Shortly after mayoral candidate Karen Crane\u2019s most recent campaign ad started appearing on door knobs and in mailboxes around town late last week, Assembly member Debbie White started getting calls she wasn\u2019t expecting and didn\u2019t want. She wasn\u2019t the only Assembly member either. <\/p>\n
\u201cI found out about Karen\u2019s flyer from somebody calling me saying, \u2018I thought you support Ken Koelsch,\u2019\u201d White said in a telephone interview Monday.<\/p>\n
The reason for the confusion: the choice of picture included in Crane\u2019s ad. The photograph is a group photo of the 2014 Assembly, sitting in their seats at City Hall.<\/p>\n
White, Assembly member Jerry Nankervis, Mayor Mary Becker and former Mayor Merrill Sanford \u2014 all of whom are shown in the photo and all of whom have endorsed Ken Koelsch \u2014 aren\u2019t happy about it. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ve alleged, in a press release signed by all four, that Crane\u2019s tri-fold brochure \u201cmisleads voters into believing Crane is supported by those elected officials\u201d, at least four of whom have publicly thrown their support behind her opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all had a lot of people calling us who are very upset wondering why we\u2019re having a special election if the entire Assembly is backing Karen Crane,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
Crane said she understands the complaint, but misleading people wasn\u2019t her intent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the fact, I can understand their concern, but that picture is in the public sphere,\u201d Crane said by phone Monday afternoon. \u201cIn my brochure there is nothing to indicate that anybody in the photograph supports me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only explicit endorsements mentioned in the brochure are from former Mayor Greg Fisk\u2019s son, Ian Fisk, and three other people, none of whom are Assembly members. She said she chose the picture because it shows her sitting on the Assembly.<\/p>\n
In their statement, White, Nankervis, Becker and Sanford also questioned \u201cthe legality of the mailer\u201d in their press release, saying that Crane didn\u2019t ask for their permission to use the photo. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy that my picture was used without me being asked,\u201d Becker said over the phone Monday. \u201cI thought it was in very poor taste. I thought it was inappropriate, at the very least.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group of four said they will be contacting the Alaska Public Offices Commission at some point soon to ask if Crane\u2019s ad violated any laws, according to Sanford, who appears half cropped out of the group photo in the brochure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to find out whether it\u2019s legal to use it without permission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really bugged me, too,\u201d he added jokingly about being cut in half in the photo. \u201cI was half cut out, and that was my best part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group will also be asking APOC about the legality of using a government photo for political purposes, according to the statement. <\/p>\n
White said that she doesn\u2019t think this will ease tensions on the Assembly, which came to a head when the Assembly decided with a split vote to hold a special mayoral election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shortly after mayoral candidate Karen Crane\u2019s most recent campaign ad started appearing on door knobs and in mailboxes around town late last week, Assembly member Debbie White started getting calls she wasn\u2019t expecting and didn\u2019t want. She wasn\u2019t the only Assembly member either. \u201cI found out about Karen\u2019s flyer from somebody calling me saying, \u2018I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":27296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-27295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27295"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}