Sep. 7--If you fall for Jack Davis' television ads, you may think Jon Powers is a special-interest fat cat who's taking money from corporations like General Electric when he's not hanging out at Rick's Tally-Ho.

But none of that is true. And if you believe what Powers

says about Davis, you'd think that Davis would go to Washington hellbent on cutting Social Security benefits.

And that's not true, either. In other words, truth has often

been on holiday during the battle involving Davis, Powers and local attorney Alice Kryzan for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 26th District, which stretches from Amherst and Wheatfield east to the Rochester suburbs.

No candidate in the race has taken the truth to more undisclosed locations than Davis, who has run three attack ads against Powers that dramatically distort his record.

In contrast, Powers has one grossly misleading television ad attacking Davis, while Kryzan has run one attack ad that views Powers' charitable activity in the worst possible light.

Those are the results of a fact check of the television ads and some of the radio ads in the contest, which will culminate in Tuesday's primary.

Davis, a Newstead industrialist who vowed to spend $3 million of his money to win a seat in Congress, has spent plenty of that money taking aim at Powers, the Iraq War veteran who's backed by the party establishment and organized labor.

Yet to hear Davis tell it, you would think that corporate America is Powers' best friend.

Take, for example, the Davis ad called "Bad Medicine."

"The health care system is broken because special interests give millions in campaign contributions to politicians like Jon Powers," the ad says, as the words "Pfizer," "GE," "Wyeth" and "Johnson & Johnson" appear on the screen.

The problems start right there.

Powers took no money directly from the Pfizer, GE or Wyeth political action committees, federal records show. He did get $175 from the Johnson & Johnson PAC -- but that was the only health care industry donation he received.

Yes, Powers has received far more PAC money -- $220,614 -- than anyone else in the race. But an analysis of PAC contributions shows that two-thirds of it came from organized labor, politicians or single-issue groups like VoteVets.

Davis' exaggerations continue in an ad called "Think Again," which tells voters that "Powers made headlines with a local strip club owner" -- and shows a picture of Powers in a Bills jersey and funny hat, as if he were at the strip club.

In reality, Powers received $2,300 from Rick Snowden, owner of Rick's Tally Ho.