived at this figure by totaling court-ordered payouts to plaintiffs from Sorrell’s unsuccessful Supreme Court cases: $1.5 million from Randall v. Sorrell (campaign finance) and $4 million from IMS Health v. Sorrell ($1.8 million to Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America and $2.2 million to IMS Health). McMullen drew these figures from an Associated Press article (Jan. 25, 2012) and a WCAX story from July 19, 2012.
“You could probably double that figure,” says McMullen, if legal expenses are factored in.
Sorrell has yet to launch any ads of his own. McMullen plans to run two more.
Both ads are embedded below.
