There's nothing like a political campaign to generate the most interesting gossip about people - although the juiciest bits often don't come out until just before Election Day.

One mailing, in its entirety, questions the propriety of a parking perk. It features a fabricated headline, "City Councilman Caught Abusing Power," and exhorts the voter to "bring honesty back to City Council."

Another mailer highlights - twice - an acknowledged _poor choice of 16 words in _2001 by an incumbent in an attempt to portray the official as _elitist or not reflecting voters' values.

And a full-page newspaper ad questions the ethics of yet another incumbent - though at least one of the ad's insinuations appears to be unfounded.

Parking perks in politics Last week, 4th District incumbent Rob Frost suddenly found himself defending his use of a city-issued parking pass at the City County Building garage, which has been controversially kept off limits to the general public for security reasons.

According to a mailing piece by his challenger, Kim Litton, Frost regularly uses his free parking privileges in the course of his day job downtown as an attorney. And all this, the mailing points out, while the elected official says he supports reopening the garage for public use.

Frost, however, said his frequent walks to work by way of the government building offer a great way to stay abreast of the issues with city officials and departmental employees.

Frost also emphasized that all councilmen, as well as Knox County commissioners, have the parking passes. And council members have unanimously approved two resolutions calling for the garage's reopening, he said.

A 4-year-old comment Second District Councilwoman Barbara Pelot recently saw her own official campaign photo smiling back on a similar mailer from her challenger, Ken Knight, attributing a 4-year-old quote to her.

"I've worked with everybody from the trash man all the way up to the important people," the piece quotes her as saying during her first campaign in a 2001 issue of the Metro Pulse weekly alternative newspaper.

"The biggest issue of her campaign is that she represents the values of her constituents," he said. "I think the voters need to ask themselves, do statements like that represent their values?"

Pelot on Friday said the mailer takes her words out of context - that her comments were made facetiously, not seriously, after someone had tried to stereotype her West Knoxville district.

"I respond to anybody. I do not make a distinction between people," she said. "Anybody who knows me (and my family) knows we're not socially elite people. It probably wasn't the most brilliant thing to say, but I'm not what you'd call a professional politician. And I especially wasn't four years ago."

A curse on both houses Attacks ads rarely benefit either party, said Mark Harmon, a University of Tennessee associate professor of journalism and electronic media.

In a runoff election between two candidates, the fallout of such tactics ultimately is suffered by the voting process itself, fueling voters' skepticism of politicians in general.

"Most of the research indicates that it suppresses the vote ever so slightly," said Harmon, who said he is a Frost supporter, although he has not made any monetary contributions to the campaign.

Local campaigns also tend to skew toward the negative later in the race, he added, as opposed to presidential or gubernatorial bids, when candidates might come out swinging from the get-go.

In a full-color, full-page ad appearing Monday in the News Sentinel, she asked voters whether they chose to allow City Council members eligibility for the city's employee pension plan and its insurance benefits.

Turns out, according to the City Council office, it was a voter referendum that approved allowing council members the pensions. The members can choose whether to pay their share, as any other city employee, for insurance. But the privilege was instituted in 2000 before any of the current members took office.

Tucker's ad, which she termed "informative," also focused directly on her opponent, incumbent Joe Hultquist - though she did not refer to him directly by name.

Tucker's ad raised a wide range of questions about Hultquist - alleging he used campaign funds to purchase a laptop computer; runs a home remodeling and consulting business out of his house while voting against other in-home businesses; and spends more taxpayer money on travel than any other councilman.

Hultquist, who has called himself a "nearly full-time" councilman, said his business has been inactive since he was first elected. His purchases, meanwhile, are used for both campaigning and his work on council.

"They're not personal items," said Hultquist, who often fact-checks information online from the laptop during council meetings. And even Tucker's ad explains that none of the purchases were illegal.

Whether they were appropriate, however, Tucker said, "How he spent his money was just interesting. That was his decision to make - obviously, it was appropriate for him."

"When I travel, I travel cheaply. And I can scrounge meals," said Hultquist, who, for example, has made jaunts to Washington, D.C. to lobby for the South Knoxville waterfront planning project. "I don't travel for leisure. If anybody wants to talk about my travel, I will wave the flag and say thanks for bringing it up. I'm doing my job and busting my tail for the people I represent, and I don't make any apologies for it."

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