Candidate's Photo Used to Promote Political Opponent

The organizer of a political action committee called Balance 4 Birmingham has apologized for using a photograph in a flier without permission and including false information.

Clinton Baller, the PAC organizer, told Hometownlife.com that a flier incorrectly stating that Stuart Jeffares, one of 13 candidates seeking four seats on the Birmingham City Commission in the Nov. 3 election, had been endorsed by the Birmingham Eccentric “was a mistake.”

Jeffares said he didn’t know anything about the flier until it was brought to his attention and “it didn’t come from me.” PACs often operate without the candidate’s knowledge, Jeffares told Patch.

The Eccentric did endorse four candidates, but Jeffares wasn’t among them. The newspaper’s endorsements went to DeWeese, Patty Bordman, Pierre Boutros and Andrew Harris.

The flap probably doesn’t rise to the level of action by Michigan’s Bureau of Elections, which requires only acknowledgement of who funded the campaign literature be disclosed. Other claims are a matter for civil courts to sort out.

Jeffares said the DeWeese distributed literature without acknowledging who funded the piece, and has since been placing stickers on campaign literature to identify the funding source.

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