Watermelon splat.
A pointless attack mailer. Someone has money to burn.
And it stretches so hard to accuse Jeff Golden of something that it probably helps him.
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| 1971 |
Voters got an attack mailer this week. Some political interest group thought to take a couple of words out of a journal Jeff Golden wrote as a twenty year old in 1971, which got published as a book. The ad turned those words into a charge that Golden is "Wrong on Women."
What a stretch.
The book got briefly into the news back when Golden was a County Commissioner. Some Medford business leaders closely associated with the Medford-Jackson County Chamber of Commerce had organized a recall campaign against then-Commissioner Golden. The book had a photo of its author, looking young and long haired, and they ran ads against Golden using that photo. Look! Long hair!
Golden’s book described his observations during a summer laboring on a collective farm in Georgia growing watermelons.
Note the verb tense in the ad: "Jeff Golden has a very particular idea for women in the workplace," and "What is Jeff Golden thinking," the ad says. The very sentence they quote makes clear he was describing a situation created by others (female socialization) not that he was endorsing it, then or now.
The more interesting question is who created it.
It is an unusually un-persuasive hit piece.
The more interesting question is who created it.
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| Jeff Golden |
responsibility for electing Republicans to the State Senate. They are a prime suspect because they made attacks like this one in the past, and they just reported an in-kind contribution of $10,000 to the Gomez campaign. Moreover, The Leadership Fund's Political Director is personally promoting this line of attack. Evan Ridley sent me three emails on October 17 passing along rumors "from what I've heard," which he then expressed as fact, "Golden's history of degrading women." and saying he cannot find the evidence that he is sure was there, calling it "censorship" and "unacceptable." He said this makes him suspicious so he says this "certainly needs to be discussed in public."
He cannot deny his emails but flatly denies that his GOP PAC is the author of this mailer, and said the in-kind contribution was for a survey, not this ad.
Perhaps the No Supermajorities PAC. They did a survey earlier this year that included negative statements about Golden, hoping to see which ones motivated voters. They certainly have motive and opportunity.
Perhaps the Medford-Jackson County Chamber of Commerce PAC, which has been receiving chunks of money from the Jordan Cove pipeline owners that are out of scale from previous contributions to them. The ChamberPAC then promptly passed that money along to candidates as they received it. Gomez is up to $27,000 now. The Chamber PAC has a windfall of money, motive to elect Gomez, and a history of Chamber members using the Watermelon Summer book as a source for attacks against Golden. The Chamber has sent mixed signals on their Jordan Cove contributions, which they have not yet clarified.
Perhaps someone else. It could be anybody, choosing to do mailers that look like all the other mailers sent by GOP PACs.
Here we go again.
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| Newspaper editorial |
This ad, however, is harmless to Jeff Golden. The intent was to smear Golden with innuendo, but the execution was so bad that the ad is more likely to increase library reads of the 47 year old book than it is to cost Golden votes.
The ad harms Jessica Gomez, a little. She got lucky. Gomez is helped by the fact that the ad is so inept. No harm, no foul. She is associated with a worthless ad, not a nasty one.
But there is a warning for Gomez. This mailer sets a very low standard both of evidence and of intent. This shows she cannot stop her allies from doing personal attack ads. (Neither can Golden. The only difference is that Golden's allies have so far been creating puff pieces on him, not personal smears of Gomez.)
But there is a warning for Gomez. This mailer sets a very low standard both of evidence and of intent. This shows she cannot stop her allies from doing personal attack ads. (Neither can Golden. The only difference is that Golden's allies have so far been creating puff pieces on him, not personal smears of Gomez.)
The lack of transparency has a cost, mostly to Gomez. Social media is full of questions and comments about who did the ad, added to questions about Jordan Cove and money-in-money-out to the Medford-Jackson County Chamber PAC. In the absence of information from the PACs, people wonder, and think the worst. That hurts Gomez.
Past history shows that The Leadership Fund and the No Supermajorities PAC will be just fine. They are upstate. This just strengthens their reputation for playing political hardball. They knock heads and play to win.
The Medford Chamber reputation will thrive, too. Their PAC is now wheeling large hunks of mysterious money. They have money to pass along or spend on ads of their own if they choose. This puts them on the map of big-boy political players. It demonstrates they can make or break local politicians.
There is really only one victim, Jessica Gomez. She is not the author of the sleaze, but she is the intended beneficiary of it. The behavior of her allies reflect mostly on her.
Past history shows that The Leadership Fund and the No Supermajorities PAC will be just fine. They are upstate. This just strengthens their reputation for playing political hardball. They knock heads and play to win.
The Medford Chamber reputation will thrive, too. Their PAC is now wheeling large hunks of mysterious money. They have money to pass along or spend on ads of their own if they choose. This puts them on the map of big-boy political players. It demonstrates they can make or break local politicians.
There is really only one victim, Jessica Gomez. She is not the author of the sleaze, but she is the intended beneficiary of it. The behavior of her allies reflect mostly on her.
4 comments:
This mailer shows the contempt Republicans have for the electorate.
I resist being cynical, however it's the kind of thing that is disheartening, because the smarty pants who dreamed it up clearly think it will be effective.
We need to ask Ms. Gomez to repudiate this tactic. Think she will?
I feel sorry for Gomez. She is the only one, besides Golden, that we know had nothing to do with it. So, meanwhile, insinuations can be cast in all directions because we don't know who DID do it.
It is probably the most ludicrous flyer in the last number of years of bad ones.
I would LOVE for someone to be able to unearth the producer of it.
I am positive that Jessica had nothing to do with this. She’s too honest and principled to go this route, and too smart to think this could possibly help her—the negative backlash of local voters to sleaze like this is clear and consistent.
This tells me Jessica’s having no more success in stopping outside ads from meddling in this race than I am. In my case, the Southern Oregon Priorities PAC, as they call themselves on a series of mailers, is promoting me, not trying to tear her down, so they haven’t hurt me too much—though they are making some people skeptical that I’m truly free of PAC influence. But all of it is interference that nobody living here wants.
When dust clears after November 6, we need a bipartisan conversation about what we can do to regain control of our own elections.
I got so angry when this arrived in my mail that I did a search on the PO Box listed as the return address. It is the Arlington, Virginia, Chamber of Commerce. I emailed them with an angry reply.
I suspect that it was someone (perhaps inside their Chamber, perhaps not) who sent this out under false pretenses. I wonder what other crap they have been mailing throughout the country.
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