It would behoove people to check the background of those they use in their political ads. This debacle of sorts comes to you from Iowa. It’s a GOP attack ad, and it backfired quite nicely. You see, they were trying to smear a Democrat in the race for a congressional House seat. But the person in the ad had some of the same attempted smear, which was real for her. Oops.
They are trying to say current State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott is a danger to kids. This was based on her voting record on things such as her choices on transgender issues. Remember Nancy Mace having a fit about a transgender House member and making a law that in the Capitol you have to use the bathroom that is for your original gender? Holy cow, that woman is whacked. But back to Iowa. Ms. Garriott voted against a bill that would force the same thing that Nancy Mace managed to get pushed through.
Now for the fun part. A woman was featured in the ad regarding kids. There’s a problem with that. Here’s why, thanks to Raw Story:
Shellie Flockhart, a Dallas Center city council member featured in the Congressional Leadership Fund spot, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and drunken driving after police found her intoxicated with two of her children in the car in 2017, The Washington Post reported Saturday. [Subscription required, but supposedly the article is free after that.] A roadside breath test put her blood alcohol content at .254, more than three times the legal limit of .08, and a later test at the jail registered .192. She pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and received a fine and probation.
There’s a problem with that. Why were they only misdemeanors??!!! Way over the legal limit with kids in the car *while she was drunk*, and they didn’t nail her to the wall? But ranting aside, Shellie is the *last* person they should have chosen for an ad about kids. She is not sweet and innocent in this. Transgender issues are nothing compared to driving drunk with children in the car. Others may argue that’s not a good comparison, but it is.
That could be beneficial for Ms. Garriott. There isn’t much time left before Election Day, but still, they could use it. All they would need to do would be to clip the ad, compress it, and say “Really??” at the end. But then, her campaign knows a whole lot more about how to do ads, so this is all theorizing. Writing about politics is one thing. Actually being able to do ads is a completely different animal. The article does not include anything about Ms. Garriott’s opponent, Rep. Zach Nunn.
This ad was a mistake on the part of whoever chose Shellie to be the lead. Apparently, no one thought to check on anything until The Washington Post did. In a manner of speaking, it’s similar to the nasty ad Vivek’s campaign has put out and is spending a couple of million to push. They aren’t only attack ads. They’re smear ads. They’re desperate ads. We’re getting down to the wire, and they are far behind the eight ball. They can stay back there.
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