In the mail this week, voters received the predictable attack ads on the 47th District Republican candidates. Accusations are lodged that are clearly false and designed to make some voters think the candidates are unsuitable for office. The originators apparently think the voters are too stupid to see through this.

The ads were sent by three Political Action Committees (PACs): Independence PAC, Families PAC and Together PAC. All have the same Auburn address. Each of these PACs show the top and only contributor is another PAC: Unity PAC, Basic PAC and Succeed PAC, respectively. This is a political shell game to try to evade the state law requiring advertising show the contributors to the advertising.

Behind the ads is a political consulting firm called Moxie Media. When you pull back the shells they all lead to unions and special interest groups such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood and the Roosevelt Fund, an arm of the Democratic Legislative Committee.

Moxie Media is already under investigation by the Public Disclosure Commission for pulling this same ruse in August that may or may not have led to the defeat of Sen. Jean Berkey. They knew they were accused of violating as many as six state laws before they put out these ads in the 47th district.

As voters, we should be so repulsed by this sort of political tactic that we vote for the targets. In this case, Mark Hargrove and Joe Fain. Only Rodrigo Yanez so far has been spared.

– James West