Dukakis Airs TV Ads Today, Weeks Before Usual Start

Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis, seeking to avoid being eclipsed by the Republican National Convention, will kick off his general election media campaign today with a new TV ad in five California cities and Houston.

The ad, which is hitting the airwaves two days before the convention begins in New Orleans, calls for “a new era of economic greatness” and shows highlights of Dukakis’ triumphant speech at the Democratic National Convention last month in Atlanta.

Campaign spokesman Mark Gearan said Friday that the 60-second ad will run in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno and San Diego. He said the campaign has not decided whether or where to run additional TV ads during the GOP convention.

‘Our Initial Effort’

“We may do more,” he said. “This is just our initial effort.” He denied the ads are running now, several weeks before the traditional Labor Day campaign kickoff, because polls show Dukakis’ lead in the opinion polls is slipping. “It’s part of our general election strategy,” he said.

“We wanted to take the success of that convention and bring it home again,” said Leslie Dach, communications director for the Dukakis campaign in Boston.

The campaign also stepped up post-convention fund-raising efforts Thursday night when, aides said, Dukakis helped raise nearly $1 million at two $1,000-per-person parties in Hartford and New Canaan, Conn.

Campaign treasurer Robert Farmer said Dukakis will hold a giant fund-raiser in Los Angeles on Aug. 31 with a goal of raising “three to four million dollars.” He said the party’s Victory Fund already has raised more than $12 million toward a goal of $50 million.

Tries to Deflect Flak

Dukakis released a transcript of the TV ad on the second and final day of a five-state campaign swing in which he tried to deflect expected Republican flak by emphasizing his defense policies and attacking the Reagan Administration for failing to stop the flow of illegal drugs.

In a speech in Florida that ended abruptly in a sudden summer squall, Dukakis told an outdoor rally by the St. John’s River that he would appoint a “drug czar” to direct “a real war, not a phony war, on drugs.”

He said he wants drug education in the early grades and pledged to “set a goal of drug-free schools in the 1990s.” He also said he would quickly call a “hemispheric summit” to plan joint action with Latin American countries to battle drugs.

Dukakis also stepped up his criticism of the Reagan Administration, blaming its economic actions for leading to Thursday’s half-percentage point increase in the prime lending rate to 10%. The move by major banks put the prime rate, a benchmark for many consumer and corporate loans, into double digits for the first time since June, 1985.

Follows Fed Action

The increase came two days after the Federal Reserve Board raised the discount rate it charges on loans to banks in an attempt to slow consumer spending and dampen inflation.

“Make no mistake about it,” Dukakis said. “Those rising interest rates are a direct consequence of what’s been happening the past eight years. You can borrow and spend, borrow and spend, and borrow and spend only so long.”

Higher interest rates, he said, “are a tax of billions and billions and billions of dollars. It’s an irresponsibility tax. It’s what happens when you don’t pay your bills.”

In a press conference later to a roomful of rain-soaked reporters and officials, Dukakis added that the higher rates were “every bit as much a tax on Americans . . . as a legislative tax.”

Privately Pleased

Campaign advisers are privately pleased at the higher interest rates since Dukakis has focused much of his campaign on accusations of economic inequities of the Reagan Administration. Moreover, voters traditionally turn to Democrats when the economy begins to sour.

“We’re not unhappy,” one aide said.

Indeed, Dukakis’ first post-convention TV ad focuses chiefly on economic concerns. Intercut with shots of Dukakis’ acceptance speech in Atlanta, cheering delegates, and workers busy in Massachusetts, an announcer intones: “It wasn’t a miracle.”

“He turned around a 10-year economic slide and created a boom that has made Massachusetts one of the hottest economies in the country,” the announcer says. “He brought people together. Created over 400,000 jobs. Pushed personal income to one of the highest levels in the nation. He erased a massive deficit. Balanced 10 budgets in a row and cut taxes five times. It wasn’t a miracle. It was leadership.”

No mention is made of Vice President George Bush, who is expected to receive the Republican presidential nomination next week, or of President Reagan’s Administration.

Praises Positive Theme

“The public is not looking for a negative drumbeat of criticism,” said State Controller Gray Davis, co-chairman of Dukakis’ California campaign, at a press showing of the commercials in Los Angeles. “They’re looking for a vision that complements a candidate’s record, and the Dukakis campaign people were right to choose a positive and upbeat theme.”

Dukakis will try to keep his campaign visible during the GOP convention by campaigning for four days next week, including a whistle-stop train trip that will visit parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. Bush went fishing in Wyoming during the Democratic convention.

Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, will spend the weekend vacationing at the home of Mrs. Dukakis’ sister, Janet Peters, near Falmouth on Cape Cod.

Staff writer Mathis Chazanov in Los Angeles contributed to this story.