Dukakis Readies TV Ad Attacking Rivals

Making good on threats to retaliate if attacked, Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis’ campaign will air its first negative television ad today in three Super Tuesday states.

The commercial will attack rival candidate Richard A. Gephardt for accepting money from political action committees. The 60-second ad will air in selected markets in Florida, Texas and Arkansas.

“I regret this,” Dukakis told a union rally in Miami. “But we have to respond.” He said Gephardt’s TV ads attacking his record on taxes and agriculture had “badly distorted” the facts.

Dukakis’ campaign also has filmed, but not shown, a second negative ad. An aide said the ad uses a twirling acrobat to illustrate the Missouri congressman’s alleged “flip-flops” on issues.

Vote a Week Away

Mark Gearan, campaign spokesman, said the PAC ad “goes to the center of the Gephardt campaign. He says, ‘It’s your fight too.’ And he’s taking money from the Establishment PACs.”

With the Super Tuesday vote in 20 states less than a week away, the Dukakis campaign will begin showing up to six ads today in nine states, Gearan said. Besides the three previously mentioned, they include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Washington state.

So far, the three-term Massachusetts governor has focused most of his campaigning in Florida and Texas, the two largest Super Tuesday states. He assumes a victory in Massachusetts, the third largest state to vote that day.

If Dukakis professed unhappiness about going negative, he was ecstatic about his visit Wednesday to something of a hometown shrine: the Boston Red Sox spring training camp in Winter Haven, Fla.

Steps Into Batter’s Cage

Stepping into the dusty batter’s cage, the one-time Brookline High School catcher hit 7 out of 8 pitches from coach Bill Fischer, knocking off three weak grounders and four foul tips.

“This is something every Boston kid wants to do,” Dukakis said, sporting a satisfied grin and a Red Sox shirt with No. 1 on the back.

Although the self-described “long-suffering Red Sox fan” happily autographed baseballs for his own fans, the early scouting reports were less than overwhelming.

“I want you to work on your swing,” advised Dwight Evans, right fielder and All Star slugger. “I’m voting for a World Series,” hedged Roger Clemens, star pitcher. “Go back to being governor,” a woman shouted less tactfully from the bleachers.

Luckily, Dukakis’ Florida campaign appears more promising than his prospects with Boston’s American League team.

Dukakis Leads Four Polls

Although many voters remain uncommitted, Dukakis has surged into the lead in at least four recent statewide polls, as well as the campaign’s internal polls. The campaign has mustered hundreds of volunteers to man phone banks, knock on doors, hand out hundreds of thousands of leaflets, and drum up support amid the state’s condo complexes and shuffleboard courts.

“He’s got the strongest organization in Florida, no question,” said state campaign co-chairman Steve Pajcic, who lost in 1986 as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

Other aides, speaking aboard the press bus after Dukakis had spoken to students at Apopka High School near Orlando, were also bullish.

Steve Rosenfeld, state campaign manager, said volunteers plan to make 200,000 phone calls from a dozen offices by next Tuesday. “We’re the only campaign really calling voters,” he said. Paul Pezzella, campaign field director, said the campaign has identified 50,000 core supporters, mostly voters with Massachusetts ties. But he said they are targeting a broader “universe” of about 200,000 “chronic voters, labor voters, Greek Democrats, Jewish Democrats, anyone who identifies as Ms., that’s our base.”

Backing on ‘Condo Coast’

State campaign aides say Dukakis appears to be drawing his strongest support in the urban and liberal enclaves on the so-called “condo coast,” the fast growing southeast Broward, Palm Beach and Dade County region that has drawn millions of retirees.

“Everybody in South Florida is a transplanted Northerner,” said Florida Atty. Gen. Bob Butterworth, another prominent supporter. “That doesn’t hurt.”

In a new TV ad specially designed for South Florida, former House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. appeals for support from the elderly.