By james art 
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPRUD) — East Baton Rouge mayoral candidate Ted James is talking about a radio ad put out by Mayor Sharon West Broome.
“A white man, a white man, if he knows he has to deal with someone black, he’d rather deal with another man than a woman,” the ad said.
It’s a small part of a 60-second radio ad released last week by Broome, who is running for re-election. James was secretly recorded in July by Broome’s campaign manager, ME Cormier, and part of that conversation was used in the ad.
The James campaign responded by threatening legal action if the full conversations were not made public. They also asked radio stations not to broadcast it.
This week, James spoke publicly for the first time about the ad.
“What do you think of this ad?” asked reporter John Rupolo.
“I think when you use fraudulent secret records, you’re deliberately misleading me that this is not the person I want leading my parish,” James said.
James claims he has received more support since the ad aired.
“I’ve seen and received so much support after that negative – I think it was a desperate attempt, but we’ve seen an increase in people contacting the phone bank, we’ve seen an increase in fundraising,” James said.
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Broome stands next to the ad.
“Did it work?” reporter John Rupolo asked.
“I don’t put it in the category of attack advertising, I put it in the category of sharing the truth with the public,” Broome said.
Broome said these were the words of James himself.
“The main motivation is that the people of this city and parish deserve to know the truth about the candidates running for the position of chief executive,” Broome said.
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