Pulled into the campaign mailer madness

It's always makes me cringe when something I write about a campaign becomes part of a campaign.

It's inevitable, but still jarring, to see something I've written snatched from its full context and splashed across a campaign TV ad or mailer. It's happened to me many times over the years. The first time I can remember was in 1998, when Democrats pulled some partial quote from a story I wrote about Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ross Lightfoot to argue he didn't believe schools need computers.

Can they do that? I wondered back then. Yeah, they can. And they will. And nobody's going to ask you if it's OK.

A few days ago I received a mailer from the Iowa Democratic Party assailing Republican Senate District 34 hopeful Rene Gadelha's 'New Jersey-Style Campaign.” Gadelha, who lives in Marion, moved to Iowa from New Jersey. What, did she order a bridge closed?

The mailer highlights the F grade Gadelha received from a KCRG TV fact-check of claims made in mailers attacking the legislative voting record of Democratic Sen. Liz Mathis of Robins. That much is true.

It's also peppered with quotes from 'The Cedar Rapids Gazette,” including 'Remarkably dishonest,” 'So obviously phony,” and 'Mailboxes full of phony attacks and precious few solutions.”

Hey, that looks familiar.

Those quotes came from my September 19 column. 'Remarkably dishonest” actually was how I characterized a mailer from Priorities for Iowa, an outside group opposing Mathis but technically unaffiliated with Gadelha's campaign, claiming Mathis backed shutting down mental health institutes. 'So obviously phony” and the 'mailboxes” quote are how I described tactics deployed in too many Iowa legislative campaigns, including Gadelha's, to focus on meaningless votes at the expense of addressing real issues.

I guess you'd call that Iowa-style politics.

Again, I'm not surprised to be pulled into to the fray. In 2011, when this seat was up for grabs in a high-stakes special election to decide control of the Senate, Republicans liberally used quotes from a column I wrote about Mathis criticizing her for dodging my questions about numerous issues. By the time it was over, neither side was adding me to their Christmas card list.

What's misleading now is the notion these quoted assessments are backed up by full faith and credit of 'The Cedar Rapids Gazette.” They were printed in The Gazette, but, in reality, they are just one guy's opinion. When I'm writing my column, I speak only for myself. In attributing them to the newspaper as a whole, Democrats are seeking to give them authority, power and heft they lack if attributed solely to one hack. Notwithstanding my power to rig an election.

Of course, just when I'm preparing to ding Democrats and Mathis for fudging a mailer, Republicans and Gadelha hit my mailbox with a new one blaming Mathis for Obamacare premium increases. The smoking gun? Mathis attended an Obamacare panel in 2012 led by then-U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley. Gotcha!

Never mind that the state senate didn't pass, and has no power to fix, Obamacare. That's Congress. But you knew that, because you're smarter than a GOP strategist.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com