CO-07: GOP Flyer Blasting Dem Perlmutter Designed Like Official Sex-Offender Notification
Let's stipulate one thing about this campaign: When it comes to creative flyers, no race has topped the one between Dem Ed Perlmutter and GOP House candidate Rick O'Donnell. You'll recall that O'Donnell not long ago sent out a groveling mailer begging forgiveness for having once written that he wanted to phase out Social Security. Now the state GOP has sent out another one in the district which -- while quite a bit darker in tone -- is every bit as innovative. The flyer charges that his opponent, Dem Ed Perlumtter, made some "soft on crime" votes as a former state senator. But here's the rub: The mailer appears to be designed to look like an official notification sent out when the government wants to alert you to a sex offender living in your community.
You can view a TV broadcast from a local affiliate of ABC -- in which the show convincingly compares the flyer to an official sex offender notification -- right here. Though Perlmutter's campaign has successfully turned the flyer into an issue -- he blasted it as "ugly" and even got a local sherriff to back him up, too -- O'Donnell has claimed he had no control over the flyer. But the last word on all this goes to the local GOP. Here's how the party justified the flyer: "A spokesman for the Colorado Republican Party said the mailer was intended to be scary because this is a scary issue."
New GOP motto:
We're Not Responsible For ANYTHING!
November 1, 2006 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Beginning to look like all mailings and contacts by the GOP should be forced to carry a warning label that they are coming from sexual predators.
Best, Terry
November 1, 2006 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember from the Roskam Social Security flyer discussion that U.S. Post Office regulations bar sending certain types of documents posing as official government mailings.
November 1, 2006 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans did this last year in Washington State against Democratic state reps, basically it had the sex offender notice and picture and said the Democrat wanted to release them into the community. As a bonus, they used the same picture and name across the state.
It was over a bill opposed by victim rights groups and law enforcement alike.
Seems like we've been the testing ground for all sorts of underhanded GOP strategies. (Note the widespread last minute bogus challenges to vote registrations last year in King County.)
November 1, 2006 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
WI-3: Flag-Draped Coffins Ad Pulled After Denver Newspaper Objects
Published: November 01, 2006 11:40 AM ET
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003345805
LA CROSSE, Wis. A Republican congressional candidate pulled a picture of a Marine's flag-draped casket from a campaign ad after a Denver newspaper complained the photo was used without permission and threatened to sue, a campaign spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The Rocky Mountain News said Paul Nelson's campaign used the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo showing the casket of a Marine killed in Iraq without permission in violation of copyright laws.
Nelson, a Hudson real estate developer and former Marine, is challenging Democratic incumbent Rep. Ron Kind in District 3 in western Wisconsin. Kind has held the office since 1997.
"We're really disturbed that somebody who was a Marine would essentially use the suffering of a Marine family without seeking permission to use the photograph as is required under the law, and cause them unnecessary grief as they see how the death of their loved one is being used. It's totally inappropriate, and it's wrong," said John Temple, editor and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News. snip....
November 1, 2006 8:24 PM | Reply | Permalink