Anti-Dole videos shot in Triangle

The Southern porch is usually an agreeable place, all sweet tea and hospitality.

But two Triangle porches became ground zero in contentious political videos attacking U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole that have been broadcast recently on TV and the Internet.

In both cases, the owners of the porches were surprised and none too happy about the videos.

Angela Hill, a substitute teacher in Pittsboro, was watching the Olympics swimming competition on TV recently when she saw the porch of an old country store she owns in an attack ad.

Sponsored by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the ad features two older men sitting in rocking chairs on the store's porch debating Dole's effectiveness and how often she has sided with President Bush.

"My husband turned to me and said, 'Hey, isn't that your store?'" Hill said. "I said, 'Yeah, I think so.'"

The ad was filmed in mid-July by the Washington-based ad firm Squier Knapp Dunn at the Bynum General Store, which Hill inherited from her grandparents eight years ago.

The store closed in 2006, but Hill rents it to Bynum Front Porch, a local nonprofit group that sometimes stages free concerts there. A representative for the group said they did not know the content of the ad when they agreed to it.

Hill, a registered Democrat who voted for Dole in 2002, said she's not a big fan of political ads -- especially negative ones -- but she would prefer to keep her grandparents' store out of the political scene entirely.

"I would rather not use the place as a political platform," she said.

After the ad aired, a staffer for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee decided to do a real-life follow up and tape some regular North Carolinians in rocking chairs talking about Dole in mid-August.

Committee worker Amy Rubin went to Carrboro and talked to people sitting in rocking chairs in front of the Maple View Ice Cream store on Weaver Street. Rubin posted her video on YouTube.com and the Web site of the Democratic senatorial committee.

After several customers complained to his store manager, owner Bob Nutter became upset. The name and logo of the store were clearly visible on an awning at the beginning of the ad, and he thought that regular customers would recognize the store's signature rocking chairs.

Nutter's manager, Allison Nichols, called the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which edited the video to blur the store's name.

"We don't want to cause any trouble for their business or imply any endorsement," said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the group.

A registered Democrat who also voted for Dole in 2002, Nutter said he doesn't necessarily object to the use of his store in a political video, but he definitely doesn't want it used as part of an attack ad.

"I'm a positive person, and I think that anything they do should be positive," he said.

Both Hill and Nutter say they're keeping open minds about whether they'll vote for Dole again in November, but they agree on one thing: The videos filmed on their porches won't affect their decisions one way or the other.