Now This Is Interesting
Someone forgot to tell the Melina Kennedy Camp I’m on their e-mail list because I got this in the mail this weekend. Give it a read and then read my comments at the end.
Kennedy for Prosecutor
Melina Kennedy
November 1, 2006
The KENNEDY CAMPAIGN is calling you to action!
The Problem:
Issues about a candidate’s record and experience are fair game. But in this tough political season throughout the nation, we have seen some candidates appeal to stereotypes and prejudice. Carl Brizzi’s record on issues of importance to women is already tarnished “for example his 9% conviction rate on domestic violence cases.” Unfortunately, Brizzi’s counterpart Marion County Republican Chairman Mike Murphy has desperately tried to divide our community along gender lines by trying to make an issue of the 9-month period Melina went on inactive status as an attorney when she was pregnant with twins.
Chairman Murphy went so far as to say, “the nine-month lapse reveals Kennedy was not serious about being prosecutor or a lawyer.” Now in the last days of the campaign, and on the heels of Brizzi’s television and website advertisements with hired actors and cartoon images disparaging Melina, some Brizzi supporters are raising the issue again. And never in the seven months since the issue was first raised has Brizzi disavowed Murphy’s words.
The Truth: Melina and her husband Bob Kennedy were advised by their doctor that Melina should take as much off of her professional plate as possible during that high-risk pregnancy. She did that, delivered healthy children, and went back to active status as an attorney.
The Call: The video clip
Attached to this Neighborhood Notes tells Melina’s story about protecting the health of her family. Please watch it and forward this email to EVERYONE YOU KNOW so that they know the truth.
It’s not a bad e-mail, per se, even though the quote from Mike Murphy comes from my Indiana Barrister blog posting from March 28, 2006 (A Kennedy Campaign Conundrum). Good to know I can be a source. At least when the Brizzi people used a quote from my work they cited it in their campaign commercial and let me know they were doing it. The problem here is someone forgot his or her history. When I approached Melina about this issue seven months ago, I was expecting her camp to tell me the lapse was due to her having twins and a difficult pregnancy and I was going to let the story go. (I had already done the research.) Instead, they didn’t attribute the lapse to the pregnancy, now they are. They originally said it didn’t matter and wasn’t an issue. Now they’re sending out e-mails to tell their supporters this is an issue. I wish they would have told me that seven months ago, and it never would have been a story to begin with. Oh well, better luck in four years.
