In an email to supporters, A.D. #72 Democratic candidate John MacMurray rightfully took on inaccurate coverage of his campaign by both the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. The Special Election between Democrat MacMurray and Republican Norby to fill the A.D. #72 seat is slated for tomorrow, January 12th.
Of course, under-coverage by the Register and Times of Democratic candidates and campaigns in Orange County is nothing new. Frankly, the practice is almost so prevalent as to make it a time-honored tradition in this county controlled by Republican political leaders.
But inaccurate coverage based on failure to adequately check the facts… well, thankfully, it’s still rare in the Orange County press, although not unheard of.
Wrote John a few days ago:
“According to recent articles in the OC Register by Martin Wisckol and the LA Times by Jean Merl, our campaign has not used mailers, phone banking, or precinct walking.
“So, all of you good people who have been so generous with your time and your talents. . it appears that you didn’t really do those things.
Also, maybe, that you didn’t get the mailer you got, the one with CDP Chairman John Burton’s kind words saying, ‘John MacMurray is a local teacher who will work to ensure that every child receives the quality education needed to succeed in today’s workforce. He will also make California’s economic recovery a priority and advocate on behalf of our essential community services.’ Yeah. That mailer.
“But, to all of you who know better..that would be all of you who showed up even from south OC and LA county so many times at Chris Fredrickson’s house to pick up your precinct maps and door hangers; to use the phone room two nights a week at United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324; and who phoned and are still phoning from your homes, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! “
I can attest to the extraordinary effort invested over many months by MacMurray volunteers into phone banking, precinct walking, neighbor-to-neighbor contact, and similar: I’ve seen it, and I’ve personally done it.
Orange County is tough enough political territory for Democrats to get timely press coverage. One would hope that, in the interest of basic fairness, the Register and Times would at least get their facts right!
Speaking of accuracy, would someone please show me where I said MacMurray wasn’t going mailers, phone banking or precinct walking? It took him a week to return my phone calls, but when he finally did, I asked him specifically about what he was doing to campaign. He mentioned phone banking. And while he didn’t mention mailers, he subsequently sent me an email saying he sent out a single mailer of 17,000 pieces.
It has come to my attention that on the Total Buzz blog, Jan. 4, I wrote that Norby “continues to campaign, with mailers and phone banks. MacMurray has not used either.”
At the time I could not find evidence of the mailers or phone banking. I was subsequently able to ascertain that MacMurray did in fact have a mailer and the campaign had made phone calls, as noted in my previous comment. My apologies for any inaccuracy.
Martin, we appreciate that your article today is fact-based, although TheLiberalOC.com does wonder why you give less “print space” to MacMurray who garnered 27% of the primary vote, than to the Green Party candidate who garnered a small fraction of those votes:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/norby-228274-percent-republican.html?pic=3
And thank you for acknowledging the errors in your Jan 4, 2010 column.
Unless I’m missing something, MacMurray got more print space than Rands. Here are all the sentences that directly talks about either one of them, including quotes:
MacMurray:
*By comparison, Democrat John MacMurray garnered fewer than that – 10,776 – in the final tally of the November primary, and he was the only Democrat running.
* MacMurrary received 27 percent of the November vote.
*MacMurray, a middle-school teacher, has spoken out against education cuts and called for more comprehensive health care, but hasn’t articulated specific proposals.
“There are a lot of ideas out there,” he said.
The La Habra resident had raised $12,300 through the filing period ending Dec. 26, and added $15,000 of his own money. As of Dec. 26, he had $3,900 left in his campaign account.
*”His is a very traditional, well-funded campaign and ours isn’t,” MacMurray said, adding that his campaign did a single mailing to 17,000 Democrats. “We’re speaking to small groups. Maybe nothing splashy but we’re doing stuff.”
*************************************************
RANDS:
*The Green Party’s Jane Rand received 1,126 votes in the primary.
*Rands, a systems engineer, is the most different from Norby. Among other distinctions, she says the 2008 education cuts can be backfilled by removing tax breaks for the wealthy. The Fullerton resident acknowledges that she’s unlikely to win.
“But by talking about these issues, it helps get them out in the open,” she said. “It makes it easier for other people who might agree to speak out in favor of these things.”
*Rands has raised $2,500 and added $1,100 of her own money.
Here’s the direct link to the story: http://www.ocregister.com/news/norby-228274-percent-republican.html