Political television ads grew more negative as well as more plentiful Thursday with Sen. Albert Gore Jr. and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis going on the attack for the first time less than a week before Super Tuesday. Gore, Dukakis and Vice President George Bush all sent out critical ads in many of the 20 states holding primaries and caucuses next week. Gore launched the first TV attack of his campaign, a pointed 60-second excerpt from the Feb. 18 Democratic debate in Dallas. Within those 60 seconds, Gore accuses Gephardt of voting against minimum wage increases, against creating the Department of Education, for tuition tax credits and for Reagonomics _ and reversing his positions on all four issues. ``The next president of the United States has to be someone the American people can believe will stay with his convictions. ... You've got to be willing to stand your ground and be consistent,'' Gore says. A Gephardt spokeswoman said there would be no direct response to the Gore ad. Gephardt has been running commercials criticizing both Gore and Dukakis for several days in Super Tuesday states. Dukakis began responding Wednesday night with an ad assaulting Gephardt's populist message that ``it's your fight too.'' The Dukakis ad consists of a rolling list of corporate political action committees that have contributed to Gephardt's campaign. ``Is Dick Gephardt really fighting your fight, or theirs?'' asks the narrator. Dukakis does not accept PAC contributions. Gephardt, making a stop at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, called the Dukakis ad ``absolutely ridiculous'' and said only 5 percent of his overall contributions are from PACs. He said all of his PAC contributions were fully disclosed, and he charged that Dukakis has received millions of dollars ``from special interests who do business with the state of Massachusetts.'' ``It raises the specter of a serious conflict of interest,'' Gephardt said and added that his campaign would release a partial list of those contributors Friday. Responding to Gephardt's response, Dukakis aide Leslie Dach said, ``The Dukakis campaign does not take a dime of corporate PAC money or any money from a lobbyist registered in the state of Massachusetts.'' Bush also joined the negative fray with an ad appearing in South Carolina, which holds a GOP primary on Saturday. The ad denounces Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole for not being able to get Judge Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination confirmed by the Senate. And it says Dole has failed to vote with the Reagan administration 30 percent of the time. The candidates stepping up their media campaigns in the final stretch included Bush and Dukakis with their bulging campaign coffers and Jesse Jackson who has borrowed money to keep his presidential drive going. Dukakis put TV ads in six additional Super Tuesday states between Wednesday and Thursday, bringing his total to nine _ North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Washington, Florida, Texas and Maryland. Bush's ad director, Sig Rogich, said the vice president has been running ads in Florida, Texas, South Carolina and most other Super Tuesday states. ``You'll see more of our ads now in the last few days before Super Tuesday,'' he said. Jackson planned to start $100,000 worth of TV ads Friday in eight Southern states. The TV purchase, Jackson's largest so far, targets Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Dole's latest negative ad attacks Bush for supporting Reagan's veto of a protectionist textile trade bill and mocks his explanation: ``C'est la vie.'' Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the Bush-Dole match has become ``pretty rough'' but that that is not all bad, as long as they keep their advertising accurate. ``In many ways I've welcomed what's happened,'' Fahrenkopf told reporters in Boston. ``In January I was concerned with the lack of fire in the belly.''
