Anti-Ethical Electioneering

It's Election Day 2009, so what better topic than a particularly slimy instance of negative campaigning that attacks a candidate for seeking an advisory opinion from the local ethics board, and actually following it.

According to an article on kcrg.com this Sunday, a candidate's flier said that his incumbent Cedar Rapids city council opponent “had been accused of ethics violations and appeared before the city ethics board ... TWICE!" In fact, he had appeared to get an advisory opinion on one occasion, and on the other occasion it appears from an article in the Gazette that a  complaint had been filed, but that the council member had recused himself and this was deemed proper by the ethics board.

Distortion of facts is sadly a common feature of political races, but making it look like an opponent had ethics problems when he had acted responsibly is an especially ugly sort of distortion.