Ad watch: Pepper's 'change'

SCRIPT: Male announcer: "He wants to see a new Cincinnati. One that works. He wants to change City Hall. He'll end the bickering at City Council. He'll put more police on the streets. He can make all our neighborhoods safe and strong. He can bring Cincinnati together. And he's ready to do it on Day One. David Pepper. The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote that, with David Pepper as mayor, you can expect to see a difference almost from Day One."

VISUALS: Video shows Pepper working outside City Hall, with typical sleeves-rolled-up political imagery. As the announcer talks, key phrases flash on the screen: "A new Cincinnati." "Change." "More police." "Safe." "He can bring Cincinnati together." "Day One." "David Pepper for mayor."

FACT CHECK: The ad makes no negative statements about Pepper's opponent, state Sen. Mark Mallory. The final sentence comes from a pre-primary endorsement. The Enquirer's editorial board also endorsed Mallory in the primary, and the paper has not yet made an endorsement in the general election. The "David Pepper, Mayor" graphic that got him in trouble in the primary -- when the Ohio Elections Commission ruled he wrongly implied he was the incumbent -- has been fixed.

STRATEGY: In the primary election, faced with a threat to his right in Republican Charlie Winburn, Pepper blitzed the airwaves with television ads seizing the tough-on-crime issue as his own. Here, Pepper begins the general election campaign with an ad that tries to defuse the message at the core of Mallory's campaign -- "ending the chaos at City Hall" -- with a similar message, "ending the bickering at City Council." Though it's not a completely new message for Pepper -- he lamented the "endless bickering and grandstanding at City Hall" in his announcement speech -- expect him to come back to it more often in the last few weeks of the campaign.

RESPONSE: "It sounds very familiar," said Mallory communication director Jason Barron. "We're glad that David Pepper wants to end the chaos of City Hall. Unfortunately, his record does not match up to that. He's been part of the chaos for four years."