"Unfair surprise prohibited." That's the headline that prefaces the state law governing "independent" expenditures in political campaigns— especially ads purchased to attack a candidate or candidates at the last minute.
The law is specific: right". And somebody had to make all those changes. And that somebody got paid.
No matter who prepared the ad, the true cost of production, out-of-pocket or in-kind, had to be, in our professional opinion, more than $62.50.
Let's find out. We urge Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer to call for an investigation by a prosecutor completely independent of Zuelch. Certainly our Republican governor might be interested in the possibility that the Republican primary here might have been tainted.
Before he prepared his ad, David Paul Horan certainly read the law concerning restrictions on independent expenditures to support or oppose a candidate. It does not seem unreasonable to believe that he knew exactly how to circumvent the spirit of the law— the law prohibiting "unfair surprise"— by simply keeping the cost of his ad below $1000.
But he may have inadvertently screwed up by forgetting to include the production costs.
But even if an investigation reveals that his shameful ambush of candidate Barnes was technically legal, we all can and should, at least, question Horan's ethics. What he did is why most people think lawyers are slime.
Stay tuned.