Republicans caught counterfeiting Kaine call.

Posted byWaldo Jaquith 13 Comments on Republicans caught counterfeiting Kaine call.

30 hours to go before the election, and the dirty tricks have clearly begun.

My friend David Sewell explains the phone call he got — my mother and my mother-in-law got the same phone call. The call purports to be made by Tim Kaine, but it’s either an impersonator or some fakery by using audio editing to rearrange his words.

The calls are being paid for by the Honest Leadership for Virginia PAC, a group established by the Republican Governors Association that has given $2.8M to Kaine opponent Jerry Kilgore.

I think Virginians should know about

      Jerry Kilgore's endorsement of Tim Kaine (MP3)
and
      Kilgore's support of gay marriage (MP3)
. (That’s a little audio fakery of my own.)

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

13 replies on “Republicans caught counterfeiting Kaine call.”

  2. I don’t think it’s audio fakery. I received the call and it matches up to a Kaine radio ad on his website.

    If Kaine really ran these ads, how can anyone complain that this is a dirty trick?

    If he didn’t want his “pro-life” radio ads to come back and haunt him in NOVA, perhaps he should never have cut them.

    Seems to me that the complaint should be registered with the Kaine campaign. He is the one who ran as pro-life in rural areas and as a pro-choice candidate in NOVA. If you ask me, it’s pretty clever to send this call into NOVA.

    Sorry it hurts, but they are Tim Kaine’s own words — in a radio ad he paid for and approved the script for.

  3. Even though the PAC’s website (www.honestleadershipforvirginia.com) is no longer online, here are a few facts gleaned from the internet:

    Created on April 26th, 2005 by the Republican Governors Association, the Honest Leadership for Virginia PAC has been Jerry Kilgores top funder. They also were responsible for the attack ad entitled “Another One” which showed clips of John Kerry and implied that Kaine raised property taxes as Mayor of Richmond (Kaine actually twice cut property taxes as mayor).

    This phone message sounds a lot like the fake “Official Democrat and Progressive Voter Guide” that have begun appearing in progressive parts of Virginia. Taking a candidates words out of context is sleazy enough, but this new campaign is clearly designed to mislead voters into believing that Kaine and the Democratic party were responsible for them.

    If you think this type of campaigning crosses the line, perhaps you should contact the “Honest Leadership” PAC (located at 1251 Dartmouth Ct. Alexandria , VA, 22314) by calling them at: 703-751-0612

  4. It’ not fake, guys, it’s a genuine Tim Kaine radio ad. It’s an ad that Kaine cut for SWVa, but I guess he didn’t intend for NoVa audiences to hear it.

    Are you really complaining about Republicans paying to run an ad that Kaine produced?

  5. If it’s not wrong for Republicans to pay to “distribute” an ad Tim Kaine’s campaign actually produced (and I don’t believe it is), then it can’t really be wrong for Tim Kaine’s campaign to pay to “distribute” a VCG press release.

    The same may apply to Jerry Kilgore’s recent mailer, but I haven’t seen a copy of it. I do find it peculiar that all the folks on the right who were hyper to scan and post the Kaine/VCG mailer haven’t done the same for the Kilgore/Potts mailer. I credit Mr. Leahy, who has been covering the Kilgore/Potts mailer with seemingly equal zeal to his coverage of the Kaine/VCG mailer.

  7. Given that we now know it is Kaine’s voice and that they spots are not snippets placed together, how about changing the title of this post?

    Might I suggest, “Republicans use Kaine against Kaine,” or something that does not imply that the RGA is making stuff up.

  8. Fact Check.

    The calls went throughout the Commonwealth, not just Northern Virginia.

    The ad the Repubs refer to does not progress the way this call did. A simple listen will illustrate the differences between the robo-call and the ad. It was a disgustingly simple case of cut and paste audio editing.

  9. C’mon, Simon — you don’t seriously expect to see a retraction or a mea culpa, do you?

    Past history suggests you’ll be waiting a LONG time for anything like that.

  11. Everybody that I’ve talked to who has heard both the call and the radio ad says that the call was edited, changing the meaning of Kaine’s words. Until I hear the both myself, I’ll assume that to be the case.

  12. According to Raising Kaine, the calls are edited: “They are splicing together statements Tim has made and taken them completely out of context. They string together “conservative” statements that they use in robocalls to liberal areas and “liberal” statements that they are putting into robocalls for conservative areas.”

Comments are closed.