Crazy, right?! Second time you've heard from me in 4 years! I hear Indianapolis' unemployment rate is one of the worst in the state and incomes have dropped 9.8%.
Bummer! Too bad I voted against a bipartisan City-County Council proposal that supported 66,000 Indianapolis jobs and families.
Since I don't need to work, I'm not sure why anyone else does.
--ChristineIronically, the proposal the post card references that Scales voted against, which supposedly "supported 66,000 Indianapolis jobs and families" was actually a tax increase enacted to bail out the Capital Improvement Board after it claimed it was facing a major shortfall. After the ordinance passed, which only one council member of Poulakidas' party supported, the CIB used the money to give a $33.5 million subsidy to the billionaire Simons and their Indiana Pacers, including a subsidy to cover costs for this season even though a chunk of the NBA season has already been cancelled due to a lack of a collective bargaining agreement between the billionaire owners and the players who earn millions of dollars a year. The agency is so flush with money that it's giving away money to help fund millions more in law enforcement expenses for the Super Bowl since the city's operating budget is short the necessary funds to pay for those expenses. Poulakidas fails to mention that the law firm he represents is a paid lobbyist for the Capital Improvement Board. Yes, his law firm got paid to lobby for the measure he is criticizing Scales for opposing. What a total sleazebag!
Contrary to the impression the post card tries to leave that Scales is an absentee councilor, she has an exemplary attendance record at council meetings and regularly attends community group gatherings in her district. Scales has received numerous awards from community groups in her district for her work on their behalf. She even donates the salary she earns as a councilor to charity.
Poulakidas has little choice but to make up lies about Scales since he has such a bad record. As I've previously noted, Poulakidas in a rare decision was found by the Indiana Civil Rights Commission to have violated Indiana's Fair Housing Act by discriminating against single parents in renting a downtown condominium he owns. Poulakidas represented himself in the civil action filed against him by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The Civil Rights Commission ordered Poulakidas to pay several thousand dollars to the NFHA for the costs it incurred in bringing the action against him.
While Scales has been working hard for her constituents, Poulakidas has been busy working as a lobbyist for a big law firm. He even traveled to Washington, D.C. to raise thousands of dollars for his council campaign from D.C. lobbyists and political insiders. Poulakidas is believed to be the first candidate in the history of the city-county council to raise money for his campaign from Washington lobbyists.
Scales' supporters are urging the Republican Party to file a formal election complaint against Poulakidas and the Indiana Democratic Party for the illegal mailings. Poulakidas' campaign paid his state party to mail out the post cards on his behalf, but the post cards fail to mention that he authorized the mailings as required by Indiana's Election Law, in addition to the fact that the post cards illegally impersonate Scales.
8 comments:
Public candidates are held to a different standard. These are clearly parody ads. If people are confused by them, they deserve to be deceived. They are clearly marked that they are paid for by the Democratic Party.
You mentioned earlier this has never happened before, but political ads and mailers frequently "impersonate" political opponents.
See this ad against Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado a few years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvBmgrheIo4&feature=related
It clearly isn't Musgrave taking the dead man's watch, but we are meant to think it is. Any intelligent person will tell this mailer is also an impersonation.
The dramatic illustration in the Musgrave negative TV ad is not even remotely comparable to the post card mailer against Scales. It's a dramatic video illustration with an actor, which has an entirely different effect than handwritten words that expressly represent that the candidate wrote them. Nowhere in that TV ad does it suggest the actor is Musgrave, and there is no possibility for anyone mistaking the actor for the candidate. Give me an example of a negative campaign piece used in Indiana that falsely represented a letter written by a candidate to paint that candidate in a false light.
Vox Populi says:
"These are clearly parody ads. If people are confused by them, they deserve to be deceived."
I bumped into Christine Scales at a local market, and she told me that several of her elderly constituents have called her, confused about the postcards she had sent. Are these the people who "deserve to be deceived?"
So who are you: Vox Populi?
"This website is under construction.
Estimated Time Remaining Before Re-Launch: 64 Days, 19 minutes..."
Why do you hide behind the web?
I just look forward to next Tuesday night. We'll know who wins and loses. I lived in Christine's district for a couple years, and was never as impressed as Gary or others on the blogs. I left the district in 2009 for a more northern climate, and I'm looking forward to the coming Democratic sweep.
But still the Q?: Why do you prefer to hide behind the web? Please identify yourself.
And who is it again that "deserve to be deceived?" That concept really disturbs me.
And I really do believe there will be judges who agree.
Why would anyone ever think that a politician who stoops to lies and deceptions while campaigning, will change their ethics once in office?
And why do people like Vox, just dismiss it a 'politics as usual'? That is irresponsible to any hope we have for better government.
Christine Scales knows her district! She was able to advocate for the IFD ladder truck at station 21 and retain its services.
She is a member of the various block clubs...attending BRAG, Fall Creek Valley, Meadows, and a host of others!
Time and again she stands up for her district's needs....
-and Christine has courage! She stood up and said that Frank Straub must go. She supports real public safety, not NY liberalism.
Poulakidas was found to have engaged in housing discrimination (see http://www.in.gov/icrc/files/HOfs08080522.pdf) .
He is just another liberal Democrat who discriminates. His campaign methods are...unethical. What a poor, lost, discriminating soul!
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