Sick of hearing about Mike Stone yet? Sorry.
Friend of the Rant Mike Stone (R-Tenn.) is out with a new attack video that’s basically a total lie.
The television spot, paid for by Mike’s campaign, says Democratic challenger Brad Salmon proclaimed himself “Obama’s biggest fan” during a recent candidate forum. This is the closing argument from Stone – be scared of this guy because of some stuff that isn’t true:
Now, take a look at the video of the event in question. This might take you a minute, because you have to skip ahead to the 2-hour-1-minute mark, and volume is pretty bogus. Maybe that’s why Mike made his ad – it takes some work to debunk.
But debunk the Rant will. At the 2-hour-1-minute mark, Salmon responds to a question from forum moderator and Sanford Herald Publisher Bill Horner III about negative mailers.
“Do I agree with the president all the time? No. But I understand how political campaigns work, and I understand that there’s opposition research, and that was what doesn’t poll well in this district. So, ta-da, here I am. I’m Barack Obama’s biggest fan.”
Here at the Rant, we understand that soundbites are common in politics because advertising is expensive and you have to condense your message. But literally taking apart sentences to make them sound completely different is, well, the same as lying. Mike’s campaign committee endorsed the ad, which also falsely claims that Salmon “stroked checks to support Obama’s re-election,” (he didn’t) so he can’t pin this one on a third party.
This is the guy who called Brad Salmon a liar. And this is the guy who the Sanford Herald called a “decisive thinker” and that criticisms of his other deceptions are “unfair and shortsighted” in their endorsement.
It’s the last week of election season. That much is clear.
Soundbite or not … campaign finance reports show that Salmon supported Obama. Campaign finance reports show that Salmon has taken money from the same special interest groups that bank rolled Obama.
Coincidence, i think not.
I wish you guys would examine all the facts instead of taking your own sound bites from this “Anti-Salmon” ad. You guys are just as “guilty” as these negative ad authors. You calls yourselves unbiased. Maybe we should change “the rant” to “brad salmons news network”.
Once again polluting Sanford’s water with your own Liberal agenda.
Campaign finance reports are extremely interesting. I’m thankful to see very few individuals in Stone’s district contributing to him. He’s raised a ton of money, but most are from out of the area. So the irony of the focus on special interest groups isn’t lost on me – quite eye opening.
You go by the handle “Fed Up With Sanford’s Politics”. If that’s the case you should be fed up with Mike Stone. While I personally think Mike Stone did a good job on the Sanford City Council, he overstep his authority when he started to micro manage Lee County/Sanford’s political setup. I’m a life long resident of Sanford/Lee County. I never heard one person state that we need to make the City Council and School Board a partisan election. Yet, Mike took it upon himself to fix what wasn’t broken. Then he got involved with the CCCC Board setup because he was ticked at Chet Mann for the ads Chet’s group ran against the three republicans running during the last Lee County Commissioner election. I seem to remember those ads being against Mike as well. If you know Chet, you know that he’s pro business. I think at the time he was registered as unaffiliated, though I could be wrong. Chet’s group was concerned about the “Tea Party” republicans that wanted to do away with the Economic Development Corporation. Well, Mike decided to fix the CCCC Board, which just so happen to kick Chet off the board. On top of all that, Mike had Ray Covington, a person a think highly of, appointed to the Fracking Commission, though the position called for someone with a specific background, that Ray lacked. The sad part of all is that Mike would probably be a shoe in for re-election year after year, if he would just stick to core conservative principles rather than micro manage our local governments and get payback on people he felt wronged him in some way. He should look no farther that Tracy Carter to see how to govern. Tracy doesn’t appear hold grudges and is willing to work with people that have different political views.
Gosh, I got carried away. The bottom line is that it isn’t easy for people to serve in elected office. I think Mike is a good person doing what he thinks is right and certainly represents how a good portion of the citizens of his district feel. I worked for a Lee County Commissioner back in the day and know how an elected office can consume a person’s time. No matter the outcome of this election, I wish Mike and Brad Salmon nothing but the best.
This was included in a letter to the editor that was selected only to appear on the online edition of the Sanford Herald which endorsed Stone and Rabin
A legacy that is hard to erase pertains to the choices in state legislative races. Few voters seem to understand how powerful a legislator can be. This has been the case with Rep. Mike Stone and Sen. Ron Rabin.
A long standing tradition, started by Democrats, provides that when a county is represented in both houses of the legislature by a member of the majority party (now Republican), local bills that may affect that one county (Lee) are passed as a courtesy to the legislators. In effect, the bills involving the method of elections for school board and city council, and the removal of CCCC trustees, were passed by two votes—Ron Rabin and Mike Stone. Either one could have stopped. If a Democrat is elected to either seat, there will be no more local bills.
The power to make laws will continue if both Ron Rabin and Mike Stone are re-elected. For example, the more open position toward incentives taken by two Republican commissioner candidates ( Chris Delambert and Kevin Dodson) has convinced some that incentives will be back on the table regardless of the outcome. There is nothing that would prevent a local bill being passed by Stone and Rabin that would eliminate the use of incentives by both the city and the county. They are powerful officials.