Conservative strategists say such ads can provide a window into a candidate's personal morality. The issue of violent crime also is germane, they say, because of Bush administration efforts to steer more federal money to states for anti-terrorism programs rather than traditional crime-fighting ones, a policy that has riled many cash-strapped state and local governments.
Obama's campaign, and some independent observers, say Brown's work is misleading at best. FactCheck.org, a political watchdog, has called the death penalty ad -- which suggests that Obama's vote made him responsible for the gang-related deaths of three youths -- "reprehensible misrepresentation."
The legislation was largely symbolic, because many gang killers were already eligible for death under state law. It also was running up against concern over the administration of the state death penalty law. That concern ultimately led to a statewide moratorium on executions. The Republican governor at the time, George Ryan, eventually vetoed the legislation.
Obama supporters take exception to the notion that their candidate is weak on crime.
"I thought . . . he tried to strike a decent balance between solid law enforcement and protecting the rights of individuals," said Richard A. Devine, the Cook County state's attorney, who leads the largest prosecutor office in Illinois. In the Legislature, Obama led the push for mandatory taping of interrogations and confessions to ensure fair treatment of the accused.
Devine said the gang-related death-penalty bill was "really not moving us forward at all."
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt, asked about the ad, said: "The Republicans will soon realize that trying to divert attention from McCain's plans to continue George Bush's failed policies on Iraq and the economy by launching long ago debunked attacks on Obama won't work. Sen. Obama has a record that demonstrates he is both tough and smart on crime."
McCain, for his part, has mostly embraced the tough-on-crime" stance of the last 25 years, including strict sentencing and a focus on the rights of victims.
Obama appears more interested in addressing what he sees as the root causes of crime, and even doing away with or modifying laws that set mandatory minimum sentences such as those in drug cases. "We will review these sentences to see where we can be smarter on crime and reduce the blind and counterproductive warehousing of nonviolent offenders," he said in a speech at Howard University in Washington in September.
