Campaign Watch : 24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Fifth District City Council candidate Barbara Yaroslavsky issued a campaign mailer last week that accused opponent Mike Feuer of promising “just about anything to get your vote.” It is the latest of a series that attempts to paint Feuer as “a typical politician.”

THE YAROSLAVSKY MAILER

The green and white mailer takes Feuer to task on three points. On the first point, it says Feuer “acted unethically throughout the campaign, including using a spy to obtain information from his opponent’s campaign.” The mailer cites a May 10 article in The Times as its source for this point. In the second charge, the mailer says Feuer “has taken over 50% of his campaign contributions from fellow lawyers.” For this point, the mailer cites campaign statements filed by Feuer to the city’s Ethics Commission. In the final charge, the mailer says Feuer “knowingly jeopardized an organization’s nonprofit status by using their confidential mailing list to solicit campaign contributions.” This time, the mailer cites an April 8 article in The Times as its source.

THE ANALYSIS

The Times May 10 article cited as the source of the spy charges did not report that Feuer acted “unethically.” It did report Yaroslavsky’s charges that Feuer had planted a spy in her camp--which Feuer has denied. In the article, Feuer’s aides acknowledged that they benefited from leaks from Yaroslavsky’s camp but characterized charges that they planted a spy as “stupid games.” Yaroslavsky has since repeated the spy accusation in several campaign mailers. As for the charge that Feuer took more than half of his funds from fellow lawyers, lawyers actually contributed 35% of the money Feuer raised before the April 10 primary, according to a Times’ analysis. The accusation that Feuer used a confidential mailing list of Temple Beth Hillel to solicit campaign contributions was reported in an April 8 Times article. But The Times did not accuse Feuer of “knowingly jeopardizing an organization’s nonprofit status.” In fact, Nancy Endman, president of the temple, has since described the incident as an “innocent mistake” and has asked Yaroslavsky to stop using the mailing as a campaign issue. Rick Taylor, Yaroslavsky’s campaign strategist, said he stands by the mailer. But he concedes that he summarized The Times’ articles cited in the mailer and in places inserted his own opinions into the summary.