The Flawed--and False--Advertising of Candidate Michelle Smith

Liberty Principles PAC, funded by millions from Bruce Rauner and friends (some from outside Illinois), and managed by failed candidate and “radio personality” Dan Proft, has put together a campaign video and a couple of TV commercials for Michelle Smith, who is running for state senator in the 49th district. Proft and LP PAC are behind the way too frequent fake, partisan newspaper that lands in our mailboxes, “The [X County] Gazette”, too.

The first TV spot opens with a cheery man’s voice saying that "before" running for office “Smith established herself as a pillar of the community”. Nope. To be a pillar means that without her the community might crumble. Smith’s active, but not a pillar and she’s been in an elected office for years, already.

Cheery Man says that we’re now going to hear about Smith from those that “know her best”. We hear: “the taxes are crushing us”, a phrase that doesn’t pay off the setup, from Plainfield Township Trustee and Legislative Director for state Rep. Mark Batinick, Deb Kraulidis, identified as "Plainfield Resident". (And, what is Rep. Batinick’s LD even doing in this ad?)

There's Plainfield Township Tax Collector, Yvonne Bolton (“Joliet Resident”), asking “how great would it be to have someone like her down there?”. I don’t know, Ms. Bolton, why don’t you answer that question instead of asking it?

Dave Koch, who’s on the D202 board with Smith and is a friend of hers, talks a bit. Two of Smith’s four kids chime in, although all four of them are in the fuller video. Koch doesn’t say much specific or useful.

Kraulidis reappears and says that Michelle Smith is a “problem-solver”, but never cites a single problem that Smith has solved.

In the longer video are a couple of extra pals and a D202 school principal. My guess is they aren’t in the television ad because their employers are specifically listed in their attribution and employers usually don’t allow that.

Extra interesting is how heavily Smith’s kids are used. It bends to a breaking point that rule about how PACs are prohibited from coordinating with the campaign/candidate. That the legally required distance is being maintained is a tough sell since all the candidate’s children are in the clips.

Hiding behind the commonness of the name “Smith”, all four kids are identified with attributions like “Plainfield Resident” or "Student". Most specifically residents of Smith’s house, I guess.

Two of Smith’s sons are fronting not just as sympathetic to problems of their generation, but as if they suffer the same challenges. Doubtful. These young people have jobs, go to expensive colleges, regularly take nice vacations, etc. The Smith kids had the time and money to be at the pennant clinching Cubs game the other night. Good for them. But, they're faking it here from a life of privilege and 1st World problems, not speaking from real experience of or concern for issues. They're not backing someone who has a real plan for solutions to a big range of problems. They are being troopers for their mom. The kids are just being used, and someone should be ashamed of themselves for that.

While it is very sweet and heartfelt, it is all the same pitiful (and a little weird) that one of the candidate’s grown sons, responding when asked on camera for three words to describe Smith, says “awesome, double-awesome, and triple-awesome!”.

Adorable, but useless.

The ad ends with one of Smith’s sons telling Springfield to “watch out”, because Michelle Smith is “bringing the hammer”. What does that mean? Michelle Smith is going to get into office and the men and women in the legislature are going to tremble at her triple awesomeness? It’s evident that hammer isn’t made out of any strong ideas of Smith’s own.

In the just-released second TV ad, “Kathleen” talks to us about being a single mom who wants to stay in her beloved home of Illinois, all the while knocking it as a dump. Sadly, Kathleen will have to go if things don’t change (or, did she mean “Turn Around”?).

So, that’s why Kathleen is supporting “political newcomer” Smith. But, you know, Kathleen gets around and LP PAC has made the exact same ad with her for multiple candidates across the state, just plugging in a different name for each instance. Those spots then stupidly sometimes air one after another. So, Kathleen is pretending. (Proft is really not good at this—whatever they’re paying him is too much.) The bigger canned message flaw is that Michelle Smith is NOT a "political newcomer". She’s been in elected office for seven years. If my car isn’t new after two years, Michelle Smith’s political career isn’t new after seven.

All of this understood and aside, every campaign is a job interview and the election is how we do the hiring.

I’m sure Sen. Bertino-Tarrant is as nice as, has as many friends as, is as loved by her kids as, etc., Michelle Smith is. I don’t care about any of that. I care about what she is showing and telling me in specific terms about her work thus far and the work she wants to do.

Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant runs on her record, openly and specifically. On that score alone, she is the better of the two applicants for the job of state senator.

Though the premise is that Smith is a real leader and worker, neither of the ads mention even ONCE Smith's role since 2009 on the D202 School Board. Think about that: it’s where she serves right now and has been for seven years, and it’s the first and only elected office she’s held, yet Smith’s only self-referencing campaign ads can’t refer to it at all.

And, THAT, fellow television watchers who vote, is because even the dim-witted crew at Liberty Principles PAC knows that Michelle Smith can’t run on her record, that her service on the school board has been bad for the classroom and the taxpayer. Neither Smith nor the (wink-wink) independent LP PAC has told us anything that shows she’d be any better in the state legislature.