UPDATE #3: Mark Greene for Congress replied... Mr. Brinkman. We appreciate your having brought this matter to our attention, and will be in touch with the Vice Presidents office. While we were told that Congresswoman Granger had been invited and could not attend, we are also aware that it is impossible for a candidate for office, whether a challenger or incumbent, to appear anywhere without it being construed as campaigning. If you were to take an accurate random sampling of the students in the classes, you would find that I did not overly disparage my opponent (a bit is unavoidable when youre running to change the system and the officeholder is a nine-term incumbent), but placed most of my focus on our broken political system in general, the destructive effects of money and gerrymandering and partisanship, etc., issues not being addressed in any real way by either party - along with the critical importance of students getting involved and educated, and voting. Again, I appreciate your bringing your concern to our attention and will visit with the administration to determine whether we crossed any lines in their eyes. And my reply... Mr. Greene, Thank you for your courteous and quick response. I deliberately chose to avoid commenting on the content of your presentation yesterday to keep this discussion focused on the principles that I believe have been violated. The event was a celebration of our nations founding principles, not a campaign stop. I disagree with you that it is impossible for a candidate to appear anywhere without it being construed as campaigning. I doubt folks assume you are campaigning during worship services or at school events for your kids or grandkids, or on a date night with your spouse. Another elected official spoke in a different class on campus yesterday and managed to keep his comments to a discussion about the Constitution. You had a captive audience, and an hour of unchallenged time to speak your campaigns message and hand out campaign materials. While it may be difficult to appear anywhere without it being construed as campaigning, it appears to me that in this case, you didnt even try. Whether or not it is proper for a candidate for elective office to campaign in a classroom can certainly be a point of discussion. However, the fact that the ground rules for your participation in the event specifically prevented you from campaign activities is the larger concern for me. What does it say about you as a candidate for a position of public trust when you violate such simple rules? For the record, I spoke with both the Campus President’s office and the Executive Dean of Academics at the college and both of them were clear with me about the rules for the event. In fact, the Executive Dean questioned the relevance of anything you said to the subject matter of a Theater class. Mr. Greene, your campaign literature is filled commentary concerning our “broken political system in general, the destructive effects of money and gerrymandering and partisanship, etc.” yet your actions in this instance appear to be politics as usual.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 19:56:31 +0000
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