Behind the Ad: NYC GOP mayoralty candidate Joe Lhota a Tea Party stooge?

By Richard K. Barry

Who: New York Progress (Democratic super-PAC)

Where: New York City

What's going on: I haven't been paying much attention the New York City mayor's race as it appears de Blasio will run away with it. Still, the way Republican candidate Joe Lhota is being depicted by de Blasio allies is worth noting.

In this ad, which began airing last week on cable channels, Lhota is painted as in lock-step with the Tea Party, which, the New York Times points out, is hardly fair. They describe the spot like this:

A hyperbolic ad that misleads viewers about Mr. Lhota’s links with the Tea Party, even if its creators have been careful to avoid outright falsehoods. Mr. Lhota is a social liberal who is no “ally” of the Tea Party; the ad, predictably, paints his complex Republicanism with an overly broad brush.

In conscience, I can't defend this kind of misrepresentation, but given the right-wing's penchant for treating any progressive initiative in America as if it were hatched on the knee of Uncle Joe Stalin, I'm not exactly upset either.

In any case, there is some truth to the fact that when considering politicians, you shall know them by  the votes they court.