Rice And Inhofe Ads Put To The Truth Test

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The candidates for U.S. Senate are ramping up their television advertising with four weeks to go before the election.  But, how much is fact and how much is fiction?  The News On 6 puts some of the political advertisements to the Truth Test.

The ads are carefully crafted to create or reinforce an image,  both of a candidate and an opponent.  In the latest ads, the candidates do a little bragging.

Inhofe's commercial touts him as doing what is right for Oklahoma.  Rice's says that at home, Andrew is a loving husband and father.

The commercials also throw out some blame.

Inhofe's ad says of his Democratic challenger:  "Andrew Rice was one of only five state senators to twice vote against making false Amber Alerts a felony. "

Rice's ad says of the Republican incumbent:  "Jim Inhofe took over a million dollars from big oil and gave them billions in tax breaks."

The claim about Senator Inhofe taking oil money is true.

Over his career, he's collected $1.2 million in campaign money from oil and gas companies, most of them in Oklahoma.  He's second in the Senate for oil and gas money over the last six years.  Oil and gas companies got $1.8 billion in tax breaks last year alone, but also paid billions more.

Inhofe denies a connection, but Rice believes the donations and the tax breaks are tied together.

"I feel it's a clear demonstration he's really on the side of big business and special interests," said Democratic challenger Andrew Rice.

Now, Inhofe's advertising claim about Rice's vote on the Amber Alert is also true.

Rice voted no, but the legislature approved it anyway.  And, it was already illegal to falsely report a crime.

The law was changed, in part, because of a case four years ago, when Lisa Miller told Tulsa Police her child was in a stolen van just so they would try harder to find it.  She was sent to jail for making the false report and obstructing an officer after police wasted an afternoon searching for a child who wasn't really missing.

On the fundraising, Inhofe's biggest source of contributions is the oil and gas industry.  Rice's main sources are lawyers and law firms.  Both are raising money, through Inhofe's fundraising reports, so far, he's outpacing Rice by more than 2-to-1.