Mercury News editorial: Campaign slime and how to recognize it
Mercury News Editorial
‘Tis the season, and it’s getting less jolly.
Political campaigns are winding up, and it’s ugly out there, mostly thanks to independent committees wading into the mud while candidates they favor can stay starched and pressed.
So here’s a reminder to peruse campaign mail, advertising or emails with care these final days before the June 3 vote, and keep a salt shaker handy for taking things with a grain. Or a ton.
Here are some tips:
Consider the source. Unions really, really don’t like Armando Gomez, the Milpitas city councilman and budget director for San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed who’s running in the 25th Assembly District.
The “Opportunity PAC” registered as “a coalition of teachers, health care givers, faculty members, school employees and public and private employee associations” has taken this opportunity to mislead, distort — oh, let’s just say it, lie about — Gomez’s compensation to portray him as getting rich while arguing to dial back some public employee pensions.
A barrage of mailers asserts that Gomez’s own pension was increased “by more than 150 percent since 2007,” and that “his own pay and benefits add up to $1.2 million.”
But Gomez’s pension benefit did not increase. The public cost to fund that benefit went up 150 percent — exactly the reason Gomez thinks pension reform is needed.
As to the $1.2 million, in smaller type it says that’s a seven-year total — but again, it’s the public cost of total compensation including pension.
Gomez’s $111,111 budget director salary is low for this type of job in Bay Area cities. Like other San Jose employees, he has taken a 10 percent pay cut and expects another 16 percent hit from city pension reform.
We planned to wait for the fall to make a recommendation in District 25, since a runoff seemed certain. But this unethical campaign makes it clear that to protect taxpayers’ interests, it’s important that Armando Gomez make that runoff. We hope voters support him.
Find the source. No, the real source. The COPS slate mailer, an old favorite, is back this year masquerading as a law enforcement interest group. But slate mailers are just for-profit ventures that some candidates pay to be on, along with others listed free for credibility.
Check every mailer for the source. The message appears in a different light depending whether it’s from the candidate or an independent committee funded by businesses, unions or other interests.
But once you’ve identified something as a slate mailer, don’t worry about the light.
Just recycle it.
Timing is everything. On a San Jose firefighters union flier supporting Dave Cortese for mayor, an excerpt from a Mercury News editorial enthusiastically praises Cortese for bringing tenants and landlords to agreement on eviction protections.
There are two little, um, issues.
In the tiniest of type at the bottom of the excerpt, you will see that this editorial was published in 2002 — 12 years ago, when some of today’s voters were in first grade. And it appeared on doorsteps after we came out for Sam Liccardo for mayor.
No more Mr. Nice Guy. We’ve taken some flak for recommending Ro Khanna for Congress over incumbent Mike Honda.
How could you? people say. He’s such a nice guy.
But Honda’s campaign has not taken the nice-guy high road. It has implied that Khanna’s rich — he’s not — and that he’s a carpetbagger, even though he lives in the district and Honda doesn’t.
But sometimes you just have to giggle. We love the shocking expose of a campaign spending violation ($100) by Khanna — in a 1996 student government election at the University of Chicago.
So think about what you read, even in, gasp, newspapers. Read widely and carefully, talk things over and vote your conscience. Don’t get hoodwinked and find out too late.
You can read the full article online here.