The mailer, which recently went to residents of the 48th, states that Aubertine praised Spitzer's license for illegals plan.
The trouble is, at least one of those quotes, from the Times Union, is actually a quote of Aubertine praising Spitzer's now-famous reversal in which he said he would offer a three-tiered plan that would include an "enhanced license," that would allow people to drive into Canada and Mexico without passports once tougher new federal guidelines are phased in over the next couple of years.
That enhanced idea is popular in the North Country including the 48th where people routinely drive into Ontario or Quebec for business or to visit friends and relatives.
A spokesman for Aubertine's campaign noted that it seemed early for the Republicans (the ad is from the GOP State Committee) to run a negative campaign, especially given the preponderance of GOP voters in that district.
If nothing else, the reference to last fall's license flap indicates that politicians, and their pollsters, believe the issue will continue to resonate with voters for some time.
One other note on the flyer: A casual reader might think that the entire chunk of text with the Times Union publication date below it was an excerpt from the TU story, and that the paper called Spitzer's plan "dangerous." In fact, only the small portion of the text in quotes was from the article; the rest was written by the campaign.
What does it say about a Republican campaign in a district with a distinct Republican registration advantage that it is already crossed the "let's just make stuff up" line before the governor has even called the special? I haven't seen any polling on the race and it's entirely possible that little to none has actually been done by anyone on our side, but the first week or so of the Barclay campaign suggest that they see something that they don't like. It really looks as if they are scared.
