Committee: Slaughter Violated Fair Election Practices Pledge
By: WROC-TV
Updated: October 2, 2012
A committee says longtime-Congresswoman Louise Slaughter violated the Fair Election Practices pledge in her ad that attacks the record of her challenger, Maggie Brooks.
The ad in question points out several events that the Slaughter campaign says happened during the County Executive's years in office that have cost taxpayers over $423 million. But the committee ruled that claim to be "significantly overblown or outright false." In addition, the committee ruled that several of the issues brought up in the ad by the Slaughter campaign were wrongfully attributed to Brooks, as they were events that occurred before she took office in 2004. They also found it improper to refer to some of the events as "scandals."
The Slaughter campaign issued the following statement in reaction to the committee's decision:
"We are disappointed that the FEPC sided with Maggie Brooks' assertion that only tens of millions of dollars should be cited as the cost of her corruption. We continue to stand by our claim that when a group of insiders obtains a contract through a corrupt process, the entire contract is corrupt. Whether you estimate the cost of Brooks' corruption in the tens of millions of dollars or
the hundreds of millions of dollars, the fact remains that taxpayers are footing the bill for her scandals, while Brooks still refuses to take responsibility."
Brooks' campaign is now calling for Slaughter to remove her ad from the airwaves.
The ad in question points out several events that the Slaughter campaign says happened during the County Executive's years in office that have cost taxpayers over $423 million. But the committee ruled that claim to be "significantly overblown or outright false." In addition, the committee ruled that several of the issues brought up in the ad by the Slaughter campaign were wrongfully attributed to Brooks, as they were events that occurred before she took office in 2004. They also found it improper to refer to some of the events as "scandals."
The Slaughter campaign issued the following statement in reaction to the committee's decision:
"We are disappointed that the FEPC sided with Maggie Brooks' assertion that only tens of millions of dollars should be cited as the cost of her corruption. We continue to stand by our claim that when a group of insiders obtains a contract through a corrupt process, the entire contract is corrupt. Whether you estimate the cost of Brooks' corruption in the tens of millions of dollars or
the hundreds of millions of dollars, the fact remains that taxpayers are footing the bill for her scandals, while Brooks still refuses to take responsibility."
Brooks' campaign is now calling for Slaughter to remove her ad from the airwaves.
