Al Cross: In Kentucky Governor's race, "truth is elusive."
Al Cross is using his piece this week, In campaign ads, truth is elusive, to illustrate the blatant untruthfulness of campaign ads put out by gubernatorial candidates. Here are excerpts: The news in the governor's race ... [is about] television and radio commercials and direct-mail brochures full of exaggerations, half-truths and worse. ... let us turn out attention to the ads, starting with those from the incumbent. ....
How can Fletcher say in a TV commercial that more Kentuckians are working than ever before, when Northup says the state's unemployment rate is going up? Simple. More Kentuckians are working than ever before because there are more Kentuckians than ever before. So, Fletcher's ad is a half-truth, at best. Voters deserve better.
But what about Northup's ad, which says the unemployment rate has gone from 39th to 46th among the states, ranked by the worst at the bottom? (The drop is since Fletcher took office in December 2003, but the ad doesn't mention him, reflecting Northup's tempered approach.) ... as far as it goes, Northup's point seems valid.
Less reliable is her opening line in the ad: "Kentucky is falling behind, and that's why I'm running for governor." ... She said she was running because Fletcher couldn't win the general election. That forecast remains a pretty reliable one for Republicans -- though you can't rule out a second Fletcher term as long as the Democrats with the most baggage, former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry and businessman Bruce Lunsford, are leading in that primary. But no matter who wins the Democratic nod, Northup stands a better chance of winning than Fletcher, who carries heavy baggage from politicizing civil-service jobs, pardoning aides and then firing some of them.
Fletcher's campaign is tackling that issue with a radio ad calling the investigation a political witch hunt (the C-J disputes this characterization) that ended in the charges against him being dropped. That doesn't square with the language in the deal Fletcher signed to end the probe: "The governor acknowledges that the evidence strongly indicates wrongdoing by his administration . . . that these actions were inappropriate, and that he regrets their occurrence, and accepts responsibility for them as head of the executive branch of state government." The Governor didn't admit personal wrongdoing, but his signed agreement says Attorney General Greg Stumbo's investigation was "necessary and proper" and "ensured that abuses of the state's merit system will be eliminated." And now it's supposed to be a witch hunt?
Fletcher is appealing to the widespread but mistaken belief that merit-system jobs have been common political currency. ... Sure, every administration has bent and manipulated the system to make political hires, but there has never been evidence of such a systematic attempt to circumvent it as was made by the Fletcher administration. The Governor's misleading statements are all the more egregious when he's touring the state on the taxpayers' dime, going from ceremonial check presentations to fund-raising events where he collects real checks from those who stand to gain or lose at the hands of the state -- money that will buy more misleading ads.
And what about the Democrats?
As widely reported, the Lunsford-Stumbo slate has a platform that Lunsford claims they wrote -- but that borrowed about a fourth of its language from the Florida gubernatorial candidate for whom their communications director worked last year.
Henry's TV ad says "Families pay less for heath care and prescription drugs" because he "fought to end the tax on doctor visits and medicine." Henry was a leading opponent of the health-care provider tax, but had such limited leverage as Paul Patton's lieutenant governor that his claim stretches the truth to the breaking point.
Former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear has a TV spot in which he says, "I helped Governor Collins bring Toyota to Kentucky." This is the same guy who had no real role in Martha Layne Collins' administration, and repeatedly questioned whether she struck the best deal with Toyota.
State Treasurer Jonathan Miller ran two ads promising "health care for our veterans," an almost completely federal issue. It ran when the Walter Reed Hospital scandal was still making big news. That's pandering to the primary electorate, most of which is likely to be older than 55.
House Speaker Jody Richards hasn't been on paid TV yet. Perhaps we should be thankful.
Well, we should wait until the campaign season is all over to be thankful, don't you think so? More importantly, if the half-truths and lies do NOT work, politicians will leave them alone -- right?
How can Fletcher say in a TV commercial that more Kentuckians are working than ever before, when Northup says the state's unemployment rate is going up? Simple. More Kentuckians are working than ever before because there are more Kentuckians than ever before. So, Fletcher's ad is a half-truth, at best. Voters deserve better.
