Attack on middle class candidate for drawing a salary from campaign funds

[undeterred]

OK its not just ANY candidate, its MY candidate, Bryan Kennedy, who is running against Sensenbrenner in WI. I did a 7 hour lit drop for him yesterday. He's a teacher on leave of absence from his teaching position at UW Milwaukee, and he's drawing a salary equal to his teaching salary while he is working on the campaign full time (7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day). There's nothing inappropriate about what he's doing, and I can tell you that the campaign is extremely frugal. This article makes him out to be 'greedy' for drawing a salary so he can continue supporting a family of 5 while he runs for office.

I make more money than that and I'm just supporting myself.

:mad:

Candidate pays himself for campaigning

The last guy you'd expect liberal congressional candidate Bryan Kennedy to take his campaign cues from would be Alan Keyes, the onetime presidential candidate from the fringes of the Republican Party.

But records show that Kennedy paid himself a salary of $4,100 in July and again in August from his campaign - just as Keyes, the conservative extremist, did infamously during a failed U.S. Senate campaign in Maryland in 1992.

Kennedy, a long-shot Democrat running against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, confirmed Friday that he made another $4,100 payment to himself from his campaign fund on Sept. 1 and will continue to do so each month through December. Total projected campaign dollars he plans to pocket: $24,600.

Federal Election Commission spokesman Bob Biersack said that in 2002 his agency made it kosher for candidates to dip into their campaign funds. But the vast majority has avoided the practice out of fear of giving opponents ammunition.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=498467

[mdmc]

1. a legal tactic can still be bad politics.

Although, I guess that if you can afford to pay your candidate, you should be bragging about it. That is how I would counter spin.

[converted_democrat]

2. I wouldn't spin it at all, I'd tell the truth..

He has a family to support, and I'd point out that since he's on LOA that he has no income to support his family with.. The man chose to be a teacher to help society, and it isn't his fault that he couldn't make do off the savings of a teachers meager salary. We know he isn't "all about the money" or he wouldn't have chosen the teaching profession in the first place, and as if you need more proof, he's running for public office for God's sake, not like there is a mint to be made there... What we should be focusing on is this man's willingness to serve for such low compensation, he must truly be a man of the people, with the only goal of making society a better place for all of us.. Can anyone really fault the man for feeding his family? This is clearly a legal practice, and is a creative solution to a serious problem. I for one praise his creative problem solving skills... Next?

[justgamma]

3. I'd also point out that

if this is such a bad thing, then the only people who could afford to run would be people who are out of touch with the average American worker.

[acmejack]

4. Just state he Isn't the scion to a family fortune like some.

So as a working man he is needs a salary to serve the people. The truth is the only policy and the people are receptive to it.