ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
`HI, I'M CANDY,' begins the radio ad, but what this breathless young woman wants from you is your vote - for Libertarian candidate Jay Rutledge.
Almost as long as Madison Avenue has been around, sex has been used to sell products - with one notable exception. In ads pushing themselves, political candidates won't touch it with a 10-foot voting lever.
Until now.
The main character in Libertarian congressional candidate Jay Rutledge's first radio spot is "Candy," who sounds like a veteran of the phone sex racket.
Her risque "oohs" and "mmms" made their way onto local airwaves Tuesday on WFIR-AM in a Rutledge commercial that satirizes phone sex and Republican and Democratic campaign promises.
At least one local listener was a bit taken aback.
"It got really gross for daytime radio," said Martha Borthen of Roanoke, who calls her reaction a mixture of shock and amusement. She heard it while tuning into Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
"It's like this heavy breathing," Borthen said. "You've kind of got to ask, 'What kind of judgment does this person have?' ... This guy's getting some real bad advice if he thinks it's going to get him votes."
And when Borthen called Rutledge's campaign information line to tell him what she thought, she heard the ad again. It's on his answering machine - and callers are invited to leave a message after hearing it.
Here's the script:
(Telephone ringing).
Woman's voice: "Hi, 1-900 POLITICS. I'm Candy. I like to play in your favorite Democratic and Republican positions. And what is your fantasy today?
Male caller (whispering): "I want the Democratic middle-class tax cut."
Woman: "Do you want the cut waste, fraud and abuse fantasy with it?"
Man: "Yeah!"
Woman: "Mmmm. Me, too! I feel your pain. I care, ooh, can you feel it, too?"
Man (voice getting hoarse): "I want the Republican tax cut, too!"
Woman: "It's gonna be real good. I promise. Mmmmm, it's big!
(Man's wife walks into room and he hangs up the phone.)
Wife: "Honey, not again. Who would it be this time, the Democrats or Republicans? You can't go on like this. You're in debt up to your ears. The Libertarians have the solution for your problem, but you have to take the first step."
Rutledge: "I want to repeal the income tax and defend you from big corporate power. Make your vote count. Vote for me, Jay Rutledge, Libertarian for Congress, on Nov. 5, for a real change."
Announcer: ``Authorized by the Virginia 6th District Friends of Liberty.''
Terrilynn Hardman, sales manager for WFIR, said Tuesday the station hadn't received any complaints so far.
Even if complaints come in, there's little WFIR can do about it except refer callers to Rutledge, Hardman said. FCC regulations bar the station from censoring political advertising.
"We had to run it. He's a federal candidate. [FCC] rules pretty much say I have to carry it, and I can't alter it." There is an exception for indecent or obscene speech, but Rutledge's ad doesn't meet either criteria, she added.
"It's sex-slanted, there's no question about that," Hardman said. "But it's really clean, unless someone wants to run amok with their mind."
The spot was produced by a local advertising agency. A spokesman for the National Libertarian Party said while Rutledge's message of Republican and Democratic hypocrisy on tax cuts is "right on target," the party advises candidates to deliver its messages in a more conservative fashion.
"We have a challenge that Democrats and Republicans don't have," said Bill Winter, the national party's director of communications. "And that is to convince voters that we're a serious political party."
Rutledge, a cash-strapped candidate who this year sued the city and Festival in the Park when they barred him from distributing leaflets in Elmwood Park, couldn't be reached for comment on Tuesday. He has bought two more slots on WFIR, Hardman said. One will run during the first hour of Limbaugh's broadcast Oct. 29; the other will run in the same time slot Nov. 4.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Rutledge. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB