When the scramble for Jackie Spier's seat in the US Congress started in November, we dropped the flag here. Then the gamesmanship (can I still use that word? Yes.) got interesting here. Now we have the first video advertisement of the race from our own Emily Beach titled "Shoes" that DJ columnist Mark Simon addressed yesterday here. I was reading it aloud over lunch to someone with as much local, institutional political memory as Mark Simon; starting near the bottom of the column:
Beach has used some of her money to launch a new video ad, the first one in the campaign. Titled “Shoes” it shows the various shoes she has worn as an Army captain, businesswoman, a volunteer and councilmember. The ad opens with Beach saying, “Jackie Speier has big shoes to fill.” A video shot of Speier is in the background.
That is as far as my reading got before my lunch partner said, "Oh….Jackie is not gonna like that! Gina Papan tried that during a county supervisor race and it did not end well."
Recall that Dave Pine is our sitting supe. Simon goes on to write:
It is an unwritten rule in local politics that campaign materials not include a photo of someone who has endorsed your opponent. In this case, Speier has made an unusually high profile endorsement of Mullin.
So, it is a little surprising to see that shot of Speier briefly but prominently on display, in the Beach ad. Asked about it, Beach said that the screen shot is from Speier’s public video announcement of her retirement. “I was impressed by her message and by her life’s work,” Beach said.
It could be argued that the video is, in essence, in the public domain, but the problem with unwritten rules is, you know, they are unwritten. In the past, Speier has been known to react testily to the unsanctioned use of her image.
There are at least two scenarios at play here. One says Jackie triples down on her support for Mullin with more fundraising help for the money front-runner, recorded phone messages, big color glossy mailers, et al. Scenario 2 says she is wrapping things up politically and will let Mullin passively choose what he wants in the way of images and collateral. In my experience, it takes a while to get passive in retirement.
Click through and read the rest of Simon's column for the money trail. You won't get a word on the policy differences between Beach, Mullin or Canepa, but at least you have "the rest of the story" here. "politics is a blood sport" Aneurin Bevan (Welsh Labour Party politician)
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