Political ads are not much different from normal, commercial ads. Effective advertisements usually make it pretty clear what the hoped-for outcome is.
Buy a widget? Patronize a business? In politics, it’s “Vote for X” … or A, B, or C.
Last political season, in New Mexico’s Bernalillo, Sandoval, and Valencia counties, ads ballyhooed a Rio Metro expansion project. They very clearly concluded by telling voters to “Make a Difference on November 4th,” and offering up a certain website that also promoted voting for the tax increase to expand the transit system.
So why did Lawrence Rael of the political entity responsible for Rio Metro deny the obvious? “We’re not saying ‘vote for the tax’ as an advocacy committee would do,” he explained. “We’re just simply saying, ‘Look, this issue is on the ballot … Here’s what it’s about.’”
Oh, get real, Mr. Rael.
The reason for his reticence? Governments in a republic aren’t supposed to influence voters but be influenced by voters. That’s the point of an election, where our tax dollars ought not be on either side.
Paul Gessing, of the Rio Grande Foundation, wrote in the Albuquerque Journal, “Having advocates for these proposals working on the taxpayer dime obviously tilts the advantage in the direction of higher taxes. But giving the pro-tax side the additional advantage of a significant advertising budget is simply too much, and is truly unfair.”
No wonder government keeps growing, eh?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Get Real, Mr. Rael”
That is like giving prostitutes a license to walk about in public while nude in order to give the poor girls more Vitamin D from exposure to sunlight. Pull the other leg, Rio Metro! It has bells on it!
Lets face it, many of the special interest advocacy groups are getting taxpayer funding through back-door appropriations & grants through Congress. Taxpayers are already paying for many, many advocacy groups to use that money to unduly influence issues outcomes.
How many of these special interest groups get grants & funding for projects through the legislative process. Even though the money is not “directly” used fro advocacy, having the money available from the government, allows those groups to redirect other funds to the efforts to influence the public opinion or perception of an issue.
Illegal alien groups get govt. money, & use it or redirected funds to publicly push for taxpayers to convince legislators to vote for any measure that benefits illegal aliens.
Planned Parenthood pushes the public on all sorts of issues through advertising, etc. Yet PP gets huge sums of money from the government through grants & other funding mechanisms.
Its grotesque that we are pressured to approve or push for things, by those special interest groups who are using our own money, & who rarely tell us the whole truth about the issues they are advocating.
Seems to me we would be better off if we eliminated the access the special interest groups have to our politicians.
The ONLY special interest group politicians should be paying attention to is “the people of America.” and not limited issue or politically motivated special interest groups.
[…] This is Common Sense » Archive » Get Real, Mr. Rael […]