While lots of political stunts can run the gamut to dishonest to outright stupid, at least it's usually their money, so what the heck? But when it's YOUR money paying for his political advancement, there's a little bit more at stake.
It seems that Congressman - and candidate for Governor - Gresham Barrett, under the guise of informing his constituents about what he's doing and where he's standing, sent this mailing out courtesy of his Congressional office, using tax dollars to pay for it. This practice, commonly referred to as "franking", involves the sending of taxpayer-subsidized mail by members of Congress to their constituents. The practice of franking was loudly criticized by many of those who led the seemingly-forgotten "Republican Revolution" of 1994, in which the GOP won control of Congress, promising a wide range of ethical reforms.
We'll quote the media release we received and post images of the mailing, and let you decide what YOU think of this stunt:
Greenville- Conservative Upstate group leaders today called on Congressman Gresham Barrett to disclose the amount of money he is spending on franking mail that benefits his campaign for Governor and to return the money to the taxpayers. The group displayed an enlarged copy of a mail piece sent by the Congressman that they said was clearly designed to boost his name ID to benefit his campaign and did not serve as official Congressional business.
In attendance were Dean Allen, Executive Director of ROAR (Restore Our American Republic); Butch Taylor, President of Greenville County Taxpayers Association; Kim Williams, Vice President of Greenville County Taxpayers Association; Brian Frank with The Campaign for Liberty; and Harry Kibler, State Director of Patriotic Resistance (an off shoot of GrassFire.org).
Butch Taylor said, “The Taxpayers Association is very upset any time elected officials waste taxpayers money and this mail piece is a clear example of waste.” ROAR leader and news conference organizer Dean Allen said that “Congressman Barrett sent out what looks like a nice piece of campaign literature, and he should have paid for it with his own campaign money instead of taxpayers’ money. I am calling on Gresham Barrett to tell the American people how much taxpayers’ money was used on this franked mailing and give it back to the taxpayers.”
For someone who has already gotten himself on the very visible bad side of fiscal conservative watchdogs, such a move is - in our humble opinion - extremely boneheaded, not to mention downright disrepectful of taxpayers.
Thanks go out to those who called Barrett on this stunt for doing what the mailing encouraged them to do - make their voices heard.
8 comments:
Butch Taylor said, “The Taxpayers Association is very upset any time elected officials waste taxpayers money and this mail piece is a clear example of waste.”
Megga Dittos Butch,
Taxpayers throughout SC recognize this type of flagrant disregard for taxpayers as blatantly immoral if not illegal. The taxpyers of SC stand with our friends in Greenville County in their effort to hold our elected officials accountable for their "taxpayer funded politics". Just a shot across the bow that we recognize that other congressmen and senators in SC are equally as guilty as Mr. Barrett, and "we the people of SC have had enough". Gentlemen, we'll see you at the polls next June and November!!
Ron Turner
We The People of SC
Give the man a break. I hear there are ten people who is going to run against Gresham. Nobody can satisfy that Greenville bunch. They are all about themselves. I bet the average Republican in this state gets a dozen emails or more a month from Dean Allen and the rest of those guys. Who is paying their bills. If Gresham is guilty they all are. It seems to me Gresham is just the flavor of the month right now. I cant understand why this bunch is worried about a little postage when we got much bigger problems out there with the current Obama people. Get a life give me a break you so called fiscal conservatives of the upstate.
While you are at it, care to call out House GOP whip Eric Cantor for launching the listening/not listening Campaign for a New America (or whatever it's called) from his official website?
Gresham Barrett has been a do nothing Congressman. He will be a do nothing Governor. Give the man a pair of flip flops and send him on his way.
What about all the PSA's that Henry McMaster and Andre Bauer did. They did these simply because they are elected officials. Wonder how much money that would have cost if they paid for it.
I like Gresham Barrett got one of his tee shirts on right now.
Was this mailed to anyone outside Barrett's district? If so did I miss getting one in my mailbox? Else, unless he's hitting issues that have only statewide interest and no federal implication, we're whizzing around gray areas and doing no worse than Henry and Andre are with their PSAs (or my incumbent congresscritter and senators).
I can't say that Mr. Barrett is in my first tier of choices and I understand via Youtube and Mike Gallagher that the Greenville TEA party crowd seemed less pleased with him than they are with Bob Inglis. What to Bob's mail pieces look like?
Henry Brown does the same crap. They both make me sick!
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