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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Jenkins' American Century Problem Just Not Going Away

Poor Lynn Jenkins. It seems as the stories about her unethical participation in TV ads paid for by a company whose lobbyist and CEO gave her money right before she gave them a big ol' state contract just aren't drifting into the ether like she so hoped they would.

We've done our part, of course. We've already post about it here and here. Also, here and here.

The Kansas Democratic Party is in the game, now, too- they issued a press release on April 1 criticizing Jenkins for not being up front about the whole thing with the people of Kansas.

While defending her appearance in mailers and ads for American Century before two different elections, Jenkins wrote in the Kansas City Star that “Research conducted by American Century found that [her] presence in the ads…bring credibility, attention and reassurance to Kansans” and that she would have been “knowingly doing a disservice to the program and to the people of Kansas” had she not participated. Yet, Jenkins has not produced any such research to verify these statements.
Well, she did produced "research" to "verify" her statements. Her office managed to find one slide from one PowerPoint presentation that says "she makes the ads better!" without any statistics or any references to back it up. And the quote from the silly slide isn't even very good:
"They see it's from Lynn Jenkins and it's professionally done and that impresses people and carries a lot of weight."
That's a three conjunction monster-of-a stupid quote.

So, we're just supposed to take Lynn Jenkins and American Century Investments at their word that it's all on the up-and-up and that her gleaming grin is just necessary for the ads to be successful at all.

No one's buying it, Lynn.
“If there is any disservice, it is for Lynn Jenkins to engage in this kind of questionable behavior so close to an election and only now attempt to defend these actions with false claims. Kansans deserve a straight answer from Lynn Jenkins about her participation in these ads and a promise that she will not continue what would be a flagrant violation of federal ethics rules in this race,” said Kansas Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Gaughan.
In the end, this isn't about whether or not Jenkins is lying out of her behind when she talks about how "research proves" it is very, very, very necessary it is for her to appear in those ads, this is about Lynn Jenkins not having the moral clarity to do what's right- and what's right is for her to say "Thanks, but no thanks," to American Century Investments if they choose to run ads featuring her smiling face again while she's still a candidate for Congress. Not just because it's the morally correct thing for her to do, but because anything else would have her coming awfully close to violating election law.

Today, we're happy to join with the Kansas Democratic Party in there call:
One PowerPoint slide doesn’t seem adequate to justify her presence in these ads if we’re talking about a future potential FEC violation. We’re calling on Lynn Jenkins to promise she won’t appear in American Century ads during both the FEC primary window and general election window.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations define an electioneering communication as: “Any broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that (1) refers to a clearly identified candidate for Federal office; (2) is publicly distributed within 60 days before a general election or 30 days before a primary election for the office sought by the candidate referenced in the communication; and (3) in the case of a Congressional candidate, is targeted to the relevant electorate.”
Sorry, Lynn...you're the one with a bad ethical compass who decided to run for Congress. 'Course, as we've pointed out before, this doesn't make you any different than former Congressman Jim Ryun...peas in the same corrupt pod.


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have permission to use their logo?

Anonymous said...

It is not against the law, Jim Ryun already tried that angle. This type of ad is common in the 529 industry. Get over it BB. You wrote this the divert attention from the LJ stalker that is talked about at THEKANSASREPUBLICAN. The writers of this blog should be careful about saying something is unethical.

Boyda Bloc said...

no, we didn't post this to divert attention from the crazy on TKR...but we're happy to think we care if you don't like the fact the KDP is smarter than the KS GOP.

Anonymous said...

Is this issue anything like the "newsletter" that Congresswoman Boyda has suddenly started sending out?

I am sure it is only coincidence that it has started coming monthly to my house now that the campaign is in full swing.

And it say right on there that this "newsletter" cough cough campaign information is funded by the taxpayer.

Anonymous said...

i'm just glad she's communicating with her constituents at all..unlike Ryun when he was in office.

doesn't look like a campaign piece to me...looks like she's telling you what she's done in office.

you just don't like her- shut up.

Anonymous said...

lynn jenkins is a freakin' joke...no one knows she's running for anything, no on knows what she even does now...and we all know she doesn't have the backbone for real politics.

get out of it, lady, and let the big kids play.

Anonymous said...

So how does Jenkins 529 ads look like a campaign piece? They don't. Again BB has double standards. As far as Jenkins playing with the big boys, she was in the house, senate and statewide official. What was boyda before she ran? What was Ryun before he ran. If she was a joke why would Boyda and the Dems follow her around to her all her campaign coffee's?? They are scared and they should be.

Anonymous said...

Why didn't any papers print the KDP press release? It is already 10 days old and nobody picked it up? Must not be a story.

Anonymous said...

stupid conservative jackasses....the KDP is filming both lynn and jim waiting for them to have a "macaca" moment. or for jim to speak in tongues again.

jenkins is so far out of her league it hurts...ryun's even willing to say it.

Anonymous said...

jenkins isn't out of her league? she raised $90K in the 4Q of 2007...that's embarrassing.

Anonymous said...

and she still had more money than a 5 term congressmen. Out of her league my ass.

Anonymous said...

and she's been doubled by a Democrat in Kansas....so sad.

she's a lightweight and is going to get creamed in the primary.

Anonymous said...

I guess when you are a Party who can't win based on ideas you have to go for the personal attacks and tape recording people hoping they mis-speak.

Why can't Boyda win based off of her great ideas?

Anyone who believes that the Boyda campaign has nothing to do with this is a fool. Boyda is the only person benefitting from the Kansas Democratic Party funded stalkers.

Anonymous said...

anyone who denies reality is a fool..and since the KDP is the one doing this, you, my friend, are the fool.

do you think boyda's the only one who benefits? no. the KDP and Sebelius CAN'T let a Democratic member of Congress lose on their watch. if boyda does, watch sebelius's national clout vanish.

silly republicans...think bigger than yourself.

This blog is not affiliated in any way with the Kansas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, the Office of Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, or the campaign to re-elected Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. All commentary herein not directly attributed must be considered the opinion of the authors of this blog and not of any other individual, including Congresswoman Nancy Boyda.