Tuesday, April 8th, 2008...8:39 am
Update on that Bee Ad
Poking around yesterday, I found out that the Tim Bee ad that I wrote about the other day was paid for by an organization called the Education Finance Reform Group. As Daniel Scarpinato reported in this morning’s Star, this organization is funded by several local school districts to lobby the legislature.
So, why on earth is school district money going to pay for a political ad?
Oh, wait, it is just an ad thanking Senator Bee for being such a great guy and supporting a bill the association liked. I’m assuming that we’ll see ads for Paula Aboud, who was also a strong supporter of the bill, right?
The argument that this was not a campaign piece strains credulity for several reasons. One, it was shown on cable outlets in places like Bisbee, Douglas and Northwest Tucson. These are not in Bee’s legislative district, but they happen to be in CD 8.
Two, take a look at this gem from Scarpinato’s article:
“I don’t know who arranged it, but I know someone must have, because it was kind of on the agenda,” said Richard Connet, president of the Vail Education Association teachers union and a Republican who supports Bee for Congress.
“We all knew it was going to be used also for his run against [Gabrielle] Giffords,” Connet said.
Three, the ad was produced by Public Policy Partners, a Republican-leaning firm headed up by former legislator John Kaites. I find it difficult to buy that Kaites had a non-partisan, let’s-just-give-a-warm-hand to Bee agenda here.
In Scarpinato’s article, Bee claims that he doesn’t like the fact that money was being spent on the ad. As an English born friend of mine used to say, rumpswab. He is in the ad. Not just stock footage either (do we call that “Bee Roll”?). He participated in the production of the ad, but now he says he doesn’t think that the money should have been spent on it? Puh-leeze.
10 Comments
April 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I believe Tim’s explanation just as much if not more than you would believe Gabby under the same circumstances. You would believe Gabby wouldn’t you?
Where was your righteous indication when Gabby was franking her campaign flyers past the $100,000 mark with taxpayer monies?
April 8th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
“Bee roll”….hilarious!
On a serious note - If the FEC investigated this (which they probably won’t because the Bush Administration has completely gutted the agency) I am sure they would find this is an illegal contribution to Bee’s campaign for Congress.
It would pass the Independent Expenditure test except for the fact Ted notes - Bee is IN the ad, so he obviously knew about it.
At the very least the ads should be pulled immediately.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
This looks like amateur hour and doesn’t bode well for the Bee campaign. It was a decent idea but executed horribly — not what he needs at this stage of the campaign.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Bill is correct. Everything else aside, the ad itself stinks.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:12 am
This reminds me of the newspaper ads that popped up in early 2006 thanking Jon Kyl for various votes. The sponsors were committees with nice-sounding names that didn’t really reveal where the money came to pay for the ads. These Bee ads could be this year’s version of the 2006 ads — or a poor imitation.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:03 am
I wonder whether any of the people who ponied up public money for these ads are registered lobbyists.
If they are, does that merely violate the SPRIT of the ban on taking money from lobbyists during the session, or does it violate the LETTER of the law?
April 9th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Who gives a crap about the law really? I am not even being facticious here. The law was broken when he violated the resign to run provision, but he found some attorneys to argue, credibly, that it wasn’t a violation. I am sure an equally credible argument can be made on this one. In the meantime, we will also grouse, discuss, debate until we are blue in the face and the most that ever will be done is a simple little campaign foul that will cost the campaign some money…which will be paid for by donors anyway.
Law be damned…It just doesn’t matter if no one really cares.
If you don’t believe me…take a good look again at the administration’s blatant violation of FISA.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
This is not an FEC issue.
Arizona state law forbids funds to be used for political campaigns.
I doubt the County or State party will follow through and file a complaint with LaWall or the State though.
The superintendents who authorized this usage could lose certification.
The stickler for them is that the teacher featured on the video basically admitted it was a political ad.
Unfortunatley, I do not live in those school districts so any complaint I make would be thrown out.
If the party doesn’t follow through then a resident needs to step forward.
Bee would hate the negative publicity on taking money out of the classroom for his camaugn.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:48 am
This might “BEE” a bit off subject but The Star comparing Blog for Arizona and Michael Bryan to this blog is a bit much to swallow!
I find Bryan to be untrustworthy and sets people up at his forums ; Drinking Liberally is one such forum where he invites people then posts rantings decrying them as in need of medical help and being racists!
Bryan also works for Isabelle Garcia and The Pima County Public Defenders Office and uses Computer systems at The Pima County Public Defenders Office to run Blog For Arizona at Taxpayer expense.
I think there are alot of good people in Arizona Left and Right who can work on Teaching Tolerance and Bryan is NOT one of them!
April 10th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Byte-ing the hand that feeds you, Dwight!
Michael set up and paid for a blog for you to post your racist rants and raves. You were booted off of his blog for your repeated personal attacks on posters. Now you take to attacking Mike on other blogs, some almost bordering on slander. I believe that the county blocks most political blogs, so it is possible that he can’t access his blog via the county computers.
Besides, I believe that he now works for the City as a prosecutor.
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