In what appears to be a first for us, a campaign TV spot is citing us as a source. We recently took issue with a commercial run by attorney Caroline Fayard against Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, a fellow Democrat, in the Louisiana Senate race. Fayard's ad compared Campbell to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, mendaciously employing an audio clip of Campbell declaring at a recent debate, "I might be like Mr. Duke." Campbell was off-handedly saying that, like Duke, he could name more than two tax exemptions he wanted to eliminate, but Fayard's spot made it sound like Campbell was admitting he was also a racist.
In Campbell's new spot (Note: The ad has since been removed from YouTube), he characterizes Fayard as "privileged, entitled, inexperienced, using her personal wealth to try and buy a Senate seat." As Campbell speaks, several newspapers flash by with unflattering headlines about Fayard, including one "newspaper" called "The Daily Kos" that features a photo of Duke. The headline reads, "One of the most scummy ads of the year, courtesy of Democrat Caroline Fayard." While we never used that as a headline (and last we checked, we don't have a print edition), we did indeed publish those words.
We'll also note that, while Campbell castigates Fayard for "using her personal wealth to try and buy a Senate seat," he hasn't hesitated to self-fund his Senate bid, too. As of the end of September, Campbell loaned his campaign $750,000, a bit more than the $650,000 Fayard put into her own effort. Good luck trying to get an appealing headline out of that sentence. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to go on our paper route. We have a lot of copies of The Daily Kos to deliver around the French Quarter before the sun rises.
