The Walk Piece

I was given this walk piece the other day, and WOW!  It’s quite the gift.  The follow post is going to be a bit long, to cover all of the necessary topics, but it’s well worth the read.  This guy should NEVER be elected to anything if he can make this many mistakes on a simple walk piece.  Without further ado, here are both sides of the item in question:

There are 3 things that strike me as the most important problems, and they will be addressed in order of seriousness.  The first is a dumb mistake, the second is an even bigger dumb mistake, and the third involves possible illegal use of campaign funds.

Election Day

You will notice that on the back side of this walk piece, Dave writes “ELECTION DAY NOVEMBER 9, 2010.”  This is interesting, because election day is November 2, 2010.  Dave doesn’t even know what day election day is?  That’s incredible.  Feel free to vote for David Larson on November 9th, just as long as you vote for anyone else on November 2nd.

The Democratic Party

As I’ve discussed in length in previous posts, Dave seems to have a party problem.  He claims to be a Democrat, and says he has been for some time now.  Except there’s the proof that he wasn’t until just a few months ago; and there’s all the things that don’t add up about his story.  But this walk piece has something that further muddies the waters.  On the front of Dave’s walk piece, he writes that if elected he will, “help register more Democrat voters.”  Now at first glance your average person will see nothing wrong with this.  But for Democratic activists, the wording of that sentence is a huge red flag.  This man is no real Democrat.

The issue at hand is the use of the word “Democrat” as an adjective.  Democrat is a noun, and only a noun.  The adjective is always “Democratic.”  The use of the word “Democrat” is a slur used by opponents of the Democratic party.  Here’s a 2006 New Yorker article about the issue, and also the Wikipedia page about it.  To be sure, many voters won’t see the problem here.  But this is a sore subject for many Democratic Activists (see what I did there?  DEMOCRATIC not Democrat).

The use of Democrat as an adjective is intended to belittle the party and it’s members.  Turn on your TV and watch Fox News or conservative commentators and guests on CNN or MSNBC.  Every one of them will refer to the Democratic Party as the Democrat Party.  No real Democrat would use this terminology.  And therein lies the problem.  This is just one more piece of evidence that Dave is not what he claims to be.  We have a real problem here.

Proper Use of Political Funds

The third and final subject of this post is perhaps the most worrisome.  On this walk piece Dave has combined his City Council Campaign and his campaign for the Placer County Democratic Party Central Committee.  The walk piece does not state how it was paid for, but that’s an important thing to find out.  If Dave paid for this walk piece solely out of his City Council campaign funds, then there might be an FPPC violation.

According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, a candidate must established a separate controlled account for each office that he runs for:

§ 18521.  Establishment of Separate Controlled Committee for Each Campaign

Account.

(a) A candidate who is required to file a statement of organization for a controlled

committee pursuant to Government Code section 84101 shall establish a separate controlled

committee and campaign bank account for each specific office identified in statements filed by

the candidate pursuant to Government Code section 85200 and 2 Cal. Code Regs. section 18520.  link

Furthermore, it would seem to be a violation of campaign finance law to pay for one campaign from the account of another.  Paying for this walk piece solely from funds for his city council race would qualify as such an action.  For more information please visit the FPPC website.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on campaign finance law; however, I can read and interpret it just as anyone else can, and I have some experience regarding the subject.  There are a few pieces of missing information to this story, and the outcome is clearly dependent on that information: How did Dave pay for this walk piece?  And, did he have a separate account for his Central Committee campaign?  If anyone who is an expert on campaign finance law would like to address this issue, please do.   Comment here or email me at notodavidlarson@gmail.com.