Ileana Ros-Lehtinen hits hard with Fuhrman DUI ads

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Ouch.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen just showed the rest of the 305 political world how negative campaign ads are done with a commercial that has basically stopped her challenger, Democrat Scott Fuhrman, in his tracks. Ladra doubts that Fuhrman can come back from this.

The ad doesn’t only remind people about Fuhrman’s old drunk driving charge. It features John Witty, the father of Helen Marie Witty, a Pinecrest teenager who was killed by a drunk driver in 2000.

“My 16-year-old daughter Helen Marie Witty was killed by a drunk driver on Red Road. Now, another drunk driver, Scott Fuhrman, wants to be in Congress, even after also being convicted of possessing a firearm while intoxicated,” John Witty says, sitting in what we are to assume is his living room, staring into the camera. “Less than two years ago he fled on foot from a hit and run on U.S. 1.

“I don’t trust Scott Fuhrman to be in Congress.”

And boom! Just like that, Fuhrman’s bid to unseat our veteran congresswoman — which was kinda iffy anyway — is over before it really began.

Some might say that Fuhrman already admitted to his checkered past, which in addition to the 2009 DUI also includes carrying a firearm while intoxicated (Colorado, 2009) and leaving the scene of an accident (Miami-Dade, 2013). But all the disclosure in the world becomes moot when you bring in the ghost of Helen Witty. The popular Palmetto High School student, run over as she rollerbladed on the bike path on Red Road, is not forgotten. Her death — another teenager was at the wheel of the car that hit her — shocked South Dade. A team of her friends and loved ones walk every year in the Miami Walk Like MADD walkathon event.

They will likely vote for Ros-Lehtinen in November.

The Daddy Witty ad is on in Spanish radio also. A lot. It’s relentless in the morning. And she has another spot, in both English and Spanish, featuring police officers with the same message: Don’t trust a drunk driver who only three years ago fled the scene of an accident.

But the video — with a photo of the Colorado police report and iron bars closing over a photo of someone who is supposed to represent Fuhrman (or is that his mug shot?) — is one of the most visceral Ladra has seen in a while. And effective. My own 16-year-old who never pays attention to anything but the constant dinging alerts on her phone, was stopped in her tracks.

While she sure seems to be taking the Fuhrman challenge seriously — and this might be the most serious challenge she’s ever had — IRL already has a lot of Democrat support. She’s on the right (left) side of immigration reform policy. She’s on the right (left) side of equal marriage. She’s going to get a lot of Dems just on those issues and on the fact that as a senior congresswoman, she can get a lot more done than Fuhrman would as a freshman.

Add to that the ghost of Helen Witty and Fuhrman is fuhr sure toast.

  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Scott Fuhrman