On Thursday, August 7, when the news surfaced that 11th District Democratic congressional candidate Debbie Halvorson's stepson, Jay Bush, had been seriously in injured while serving in Afghanistan, Marty Ozinga's GOP campaign told reporters it would suspend attacks on their opponent, though they didn't specify a timeframe. The following Tuesday, while Halvorson was visiting Bush at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C, the Ozinga camp put out a robocall in the district attacking her (which you can listen to here). VoteVets.org -- a political advocacy organization headed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars -- subsequently put out a statement from chairman Jon Soltz, who blasted the robocall as "one of the most tactless moves I've ever seen in politics."
Well, today Ozinga received some additional criticism from Jim Wasser, Jeff Bruno, Glen Becker, and Mervin Gossman -- all veterans who reside in the 11th District. In a letter sent to Ozinga via email, the group asserted that his "personal attacks against Debbie last week were some of the most disrespectful and tasteless political tactics imaginable." They added that Halvorson "deserved a chance to deal with this family emergency without your underhanded personal attacks." Click the image below to read the full letter.
And one more thing ...
In a post on Monday, Capitol Fax's Rich Miller wrote that our original reporting on this matter was "not entirely correct" because we didn't make clear that the robocall came in response to a recent Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) mailer that accused Ozinga of supporting "tax breaks for Big Oil." As long as we're getting into the nitty-gritty, there's a distinction that gets glossed over in Miller's post.
The mailers in question were sent out by the DCCC's "independent expenditure" (IE) arm, which is completely walled off from Halvorson's campaign. Indeed, by law, Halvorson has no control over or knowledge of the IE's plans. In fact, my understanding is that the Halvorson camp is yet to directly attack Ozinga in any paid communication. The Ozinga robocall, on the other hand, came directly from the Ozinga camp. Indeed, the ad's disclaimer states: "Paid for by Ozinga for Congress."
Shaun Dakin (not verified) on Fri, 08/22/2008 - 08:12
Robo calls don't work
We are fighting back, for the American voter.
1 - Creating a Political Do Not Call Registry
2 - Testifying in the US Senate about robo calls (Sen. Feinstein’s Robocall Privacy Act)
3 - Forcing states to enforce existing robo call laws (CA, MN, NJ, etc..)
4 - Getting politicians to take a do not robo call pledge (7 have)
Learn more.
Shaun Dakin
CEO
Www.StopPoliticalCalls.org
A non-profit fighting for the privacy of the American voter
ILmedstudent83 (not verified) on Fri, 08/22/2008 - 20:30
The crux of the issue is that Ozinga's piece was itself a response; whether the piece of literature it was a response to was disseminated by the Halvorson campaign itself or by the DCCC, acting on her behalf, is irrelevant. Historically, when a candidate suffers a tragedy, BOTH sides cease campaigning. And yes, the IE of the DCCC, despite being a separate entity from the Halvorson campaign, is still, obviously, on her side. The blame resides with the DCCC. To have initiated an attack on Ozinga, with the expectation that he would be obligated NOT to respond, is outrageous and underhanded. It rididuculously unfair to expect that Ozinga should simply absorb attacks while having to keep his own mouth shut.
MaggieZ (not verified) on Sat, 08/23/2008 - 17:16
an interesting point that was't made in the article: VoteVets.org is more than just "a political advocacy organization headed by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars." it's basically a soundboard for democratic politicians and left of center politics in general...so it's by no means any sort of an independent voice. also, at least one of the vets who wrote to ozinga, jim wasser, is apparently a pretty outspoken democrat in his own right (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQMp6CykaMU).
so these groups are clearly not really objective voices...it's no surprise that they would jump at the opportunity to thunder righteous indignations against ozinga, republican that he is.
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