NK Dems File Ethics Complaint over "Concert-Gate" Ad

The chairman of the North Kingstown Democratic Town Committee said earlier this month that he planned to file a formal complaint with the state Board of Elections against Doreen Costa, who represents House District 31; and Sharon Gamba, who is running for the District 32 Seat, over the so called ”Concert-Gate” incident involving a poster for a Tim Charron concert over the summer.

The controversy began when questions were raised about a version of an ad for the concert featured the names of both Gamba and Costa ”inviting” the public to attend the event. Both Gamba and Costa reportedly took an earlier ad designed by the North Kingstown Arts Council and modified it at their own expense.

The ad caught the attention of the town’s assistant solicitor, who on Aug. 25 warned the arts council that they may be in violation of state laws by running the ad, which includes the names of Costa and Gamba above the line “invites you to attend.”

In response, NKAC Chairwoman Pamela Galli said the organization never authorized the ad or the candidates to use their original promotional materials that didn’t include their names to craft the ad in question. And she said the council askled Costa and Gamba to “cease distribution” and remove any posted copies of “our edited material.”

The executive director of the state elections board told reporters in August that it did not appear that the poster violated any campaign finance laws, but in a release, Matthew H. Leonard, chairman of the North Kingstown Democratic Town Committee, said that “additional evidence is being presented” with the complaint filing.

“Both candidates printed their names on the poster and advertised in the local papers, deliberately misleading the public by implying they were sponsoring the concert rather than the NK Arts Council. They didn’t just mislead and plagiarize a poster but used public money for their respective campaigns,” Leonard said. ”This was not an isolated incident.”

State GOP Executive Director Robert Paquin III promptly responded in a statement of his own that actually accused Leonard of plagiarizing a quote of his own from a release sent earlier in the month that was published in the Providence Journal. The quote, “I understand the average Rhode Island resident may not be well versed in campaign finance laws, but when someone knowingly breaks them it is a major violation of public trust,” appeared at the end of Leonard’s statement.

“This is typical of Democrats in Rhode Island,” Paquin said. “They think the same rules that apply to everyone else do not apply to them. This behavior is reprehensible and offensive to all of us working towards establishing good governance in Rhode Island.

“I am not sure if this is just an overt disregard for the law and basic common sense, or a sheer act of stupidity; either way I am demanding the quote be retracted and an explanation from Chairman Leonard as to why he couldn’t use his own words when frivolously accusing GOP candidates of something he himself did in black and white print. If the retraction is not made immediately along with an explanation, I will pursue any legal action available to me against Chairman Leonard as well as anyone who continues to propagate this information. Matthew Leonard would be wise to retract the entire press release as it contains a number of factual inaccuracies.”

Leonard told the Independent last week that he would not retract his statement and chided Paquin for going after the messenger and not addressing the basis of the ethics complaint.

And Costa and Gamba said they were surprised to see the issue come to light once again after so much time had passed from the initial controversy. Costa said that she believes the Leonard release is a sign of her opponents grasping for straws.

In an e-mail, Gamba said no public money was used to produce and pay for the ad to appear. She and Costa put together the ad themselves and spend about $900 in total.

“We did so because Doreen and I brought the artist to the council and the budget did not call for advertising, in fact the council only paid for the expenses associated to put on the concert,” Gamba said. “The goal of the council is to bring Art & Music to the town for free, and our goal was to promote our artist so the turnout is large enough to do other shows. What we did had nothing to do with the Art Council and we did have permission to spend our own money to get the info out for a great show.”