Tuesday, November 10, 2009

McGroarty campaign website runs false support list?


This morning I found this page on the McGroarty campaign site http://www.mcgroartyforcongress.com/testimonials.html.

This page is no longer active on the website which is why I have the screen shot. Also google saved a cache copy of the page.


It listed several "testimonials." This included quotes apparently from Joe Alagna, Monte Finch, Andy Ronquillo, Tina Revane, Gayle Pacheco, Michael Calta and Justine Cunningham.


We have been posting on news from both McGroarty and Miller, so I posted several stories on this support. Obviously it is news for a challenger to receive support from current and former elected officials and from those who have sought office.
The Gayle Pacheco story included the quote the website stated was hers. It said

I had the pleasure of meeting with Lee less than a month ago. The first thing I
saw was his passion for America and his family. He is not a politician but an
average citizen that decided the status-quo was not good enough. He needs all
our support because our current Congressman has not fulfilled his obligations as
our representative in Washington. Lee will bring new solutions to very difficult
and challenging problems. I am behind him 100% and we need the People to step up
and get him elected.
- Gayle Pacheco, President, Four Corners Chapter of
California Women's Leadership Association (CWLA)

Several hours later we received the following comment from Lee. "My name is Lee McGroarty. The posting that states that Gayle Pacheco endorsed Lee McGroarty is a complete fabrication. I want to make it very clear that Gayle Pacheco has neither endorsed nor gave any indication that she was supporting our campaign. In fact, she has not. I have personally contacted Gayle Pacheco and expressed my personal apologies."


I changed the story to take out the word "endorse," but left the majority of the story because the quote was from his website. Pacheco's quote even stated, "I am behind him 100% and we need the people to step up and get him elected."


30 minutes later Gayle Pacheco posted the following comment, "This is Gayle Pacheco. I emphatically deny ever writing this piece. I never saw this until today. I have not endorsed Lee McGroarty for Congress. I met with Mr. McGroarty several months ago I told him I would not support his running against Congressman Gary Miller. This is a complete fabrication by the McGroarty campaign. In addition, I just spoke with Congressman Gary Miller personally and assured him that he has, as he always has, my complete loyalty and support."


I updated the story yet again. Then 45 minutes later Mrs Pacheco commented again. "Thank you for posting my comments. As I told Congressman Gary Miller this morning, he has my complete support. Congressman Gary Miller has done a tremendous job, not only for his District and California, but for our entire country. He has been, and continues to be, a great representative. We are privileged to have him serve us in Congress!"


So, what happened? Did the McGroarty campaign make up all of the quotes and support? Michael Calta has confirmed in the past his support of McGroarty. As to the other quotes, we will see. But this has to be embarrassing for the McGroarty campaign.

5 comments:

  1. Official statement from the McGroarty for Congress Campaign:

    On behalf of the McGroarty for Congress campaign, it has come to our attention through a blog purportedly supported by Congressman Gary Miller that a testimonials wishlist was published on our website recently. Some people on this page did not provide endorsements for the campaign and therefore the campaign had no intention of ever posting this page. Due to a technical error the information was accidentally made public, during which time the campaign staff was under the impression that this was a deleted page. The page was a draft created before the campaign kickoff and was never meant to be visible to the public. Through some webdesign changes, the page was mistakenly published and taken down immediately by our webdesigner without the campaign being notified. The webdesigner who made this public is no longer a part of the campaign team as swift administrative action was taken to correct this mistake. At no time was this meant to be published and Lee McGroarty is personally contacting each person affected by this error.

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  2. Thank you for the comment, we posted it as a story.

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  3. So, first Lee says you "fabricated the story," and now he admits fault.

    Campaigns make mistakes but to blame others for his campaign's mistake is ridiculous.

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  4. McGroarty wrote in a news release on his website, "My campaign believes the American people deserve better
    from their candidates. These types of drive-by allegations must end and I will
    commit to never engaging in unsubstantiated allegations toward my opponents. It
    would be refreshing if other candidates could offer the same respect."

    Yet he accuses this blog of making up the story and then makes an "unsubstantiated" allegation about Miller while admiting the mistake. No wonder people are tired of politicians. I want change in DC but McGroarty has made clear he is no longer that person. I am voting for Michael Williamson.

    www.michaelwilliamson.net/

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  5. Found another great quote from Lee in the Daily Bulletin.

    "I'm going to run an honorable campaign," McGroarty said. "I will not lie, and I will not post lies, however I will run a ruthless campaign, I will go after him and I will go after his jugular."

    Didn't he post a lie yesterday when he accused the writer of fabricating the story. I guess he was right about being ruthless.

    ReplyDelete