Veracity never a small issue

The Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: June 2, 2008

Truth is not a technicality.

Honesty is not optional.

A state police report says that two Orange County political action committees violated campaign laws last fall, according to commonwealth’s attorney Diana Wheeler.

Expenditures by the Orange County Taxpayers Alliance and the Orange County Citizens Committee were not reported to the local election board to meet legal deadlines, the report says.

In addition, the OCTA failed to acknowledge its sponsorship of advertisements and Web sites, the report says, also in violation of state law.

Marcia Landau of the OCTA says the investigation was unfairly targeted, that the commonwealth’s attorney released only selective portions of the report, that the alleged violations were mere “technical campaign infractions” and that pursuing them “amount[s] to making a mountain out of a molehill.”

But truth is much more than a technicality. The need to require honesty from campaigns and PACs in situations like this was the reason the law was enacted.

If voters know that a favorable advertisement or Web site is funded by the candidate himself — or a PAC operating on his behalf — they may choose to take the information in that advertisement or Web site with a grain of salt.

If voters know that an advertisement or Web site casting a candidate in an un-favorable light is funded by his opponent — or a PAC operating on his behalf — they are free to adapt their conclusions to account for the bias of the source.

State law requires independent expenditures made in support of or opposition to a candidate to be reported within 24 hours. Expenditures by the OCTA and OCCC on behalf of Board of Supervisors candidate Zack Burkett were not reported in time, the police report says.

Mr. Burkett is listed by a watchdog group as treasurer of the OCTA; in the state police report, Ms. Landau, who is his wife, is listed as treasurer. Either way, voters should have had access to the information.

Meanwhile, Ms. Wheeler says that two Web sites opposing Mr. Burkett’s political adversary, Thomas Graves, and another candidate, Teel Goodwin, were maintained by the OCTA — but failed to carry the necessary disclaimers.

Worse, the Web sites were listed as being sponsored by Mr. Goodwin and Mr. Graves — but they were not.

The sites contained negative personal and professional information about the two.

Imagine what voters might have thought: If the candidates posted this kind of damaging information about themselves, what worse information might they be hiding? Is this the best they can present?

Uninformed voters would have come away with an unchallenged negative impres-sion of the candidates — never realizing that the Web sites were in fact maintained by the candidates’ foes.

If the allegations are correct, this would be worse than failing to post accurate disclaimer information — this would be outright deception.

The PACs can pay fines now or force the commonwealth’s attorney to take the case to civil court, where they can argue their side in more detail.

Ms. Landau has said that the alleged violations are technicalities. But truth is far more than a technicality.