Is Indiana News Center buying votes for Ryan Elijah?
Posted by AWB in Congressional Races, Old Media, PoliticsIndiana News Center recently ran this headline.
DOES STUTZMAN CAMPAIGN EVENT AT TINCAPS GAME CROSS LINE TO “BUYING” VOTES?
State Senator Marlin Stutzman hopes a mix of baseball and politics will win him votes with precinct committeemen and women making the decision.
Stutzman has mailed out copies of a flyer, inviting precinct committee people from the Third Congressional District and their families to a TinCaps game next week, hoping his generosity will translate into influence.
I guess all of us precinct committeemen are like sheep wandering without a shepherd. A hot dog and a baseball game isn’t going to influence votes.
And then of course, they had to get an opinion from one of the biggest, biased liberals in the county.
Andy Downs/Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics: ” Unfortunately, we’re talking about a really small number of voters here, 520 total voters, so you know, if you upset three or four voters, who feel it’s an attempt to ‘buy’ their vote, those three or four could make a big difference.”
Of course they failed to post what the question was they asked Mr. Downs.
INC failed to report that many of the Noble County Precinct Committeemen were recently bought breakfast at the Harvest House Cafe And Coffee in Albion, IN by congressional candidate Randy Borror. And, on June 5th, Congressional Candidate Greg Dickman is buying breakfast at the Blue Lion Coffee House in Pierceton for a group of precinct committeemen. Did INC run a story on that? No.
You also never heard INC complain about John McCain having a free concert for supporters with country music star John Rich back in 2008, or the Obama campaign giving a free concert with rapper Jay-Z the same year.
INC’s headline is at best, disingenuous. With 520 precinct committeeman spread over eight counties, Stutzman will bring many of them together where they will not only be able to hear Stutzman’s positions one-on-one, they’ll also be able to have time among themselves to discuss their individual feelings about the caucus and it’s candidates. The same process is being used by other candidates, and INC was deceitful in leaving that information out of the story.
It’s apparent that INC feels Stutzman is positioned to win. Their half-ass attempt at slandering Stutzman is nothing more than a feeble effort to help their coworker Ryan Elijah curry favor with the precinct committeemen.
This is nothing more than cheap selective journalism.
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Tags: Indiana News Center, Marlin Stutzman
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So, political fund-raising events at the Tincaps held by, say, Congressman Ellsworth, go uncovered by INC?
I commend Marlin for making an effort to reach out to the precinct committeeman…this is a big decision with not much time to get around and meet everyone 1 on 1.
Lonnie Powell- Candidate Indiana 3
Since when is something like this news? Over the years, candidates have consistently sponsored "meet and greet" opportunities for their constituents. It is simply a way for people to meet a candidate in a more expediate way. To imply that a precinct person, chair none the less, would put aside his or her brains when they attend a function is insulting.
It is bad for business. Those tin cap tickets sales could have been used to underwrite television commericals, you know, the all american way to buy an election — by enriching the kingmaking media who is forever telling us what is right and wrong (and Right is almost always wrong to them.)
The question that has to be asked though is whether this "meet and greet" crosses the line. Legally, it does not. Then again, everything that is legal does not necessarily mean that it is the right thing. It is one thing to invite people to an event with coffee or small snacks etc. In MY opinion, Stutzman was walking on thin ice inviting entire families for a picnic and free tickets to a game. Again, while I agree that it may be legal, I don't know if it passes the "smell test" – that is what should be taken from this story. As for Elijah, you can't just assume that every story from here on out by INC is "promoting Elijah." He is a candidate now….not a journalist. Besides, this is Neumeyer's style. It always has been and always will be. When you are the victim, you can't stand it. When you are on the other side, you love it. Finally, and unrelated….as a former conservative student of Dr. Downs, I can assure you he is anything but biased. While we know he is liberal, he never lets it interfere with his job at the Mike Downs Center and in the classroom.
Update:
I got this after the post. The Stutzman campaign has a couple of donors providing in-kind donations to defray or maybe even cover the entire cost for this event.
Adam,
Welcome to the world of the political caucus. This is how it's done, and Marlin is only one of the many bringing PC's together to hear him stump.
Ryan and I attend the same church. I have a high regard for him as a person. He doesn't seem like the type of person to be behind something like that. But hey, I've said that about other people before and was wrong.