Adwatch: Giuliani Touts Mayoral Record

TITLE: "Tested."

LENGTH: 60 seconds.

AIRING: New Hampshire.

SCRIPT: "New York City is the third- or fourth-largest government in the country. It's one of the largest economies in the United States. They used to call it unmanageable, ungovernable. A large majority of New Yorkers wanted to leave and live somewhere else. It was a city that was in financial crisis. A city that was the crime capital of America. A city that was the welfare capital of America. A city that was in very, very difficult condition when I became the mayor.

"By the time I left office, New York City was being proclaimed as the best example of conservative government in the country. We turned it into the safest large city in America. The welfare-to-work capital of America. And most importantly, the spirit of the people of the city had changed. Instead of being hopeless, the large majority of people had hope. So, I believe I've been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They're not going to find perfection, but they're going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results. And in many cases exceptional results. Results people thought weren't possible. I'm Rudy Giuliani, and I approve this message."

KEY IMAGES: Black-and-white scenes of bleak crowds, riot police, a porn theater marquee and buildings with broken-out windows give way to vibrant images of joggers along the river, briskly moving traffic, smiling tourists snapping a picture, sunlight streaming through Grand Central Terminal, people moving boxes into a brownstone, schoolchildren raising an American flag.

ANALYSIS: The commercial plays to one of Giuliani's strengths — New York's resurgence while he was mayor. He also addresses a weakness — a chaotic private life marked by his three marriages. By admitting he is not perfect, Giuliani asks people to judge him not on any personal failings but on his record.

During his term as mayor, crime in New York decreased by 60 percent, compared with 24 percent nationally, and welfare rolls shrank by more than half, according to city and federal data.

Giuliani also cut taxes, cut city employees — except for teachers — and restrained city spending, which grew more slowly than the economy, independent analysis shows.

Yet critics say he doesn't deserve all the credit for the city's comeback.

Predecessors Ed Koch and David Dinkins and other city leaders had been working for years to rebuild from the fiscal crisis of the late 1970s, said Steven Cohen, a public affairs professor at Columbia University.

"It wasn't done in Rudy's first term; it was done over the course of 25 years of people working to rebuild what had fallen apart," Cohen said. "He did a good job, particularly in his first years in office. He changed the psychology of the city, the tone of the city. But the idea that somehow this great figure saved New York is insulting and absurd."

A flourishing U.S. economy also helped prime the city for success before Giuliani took office. The Dow Jones industrial average was 3,754.09 on his first day as mayor; it opened at 10,136.99 on his last. Crime began dropping three years before he arrived at City Hall and was also dropping nationally.

Detractors also take issue with Giuliani's financial management, saying he left the city with a deficit bigger than the $1.5 billion budget gap he inherited.

As for New Yorkers wanting to flee their city, Census figures show New York's population grew 9 percent from 1990 to 2000. At the same time, the city's housing vacancy rate was 5.3 percent in 1990, slightly larger than a rate of 4.8 percent in 2000, according to federal housing numbers.

The Giuliani campaign cites Time magazine and New York Times/CBS News polls in 1990 and 1991 that said about 60 percent of New Yorkers would like to live somewhere else.

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Analysis by Associated Press Writer Libby Quaid.

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On the Net: http://www.joinrudy2008.com