by David Safier
The Bee “This is not a political ad, just a Thank You” political ad has been pulled from the airwaves. (Kudos, by the way, to Star reporter Daniel Scarpinato, who has put together two excellent articles about the controversy, filled with valuable information. I’ve criticized Scarpinato in the past, often in emails I’ve sent him, but these articles have been examples of good reporting in the public interest.)
The central question — were these ads an example of school district funds used to “influence the outcome of an election,” which is expressly forbidden by state law? — has not been answered. A simple, “We did nothing wrong, but we won’t do it again,” is not a sufficient response.
So let’s look at the situation. A $16,000 television buy is made to run this ad, not just in Bee’s district, but in the larger CD-8 area where he’s running against Gabrielle Giffords. The ad says Tim Bee is “Fighting for fairness in southern Arizona,” even though the bill in question is intended to spread educational dollars equally all over Arizona.
According to the Star article, “Bee has said he had little knowledge and no involvement in the ad.” Here is how this English teacher translates that statement: “When the ad was being created and televised, I knew something about what was going on, but I wasn’t involved in actually creating the ad or planning its distribution.” In the political trade, this is known as a “non-denial denial.” Bee, who has asked that the ad be taken down now that there is controversy, apparently thought it was fine before, when he knew a “little” about the ad. How much is a “little”? Bee ain’t sayin’.
This ad was targeted to do the most good for Bee in his CD-8 race, probably with a wink and a nod from Bee himself. It was created and aired using educational funding with the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election, which state law says is a No-no.
The Education Finance Reform Group which put out the ad also sent out a mailer “thanking” Sen. Paula Aboud (D-Tucson). I assume it only went out to people in her district. The lobbying group won’t say how much it spent on the mailer, though I’m guessing it’s less than the $16,000 it spent on the Bee ad. (In an email to me, by the way, Aboud said she knows nothing about the mailer and hasn’t seen it.)
The Education Finance Reform Group had also planned to run a TV ad for Rep. Tom Boone (R-Peoria) before all this fuss, but the ad has been cancelled. I’m going to guess the cost of the Boone ad would have been closer to the Bee ad than the Aboud mailer.
So here is what we have: Thank you’s for TIM BEE!!!, paula aboud and TOM BOONE!!! If that smells like nonpartisan thank you’s to your nose, to mine it reeks of misuse of tax dollars by a group of school districts trying to help two Republican with their election bids, and trying to cover their tracks by throwing a very small bone to a Democrat.
To put the final piece in place, here is what Scarpinato says of John Kaites, the head of Public Policy Partners, the lobbying firm that created the ads:
The lobbyist for the group, John Kaites, contributed $2,300 to Bee in November. And Kaites, a former lawmaker, was the co-sponsor of a fundraising event for Bee that same month in Phoenix.
If the lobbying firm and its school district clients wanted to thank three legislators in the most nonpartisan, cost effective way, they would have created one TV ad praising and thanking all three together. The message would be “When legislators from both sides of the aisle work together to benefit education, everybody wins.” Now that’s a good, nonpartisan message. But I guess it puts REPUBLICANS!!!! and democrats on an equal footing, and that’s not the message Kaites was going for.