Monday, October 04, 2004

The Reporter - News Political endorsements and Charities

The Reporter - News: "The commercial, 30 seconds long, starts out solemnly, introducing the ad in white letters across a black screen as 'a public message about air pollution.'
The narrator, a former president of the California Medical Association, goes on to announce that one in seven children in the Central Valley suffers from asthma.
Then he says, 'Podesto has sided with his campaign contributors and against the American Lung Association of California.'
Darlene Demarco, executive director of the American Lung Association office in Stockton, saw the campaign ad Friday morning and complained to the charity's governmental-relations arm in Sacramento.
By the afternoon, the association was telling Machado in strong language to pull its name from the ad.
According to federal law, a charitable organization cannot endorse a political candidate, and the association did not authorize it in this case, wrote Paul Knepprath, vice president for governmental relations."

No comments: