Posted on 04/28/2004 12:28:40 PM PDT by ConservativeMajority
(Talon News) -- The reelection campaign of Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) admitted Tuesday that telephone ads it paid for violate a new federal election law. The ads blame Republican Rep. John Thune (R-SD) for running a negative campaign because he has not disavowed third party spots critical of Daschle's positions on the death tax and immigration.
Campaign finance laws require that political commercials include a disclaimer that identifies the person or group funding the ads. The spate of telephone ads that urged the recipient to contact the Thune campaign carried no disclaimer.
The text of one of the ads said:
"Hello, this is Pam Dorneman. I wanted to give you a quick call because this week I have seen a number of negative television ads and a news story where John Thune says its okay for outside groups to run these ads. In fact, Thune's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, said there is nothing wrong with negative ads. I don't know about you, but the negative campaigns of 2002 were enough for me. I'm a Republican, but this year I won't support any candidate who runs a negative campaign. It's time to send a message that we won't stand for it any more. If you agree, call John Thune's office at 1-605-221-1010 and ask him to stop his friends from polluting our airwaves. Again, that is 1-605-221-1010. Thank you."
When the telephone ads began, KELO radio talk show host Greg Belfrage was deluged with e-mails from listeners complaining about the solicitations. Several of the e-mails said that the phone calls received originated in Florida.
The Daschle campaign had earlier given the impression that Thune was coordinating with the third party groups to run negative ads.
Spokesman Dan Pfeiffer was quoted in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, "The question for John Thune is, what kind of campaign is he going to run?"
Thune campaign manager Dick Wadhams was quoted by KELOLAND TV saying, "I can only assume this is gross incompetence by the Daschle folks or this is a flagrant, intentional violation of federal election law."
Daschle has asked third party groups to stay out of the South Dakota race, but Wadhams noted that strategy failed his candidate two years ago.
He said, "What I have said is campaigns are about choices, they're about contrasts on issues."
Wadhams issued a statement saying, "The first negative attack of the 2004 Senate race came this past weekend from Tom Daschle with his false accusations against John Thune. Daschle clearly violated federal election laws by failing to include the mandated disclaimer with such an attack phone call."
He continued, "Daschle's hypocrisy on negative ads is bad enough but he has now clearly violated the law with his false attack on Thune."
"Daschle doublespeak is in overdrive," Wadhams said. "Daschle wraps himself in virtue promising to run a positive campaign then he unleashes negative, illegal phone calls against John Thune."
Thune has not decided whether to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Daschle's campaign could be subject to a fine if found at fault.
A contrite Pfeiffer issued a dramatically different statement to KELOLAND TV on Tuesday.
In admitting it was his campaign behind the telephone ads, he said, "It was inadvertent. This is a very detailed point of law. Having said that, we take it very seriously and are grateful to the Thune campaign for pointing it out to us."
Copyright © 2004 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
Translation:
>"It was an blatent violation of the law. But so what? We're irritated that the Thune campaign caught us lying anmd made it public. Wait'll he sees what's next. Dirty-"
Total fraud - both Tom AND the ad. There should be a law against this...
Statement of Speaker of the House J. Dennis HastertRegarding Senator Daschle's Comments on the War
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