Over the past week or so, you may have received the following postcard from Mike Christian. He's the hard partyin', karaoke singin', workers comp abusin' good old boy who's running for Oklahoma county sheriff.
For the most part, it looks like your standard campaign postcard. You have four boring white men endorsing a candidate from their party. The only problem is three of them didn't technically give an endorsement.
Via a Nolan Clay article with NewsOK.com:
U.S. Sen. James Lankford, U.S. Rep. Steve Russell and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole have not endorsed the Republican candidate for Oklahoma County sheriff and the use of their photos on his mailer was unauthorized, their campaign managers said Thursday.
The candidate, Mike Christian, acknowledged Thursday a mistake was made but said it was the result of a misunderstanding by his campaign staff.
"We are surprised that this has become such an issue," he said.
I agree with Mike on this. Who actually pays attention or reads campaign mailers? I have a special storage unit in my house for them. It's called a trash can.
The state GOP is apparently very mad that Mike made up the endorsements. They sent a mean letter to him and his campaign consultant, Ralph Shortey, about the postcard:
In small print, the mailer says: "Paid for by Oklahoma Republican Party." On Wednesday, the state GOP sharply rebuked Christian's campaign consultant, state Sen. Ralph Shortey, particularly for using the senator's and congressmen's official photos.
"The photo you used was produced at taxpayer expense and use for campaign purposes is strictly prohibited by federal law," GOP attorney Anthony J. Ferate wrote. "It is my understanding that you mailed three pieces of mail for clients in the past several days, two of which have been raised as questionable to this point.
"The decisions you have undertaken in the past several days have the potential to cause reviews by the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, the Federal Election Commission and the ... ethic committees in the U.S. House and Senate."
Friendly reminder, Ralph Shortey is the same guy who introduced a bill in the Oklahoma senate seeking to ban the use of aborted fetuses in food products. It was titled the "Can We Just Abort The Entire Oklahoma Legislature" Act.
Getting caught lying about endorsements for your fledgling campaign is pretty embarrassing. In fact, it's almost as bad as getting caught embellishing your college football career....
In a statement, Christian said that two people on his campaign staff had been working with the Republican Party for mail production and delivery. He said they were told about the GOP's "ability to use any Republican nominee as a slate to show party unity and to support each other during the election." He said both "misunderstood the application of this concept which resulted in us sending out what we thought was a slate piece added to our mail piece."
He said, "Our campaign has instituted new procedures to ensure this mistake does not happen in the future."
A biography in the mailer says Christian, after graduating from high school, "went on to letter for the University of Oklahoma football team in 1992." It does not say that he lettered as an equipment manager.
Hmmn. Maybe Mike and Ralph should contact Skip Bayless. He'd probably endorse him in a heartbeat.
