Ross' decision to stay on air criticized by 8th District rival

By Warren Cornwall
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

Alex Alben

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Congressional candidate Alex Alben is taking the election fight to the home turf of opponent and radio talk-show host Dave Ross.

Starting today, the Alben campaign plans to air three days of advertisements criticizing Ross' decision to continue his talk show while running for Congress. The 60-second ads will run on Ross' station, KIRO-AM (710) between 6 and 9 a.m., and during Ross' 9 a.m.-to-noon slot.

	Dave Ross

The paid ads seek to underscore an argument Alben has made since Ross entered the race last Thursday: that keeping Ross on the air is unfair and illegal when other candidates must pay to get airtime.

"The Alex Alben for Congress campaign paid for this 60-second ad but when Dave Ross talks about the issues, he gets $72,000 worth of free air time every day," Alben says in the advertisement.

The ads are the latest move in the controversy over Ross' decision to stay on the air. Both Alben and Ross are running in the Democratic primary, as is Heidi Behrens-Benedict.

Alben's campaign has also threatened to file a complaint with federal campaign-finance regulators unless Ross gets off the air. Talk-radio competitor KVI-AM (570) yesterday took a shot at Ross, announcing it would give airtime to other 8th District candidates.

Ross defended his decision, saying company attorneys deemed it legal. He has also argued that other candidates have advantages they don't need to give up.

Yesterday, Ross said he had promised company officials, including station manager Ken Berry, that he would remain until they found a replacement.

"Ken could tell me tomorrow that either they've got a replacement or the lawyers have reconsidered or 'Dave we think it's time for you to get off the air.' It's not like I'm saying 'Please, please, please keep me on the air,' " Ross said.

Ross said he wouldn't discuss the Alben ad on his program.

"Sounds like a pretty effective ad. I hope it gets a response," Ross said.

Berry said the station in recent days has worked to strip any evidence of the Ross campaign from the station. Last Friday, the station's Web site featured a page with the headline, "DAVE WILL RUN FOR CONGRESS!" That's now gone.

Ross discussed his candidacy for several minutes last Friday. Callers to Ross' show are now advised not to ask about his candidacy, and Ross won't discuss the campaign on the air, Berry said. Attorneys for Entercom, which owns KIRO, are considering Alben's allegations that Ross' continued show amounts to an illegal campaign contribution by the company, he said.

The talk-radio station KVI-AM announced yesterday it would offer airtime to the other two Democratic candidates and the four Republican candidates during the 9 a.m.-to-noon slot, said program director Paul Duckworth.

"We're just jumping in and saying this doesn't look right to us, we'd just like to put a little fairness back into this thing," said Duckworth, whose station focuses largely on conservative talk radio.

Campaign-finance experts were split over whether KIRO and Ross might be crossing legal boundaries.

"I would think that if he is talking about public issues and he is talking about issues that have an impact on the race, he's going to have a real problem and the station is going to have a real problem," said Larry Noble, former lead lawyer for the Federal Election Commission, now director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign-finance watchdog.

Corporations are barred from donating directly to federal campaigns, and the free airtime could amount to a contribution by giving Ross a podium for discussing campaign-related matters, Noble said.

But Kenneth Gross, a lawyer and former head of the FEC's enforcement division, said it would probably take discussion of the campaign to cause problems.

"If he stuck to the issues and he didn't talk about his candidacy and he just kept answering calls about what was going on in the world, the chances are pretty good that he could continue to do this," Gross said.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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