Sep 5, 2004 By Rick Martinez For The 6 min read

HARRISBURG – Are those public service announcements by elected officials that pop up on cable television really meant to double as campaign ads? Of course they are.

But are they legal to run in a heated election year?

Not only are they legal, but they are the weapon of choice for many incumbents who find themselves in tight contests to keep their seats.

Almost every two years the practice of using tax dollars to pay for public service announcements, or PSAs as they’re often called, becomes an election issue. And they have again in the 51st District, with challengers to state Rep. Larry Roberts (D-South Union) questioning ads that have the six-term incumbent promoting a state prescription drug program for seniors.

“Why is he running them right around election time?” said independent candidate Tim Mahoney. “I think he’s trying to make an uneven playing field for anyone who wants to run against him.”

Independent candidates Terry Janosek, Gary Gearing and Michael J. Cavanagh, as well as Republican Harry E. Albert III, also view the television spots as an unfair advantage for the incumbent, with taxpayers basically footing the bill for part of Roberts’ re-election campaign.

“It’s an unfair advantage and taxpayer dollars should never be used for anything like that,” said Janosek, who noted that the ads featuring Roberts seem to appear before critical elections.

“Where were they last year? When I ran against him (in the 2002 primary), they all appeared a few months before the election came up.”

Gearing said the Roberts ad he saw on television “came across as a political advertisement,” not as a public service message. He added that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund incumbents’ re-election campaigns.

“It’s the smoke and mirror that they use … they do it under the auspices that it is a public service message to the people,” said Gearing. “I believe that it’s an unfair political advantage that incumbents give themselves.”

Albert said taxpayers were already paying for the printing, artwork, writing and mailing of Roberts’ brochures, and that television advertising has been added to that tab.

“Now the taxpayers are paying for television production and distribution, none of which is coming out of Larry Roberts’ campaign fund,” said Albert. “Of course it does (give him an advantage). He doesn’t have to raise funds (to do this).

“And he’s implying that he is looking out for the senior citizens, when in fact he’s taking their money and using it to advertise his candidacy.”

Cavanagh, who plans to run a write-in campaign if the state Supreme Court doesn’t restore his name to the ballot as an independent candidate, said tax dollars aren’t being used wisely when they fund Roberts’ candidacy.

“This is a sneaky tactic to give the appearance of serving the public, when all it serves is Larry Roberts, and we the taxpayers in this state are footing the bill,” said Cavanagh. “I personally don’t like the fact that my tax dollars are funding ‘feel-good’ Larry Roberts messages … in addition to (his) town meeting mailings that we all paid for.”

Cavanagh added that if campaigns are to be funded by tax dollars, it should include all candidates and not just incumbents such as Roberts.

However, Roberts chalked up their comments to politics and said the PSAs, which must stop running 60 days before an election, are a vital constituent service.

“I wouldn’t expect anything else out of a political opponent,” said Roberts of the criticism.

“But what my opponents are missing is that this is about people; my job is about people. I represent 65,000 people in the 51st District. It’s important that I get messages out to them any time that I can.”

The 30-second ads usually feature a state representative or senator talking about PACE, the state’s prescription drug program for seniors, or the Child’s Health Insurance Program.

Incumbents say they’re a great way to let constituents know about state services. House Minority Whip Mike Veon (D-Beaver) has called PSAs a tremendous public service and likens the ads to the quarterly newsletters many lawmakers mail to constituents.

The cash for PSAs comes from leadership funds, which are part of the Legislature’s operating budget, and therefore come out of tax dollars. This year’s budget sets aside $19.8 million for the Senate leadership fund and $13.3 million each for the House Republicans’ and House Democrats’.

While there is no breakdown available for how much money Roberts was given by the House leadership to run the ads, in the spring primary $1.7 million was spent on commercials in 70 legislative districts.

State Rep. Greg Vitali (D-Delaware) said House leadership usually targets those races in which the incumbent needs to build name recognition or is in a tight race.

“The real motive behind PSAs is to protect the incumbent,” said Vitali. “They won’t spend money on PSAs in districts that aren’t competitive.”

Vitali has tried twice, with no success, to introduce a bill to stop politicians from being allowed to air PSAs. But while House Minority Leader Bill DeWeese (D-Waynesburg) has said both Republicans and Democrats should embrace Vitali’s proposal, he also said he would never “disarm unilaterally.”

For Mahoney, that only illustrates how the election process is weighted against challengers like himself.

“I have to pay for my own ads out of my own campaign,” he said. “The incumbents have the upper hand when it comes to taxpayer money for doing this.”

While there is no legal prohibition against airing the ads near an election, Vitali said traditionally PSAs featuring politicians are pulled off the air 60 days before the vote.

Mahoney said if he were the incumbent, he wouldn’t use the PSAs around election time. But Chris Sepesy, the Fayette County Republican Party chief, said he doesn’t have a problem with the ads.

Speaking from the Republican National Convention in New York on Thursday, Sepesy said only that they should be based on true public service rather than as political trump ads. “During a campaign, there’s a fine line to determine which is which,” he said.

Rick Martinez can be reached at 717-705-6330 or rmartinez@calkins-media.com

The Herald-Standard’s Paul Sunyak contributed to this story.