Intercity Transit circumvented the law

Along with my primary election ballot last week came a whole slew of campaign brochures from various candidates.  The day I got my ballot in the mail, I also got a flyer from Stew Henderson, a campaign piece from Chris Reykdal, a brochure from Steven Drew, a piece of campaign material from Dennis Pulsipher and a piece of campaign literature from Intercity Transit.

Oh – wait a minute.  The material I received from Intercity Transit, on the day I received my ballot, wasn’t campaign literature, it was only information on a sales tax increase.   Intercity Transit is forbidden by law from using taxpayer money to promote a ballot issue.

It looked like a campaign brochure.  It had all the information on a sales tax increase.  It had all the earmarks of a campaign brochure, but it wasn’t.

It wasn’t because it didn’t say, any where on the piece of literature, “Vote Yes on the sales tax increase.”

It explained why Intercity Transit wanted the tax.  It explained what Intercity Transit would do with the money.  It explained what would happen if they didn’t get more money, but nowhere in the piece of literature did it say “Vote for the sales tax.”

Because it can’t do that.  It can’t spend taxpayer money to ask me to vote for a sales tax increase, but it can do everything else.

It may not have legally been a political campaign brochure but – – if it looks like a Duck, quacks like a Duck, and reads like a Duck, it has to be something designed to get around the law.

And that’s what Intercity Transit staff did.  Circumvented the law with its campaign brochure.

Shame on them.