Friday, October 29, 2010

When is an endorsement an endorsement?

Judging by this ad (shown below) that appeared in The Alexandria Recorder October 28, 2010 it appears that The Northern Kentucky Tea Party is endorsing the list of candidates that it has prominently named in the ad.

But wait.

Reading the fine print at the bottom of the ad it states, “The Northern Kentucky Tea Party does not endorse or financially support candidates for public office”.

It goes on to say, “The above candidates have indicated support and promote the Tea Party principles if elected”.

The ad lists a candidate for mayor and one candidate for city council.

The fine print goes on to say, “There may be other candidates who support the principles of the Northern Kentucky Tea Party but have not made their support known.”

What a crock. We contacted some candidates that are not listed in the ad and they have told us that they were never contacted by the Tea Party in regards to their views but that they also haven’t regularly attended Tea Party meetings.

We can only conclude that in order to make the list the only criteria used was whether or not an individual went to a lot of Tea Party meetings and paid lip service. There was no effort to reach out to the other candidates and solicit their views.

The ad also states that the Northern Kentucky Tea Party “promotes the principles of fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets”.

The ad urges you to vote yes on the adoption of the Justice of the Peace form of government for Campbell County which is in essence bigger government as it goes from 3 commissioners to 8 justices.

An ad that appears to be political endorsements but says in fine print that it is not and says the organization is for limited government but endorses expanded government seems like a group that hasn’t quite gotten its act together.

We said it earlier but feel compelled to say it again, what a crock.

You be the judge.


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