PAC money in last month's campaign questioned
Voters have been fed up for some time with political campaign ads. Locally, the race for the 54th Assembly District between last month's winner Gordon Hintz and his opponent Julie Pung Leschke took on a life of its own, with negative spin and special interest and Political Action Committee money that contributed to a campaign that some estimates said had already cost about $250,000. In light of the many complaints following last month's elections, we reported last week that bipartisan agreement seemed to have been reached on significant ethics and elections reform.
On Friday a complaint was filed with the State Elections Board, in which lawyers for two unions and a retired United Auto Workers union official from Racine accused the Milwaukee-based Alliance for Choices in Education and two political arms of the national group All Children Matter of trying to "launder" campaign cash to get around state elections laws. Ironically, All Children Matter was also one of the groups that invested heavily in Pung Leschke's campaign. It should be noted, however, that no one is suggesting her campaign was directly involved in any wrongdoing. You can read more about the complaint by going here.
On a separate, reflective note, like so many others, Pung Leschke was unhappy with the negative tone of the campaign and it ultimately caused the resignation of her campaign treasurer. But it should also be noted that while Pung Leschke complained publicly about her opponent's alleged lies and negativity, she never came out and asked those putting out ads in support of her bid for office to stop with their own negative campaigning. It may have been inaction and inconsistency on her part that cost her some votes at the polls.
On Friday a complaint was filed with the State Elections Board, in which lawyers for two unions and a retired United Auto Workers union official from Racine accused the Milwaukee-based Alliance for Choices in Education and two political arms of the national group All Children Matter of trying to "launder" campaign cash to get around state elections laws. Ironically, All Children Matter was also one of the groups that invested heavily in Pung Leschke's campaign. It should be noted, however, that no one is suggesting her campaign was directly involved in any wrongdoing. You can read more about the complaint by going here.
On a separate, reflective note, like so many others, Pung Leschke was unhappy with the negative tone of the campaign and it ultimately caused the resignation of her campaign treasurer. But it should also be noted that while Pung Leschke complained publicly about her opponent's alleged lies and negativity, she never came out and asked those putting out ads in support of her bid for office to stop with their own negative campaigning. It may have been inaction and inconsistency on her part that cost her some votes at the polls.
3 Comments:
Don't you think that if they were using pictures of her and her family she was working with them in some way?
Questioning, that is a good point and, yes, it is entirely possible that she was cooperating with them in their efforts to ger her elected. But, I do have to say that, sadly, sometimes people do use photos and the like that they shouldn't, unless they have gotten permission.
For example, I have been told that in the race for the 54th Assembly District, short excerpts from the Eye on Oshkosh show were also used, I believe in Gordon Hintz's ads. I personally did not see such ads and don't know that to be true, but I can say that if it is, no one contacted me to get permission for any such use, and they really should have.
That is not to say I was not proud of the fact that we produced a show that someone would want to use clips from. But they should have gotten permission and credited the show. Quotes from the show were also used in some of the printed campaign material during that race, though the show was credited in those instances.
All that said, those uses probably pall in the magnitude of use when compared with family photos being used by an organizations that is undoubtedly spending thousands of dollars on advertising for a candidate; and one would assume that, indeed, the candidate had some knowledge they were being used and likely would have put a stop to it unless they somehow condoned their use.
Cheryl, you are right, they could have used those photos without permission but again if you were a candidate and someone used photos of you without your consent AND you didn't like the "message" they were giving wouldn't you have said SOMETHING?? I followed this campaign pretty closely and I heard NOTHING from Ms. Leschke in that regard.
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