With the New York City mayoral election looming closer, both candidates are campaigning hard. This week Republican Joe Lhota took a harsh shot at his opponent Bill de Blasio with his newest television ad.
Lhota's ad warns New York City residents that if Democratic candidate de Blasio is elected, the city is doomed to "plunge" into violence, according to a report from Politicker.com.
The 30-second spot, which began airing on Wednesday, warns that de Blasio has a "recklessly dangerous agenda on crime."
The ad opens with footage from a notorious incident that took place in September in which a motorcycle gang chased down and then severely beat a man who had been driving an SUV with his family inside on a highway in the city.
The ad continues, saying that de Blasio's agenda on crime "will take us back to this," as the footage segues into stark images from a violent chapter in New York's history during the 1970s and 1980s.
The footage shows several black and white pictures, including graffiti-covered walls and subways, an overturned police cruiser, police officers in riot gear, corpses lying in the city streets and a man holding a gun in a stairwell of an apartment building.
The ad comes to an end with a warning, saying "Don't let Bill de Blasio take New York backwards."
A spokesperson for de Blasio responded publicly to Lhota's ad, accusing the Republican, who is currently trailing significantly in the polls, of using fear tactics in an attempt to divide the residents of New York City.
"Once again Joe Lhota is taking a page out of the Tea Party Republican play book, using a divisive, misleading attack that has already been proven false," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Lhota is right that we can't go back: we shouldn't return to the days when Republicans like Giuliani used fear tactics to divide New Yorkers against each other."
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