Gordon K. Durnil (former Republican state chairman if that name is familiar) is justifiably outraged about the Orentlicher mailer I mentioned the other day.
Orentlicher mailer dips to new low in politics
I have been involved in campaigns and elections in Marion County, Indiana and nationally since 1959. I served as president of the Marion County Election Board and on legislative study committees trying to improve the electoral process. I have also served on the Indiana State Recount Commission for more than a decade, been campaign manager for numerous candidates and served as Indiana Republican state chairman. I have produced so-called negative commercials and publications and have been criticized for them. I am not easily shocked by "edgy" campaign techniques.
But I have received a mailer from my state representative, David Orentlicher, that clearly dips to an all-time low in sleazy politicking. The front cover of the mailer has an 8-by-10 photo of a lady with oxygen tubes in her nose and text reading, "We could cure her disease . . . " Page two has that lady on a gurney with her head covered by a sheet, obviously dead, with text reading, "But Kathryn Densborn opposes life-saving stem-cell research."
In the mailer Orentlicher accuses Densborn, his opponent, with deliberately causing the death of the woman in the photo. I don't believe I have ever experienced a deliberate campaign tactic quite so callous or so completely devoid of moral guidance. Accusing your opponent of murder is beyond the pale. Orentlicher should immediately offer a public apology or resign his seat in the General Assembly.
Gordon K. Durnil
Indianapolis
And that doesn't even address the "smearing with a wide brush" issue I brought up, that the website they quote in the mailer doesn't say she's against ALL stem-cell research -- just that she's against intentionally killing human embryos in pursuit of it.
FWIW, we came home Sunday night to find an Orentlicher sign in our yard. My mother unfortunately told the campaign a year or so ago that they could do that, and they called asking if they could put one there last spring after we moved into the house. We didn't respond, but they put one out anyway. They were called and told never to do that again -- and it's not just because I'm a conservative and happen to be registered Republican, it's because Sally and I agreed that politics were off the menu when we got married. I would no more put out a Densborn sign than an Orentlicher sign. (Although I have half a mind to ask her if we can put out an Eric Dickerson sign, since we both loathe Julia Carson, Senile-Indiana.)
So I guess I'll have to call the Orentlicher campaign and complain. And possibly complain to the Board of Elections, too.
UPDATE: Durnil's letter was in yesterday's paper. Today's paper has several more letters on the flyers. One is from a logically challenged person who claims that the brochure is 100% accurate, using the same flawed approach:
Even if Densborn does support adult stem cell research, the most recent credible, peer-reviewed scientific research shows that only embryonic stem cell research can lead to cures for these diseases.
The research may SUGGEST it. It hasn't SHOWN anything yet. That's why it's still being RESEARCHED.
This person must have missed Logical Fallacies 101 in college on her way to the BS in physics, the degree in law, and the current study of chemistry that she claims. She is doing no less than setting up a straw man to change the subject.
The bottom line is that the brochure was sleazy, tasteless, and not at all up to the level of genteel debate that we would prefer in politics, regardless of what level of truth it contained. Orentlicher needs to apologize for it and distance himself from its message.
