Republican Phil Batt lashed out Wednesday at Democrat Larry EchoHawk for a television advertisement he calls a false and inflammatory attack on his integrity.
"I knew the race would be tough, but I never though it would stoop to this level," Batt said. "Mr. EchoHawk's false and inflammatory innuendoes and statements about my finances call for a rebuttal."At issue is the EchoHawk campaign's flat declaration that Batt will not release his tax returns even though he made his most recent return public more than a week ago.
The ad, aired as EchoHawk tried to recover some of his 15-point lead that deteriorated over the past month, also claims Batt took $140,000 in federal wheat subsidies since the mid-1980s and $92,000 in disaster payments on the 1993 onion crop "but then rushes to return them when he's running for governor."
Batt, contending EchoHawk has crossed the line from battling over issues to unsubstantiated personal attacks, said the farm did not participate in the wheat-payment program until his son-in-law took over management and his financial interest fell to 29 percent. He said the disaster payment was returned after he found out about it because he believes a free-market crop like onions should not receive the kind of government support that program crops like wheat do.
His arrangement with his son-in-law assures he does not receive the wheat subsidy money, Batt said, but even if it did not the most he would have gotten would be the equivalent of his interest in the farm - about $40,000 "in a perfectly acceptable program that 95 percent of the wheat farmers participate in."
"You're going to take his word for it," EchoHawk campaign manager Stan Kress said, justifying the ad claims by saying Batt could refute them by releasing the tax documents proving his point.
"I'm not saying he's lying," Kress said, and he admitted he was not aware that Batt held only a 29 percent interest in the farm. He did not say whether the ad would be modified to accuse Batt of taking only $40,000.
Kress also indicated that the only justification for saying Batt returned the disaster payment because he was running for governor was the fact that the money was returned last March.
But Batt, who has served in the Legislature, as lieutenant governor and state GOP chairman, announced his intention to run for governor a year before that.
"It's incredible to me that a person can go around attacking a person who is not only an honest citizen but a leading public servant about his tax return that is open and above board," Batt said. "It's very bothersome to me."
But Kress rejected Batt's contention that the latest ad is a personal attack differing from Batt ads that Kress maintains distorted or inaccurately represented Echo-Hawk's stand on water and gun control and his performance as a county prosecutor.
"You keep saying it's a personal attack," Kress said. "I say there's an issue here. He says he's Mr. Frugality, he's Mr. Tightwad, he's Mr. Cut-Your-Taxes . . . I think this information belies those statements."
He maintained that state GOP officials spread things about EchoHawk's personal life that were "very nasty, very cruel, very untrue" but said those statements were not broadcast in Batt campaign ads.
Batt's tax return, released a day after EchoHawk insinuated that Batt was a tax cheat, showed that for the 12 months between July 1993 and June 1994 Batt paid $84,000 in state and federal taxes on about $325,000 in income and gave $40,000 to charity.
Several weeks earlier, Echo-Hawk released tax information for calendar years 1991, 1992 and 1993 while he was attorney general. His 1993 return showed less than $70,000 in income, almost exclusively from his state salary, under $10,000 in state and federal taxes and about $6,300 in charitable contributions.
"I've worked hard for what I have, and I'm proud of it," Batt said. "I've avoided dependence on government or anyone else . . . Mr. EchoHawk has been in Idaho 16 years. He has worked for government all that time. He is ill-equipped to criticize those of us who make a living in the private sector."