Bush Residency Issue the Target of New TV Ad

The television spot opens with a shot of the White House.

“George Bush lives here, but he says he doesn’t, so he doesn’t pay Washington income tax,” the narrator says. Next is a shot of the President’s Kennebunkport, Me., vacation home, which is not Bush’s primary residence, either.

“No, the President of the United States says he lives here, in a hotel in Texas, where there is no state income tax. And last year he saved $25,000.”

This commercial, scheduled to air Tuesday on television stations reaching New Hampshire, was not made by one of Bush’s challengers. It is one of a spate of issue-oriented ads created by lobbying and advocacy groups that are using the state’s first-in-the-nation primary Feb. 18 to draw attention to their causes.

Citizen Action, a Washington-based organization, filmed the ad as part of its campaign against Bush’s proposal to cut capital gains taxes. The tag line urges viewers to “call Congress” and register their opposition to the Bush plan.

But the script makes no mention of capital gains. And the ad targets Bush even though it is perfectly legal for him to claim Houston, where he owns a lot, as his primary residence.

“This is one of those issues where people glaze over,” said Robert Brandon, Citizen Action’s vice president. “You have to personalize it to get attention. We see it as an opportunity to raise awareness of the tax breaks for the rich that seem to be the hallmark of the Reagan-Bush era.”

Torie Clark, a spokeswoman for the Bush-Quayle campaign, said that the Bushes “pay all the federal taxes they’re supposed to in Texas, Maine and Washington, and that’s a pretty sizable chunk.”