Meet Kevin Yoder, Kansas Republican. He has a wife. And four lovely children. Wait, what, no? He doesn't have kids? Then who are these people chasing after him and his wife in a farm field? That's right. They're stand-ins. Stand-ins. Again. This guy, one more than one occasion, has used other people's children (and dogs) in his campaign ads, in settings that look like family settings and made no effort to indicate that those aren't his children. Take a look:
From the Kansas City Pitch Weekly:
This tactic isn't new for Yoder, who's running for Dennis Moore's congressional seat. Two of the girls and a dog appeared in Yoder's campaign literature when he was running for re-election to the Kansas House a few years back. Even the dog wasn't Yoder's.
Within a week of the video going up on YouTube, Yoder accused Democrat Stephene Moore of being "disingenuous with voters."
"Either Stephene Moore is not being honest with voters or this is just a political stunt to position herself as someone she's not," Yoder's June 17 press release reads.
Now, I'm assuming that everything else he represents about himself in the ad is true and the only fake thing is the kids. Why would he lie about anything else? I'm sure he's not just doing it to win an election, saying whatever it takes. Where on earth would he learn to campaign like that? I have never seen politicians lie about their family life just to get elected. Shocking.
**UPDATE***
There's the Clintons. The Bushes. The McCains. The Gores. They've all misrepresented their families to be something they're not. To my knowledge, however, their children are actually their children and Barney and Socks were actually their pets. I'm not really sure why Yoder has such little faith in the Kansas voter that he feels like he needs to be seen running with children and dogs.
Kansans have never put much emphasis on whether or not a person's family life is up to snuff has children. Bill Graves was elected Governor while childless and then adopted a baby. He didn't have to have kids to get elected. Kansans don't vote for you or against you based on the number of children you have. Yoder needs to realize this kind of thing will kill a political career, not help it.