But what about Northup's ad, which says the unemployment rate has gone from 39th to 46th among the states, ranked by the worst at the bottom? (The drop is since Fletcher took office in December 2003, but the ad doesn't mention him, reflecting Northup's tempered approach.) ... as far as it goes, Northup's point seems valid.
Less reliable is her opening line in the ad: "Kentucky is falling behind, and that's why I'm running for governor." ... She said she was running because Fletcher couldn't win the general election. That forecast remains a pretty reliable one for Republicans -- though you can't rule out a second Fletcher term as long as the Democrats with the most baggage, former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry and businessman Bruce Lunsford, are leading in that primary. But no matter who wins the Democratic nod, Northup stands a better chance of winning than Fletcher, who carries heavy baggage from politicizing civil-service jobs, pardoning aides and then firing some of them.
Fletcher's campaign is tackling that issue with a radio ad calling the investigation a political witch hunt (the C-J disputes this characterization) that ended in the charges against him being dropped. That doesn't square with the language in the deal Fletcher signed to end the probe: "The governor acknowledges that the evidence strongly indicates wrongdoing by his administration . . . that these actions were inappropriate, and that he regrets their occurrence, and accepts responsibility for them as head of the executive branch of state government." The Governor didn't admit personal wrongdoing, but his signed agreement says Attorney General Greg Stumbo's investigation was "necessary and proper" and "ensured that abuses of the state's merit system will be eliminated." And now it's supposed to be a witch hunt?
Fletcher is appealing to the widespread but mistaken belief that merit-system jobs have been common political currency. ... Sure, every administration has bent and manipulated the system to make political hires, but there has never been evidence of such a systematic attempt to circumvent it as was made by the Fletcher administration. The Governor's misleading statements are all the more egregious when he's touring the state on the taxpayers' dime, going from ceremonial check presentations to fund-raising events where he collects real checks from those who stand to gain or lose at the hands of the state -- money that will buy more misleading ads.
And what about the Democrats?
As widely reported, the Lunsford-Stumbo slate has a platform that Lunsford claims they wrote -- but that borrowed about a fourth of its language from the Florida gubernatorial candidate for whom their communications director worked last year.
Henry's TV ad says "Families pay less for heath care and prescription drugs" because he "fought to end the tax on doctor visits and medicine." Henry was a leading opponent of the health-care provider tax, but had such limited leverage as Paul Patton's lieutenant governor that his claim stretches the truth to the breaking point.
Former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear has a TV spot in which he says, "I helped Governor Collins bring Toyota to Kentucky." This is the same guy who had no real role in Martha Layne Collins' administration, and repeatedly questioned whether she struck the best deal with Toyota.
State Treasurer Jonathan Miller ran two ads promising "health care for our veterans," an almost completely federal issue. It ran when the Walter Reed Hospital scandal was still making big news. That's pandering to the primary electorate, most of which is likely to be older than 55.
House Speaker Jody Richards hasn't been on paid TV yet. Perhaps we should be thankful.
Well, we should wait until the campaign season is all over to be thankful, don't you think so? More importantly, if the half-truths and lies do NOT work, politicians will leave them alone -- right?
Labels: Democratism, Kentucky politics, Public Service, Republicanism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 9:20 AM
4 Comments:
Fletcher and his administration are an embarrassment and a mess. I cannot imagine four more years of this bumbling boob and his assinine apostles.
I didn't realize that Al Cross was given credence by anyone anymore. For starters more Kentuckians than ever are working then ever before because the economy has improved. Second, the unemployment rate can is higher becuase more people are looking for work, because if the improved economy.
Al Cross is a simpleton who doesn' tunderstand basic employment economics. Thanks for publishing the laugh.
Yeah, just like CE characterizes everything done by the MSM as a joke, even though the Fletcher campaign apparently didn't think the campaign/pubilc expenditure thing was very funny because the MSM's reporting caused that campaign to be more conservative with the state's funds.
Al Cross, like ANYONE ELSE, has a right to an opinion that may be accepted or disregarded. I put his piece here so you can decide to choose (or not to choose) to accept it. Though he wrote the piece with this caveat: "That's been said here before, but the current context prompts a disclosure: Northup's running mate, Jeff Hoover, is a brother of my sister-in-law. I don't think that affects my commentary here and elsewhere, which has included material adverse to Northup, but you deserve to know", how you choose to use his opinion is up to each individual reader here!
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