Papa es mi Pastor, nada me falta.

Daddy is my Sheperd, I Shall Not Want.

Here's a cool trick.  I'm getting quite a few reports that Congressman Ed Pastor sent a piece of franked mail that coincided with early voting in his daughter's city council race.  Considering her council district is entirely within his congressional district, her signs are modeled on his signs and his Washington contributors have suddenly developed an interest in local politics, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised by the last minute, taxpayer-funded push to get young Laura a nice job. 

I guess they didn't name him "Pastor" for nothing. 

New Times has more on the race here.

Comments

[PhoenixObserver]

I have recieved the good Congressman's newletter. Ed's appears to have been quite busy this year, since this is the third "Report to the District" this year. I just wonder how that stackes up against other members of Congress.

Raising money for her in DC and securing endorsments of her from a long list of politicos indebted to him apparently wasn't enough. Now the Pastors are looking for one more advantage, courtesy of the taxpayers.

[George Hunt's Ghost]

This is just shameful. It wasn't enough of a lift to get Laura a job she wasn't qualified for making more money than the posted range.

It wasn't enough to order out of state special interest money into this race by the wheelbarrow.

Now Ed Pastor is abusing 100% taxpayer financed franking privileges to dump money into this race.

I sure hope the voters of Phoenix send a message here. Laura Pastor is the Paris Hilton of Arizona politics.

[ron]

Well, if she doesn't win this race, she will

1. have signs ready for the next race;

2. be able claim 'political experience, because she ran for office;

3. be sought after by assorted organizations who need her daddy's help in getting his vote.

[Randi]

Poppie and baby are Democrats. That means its OK. In the media its known as good guy bias.

[muckraker]

If I understand your post correctly, he did not mention his daughter's campaign in his newsletter. If not, then what's the problem? I think you're reaching on this one. And if he is being as sneaky as you say, he probably got the idea out of some manual written by Karl Rove.

[Ann]

If he has sent the same numbers of similar appearing mailers consistently in the past then while I would disagree with the number of newsletters and the cost to taxpayers, it is legal. If he is suddenly using the franking privileges to enforce the name recognition and signage likeness in order to conjure up the mental connection with voters who would favor his daughter through increased newsletters that is more than wrong it should be illegal.

Past practices usually determine the accepted norms; when those norms are clearly not followed under certain circumstances that would be beneficial to either the candidate or another it does not meet the sniff test if nothing else.

If he has sent this number and style for years and she is now using the same style and colors, I’d call her a politician.

[ron]

Greg, you wrote,

"Daddy is my Shepard, I Shall Not Want."

Was the mispelling of 'Shepard' intentional?

At any rate, I spell it 'shepherd'.

[NICK]

I have received more mailers than normal

[Joe Baby]

Ann, I know what you are saying, but isn't that an analytical enterprise for determining the intent of Rep. Pastor?

The larger problem is that the vast majority of our elected leaders can't be trusted when it comes to intent or truthfulness. Note Sen. Craig's comments of a few days ago. Pure crapola.

We've approached the point (well past it, likely) where it's simply logical to assume someone is doing something they ought not to and lying about it.

[Aaron]

The whole point is that elected officials are supposed to work EXTRA hard to avoid EVEN THE APPEARANCE of inpropriety...if she can't win the race on her own then that's her problem. Everyone knows all three of the other candidates in the race are more qualified, especially Nowakowski.

[T]

I would agree that elected officials are to work extra hard to avoid the appearance of impropriety. But where's the impropriety?? Timing of the piece? The way I see it, there are no resemblance in the signage. Different font, color, etc. The only similarity is the last name. To my knowledge there is nothing improper about individuals from the same family being in politics. And just FYI, it doesn't always matter who is the most qualified. Shocking, I know. In American we actually let the voter decide who they want to respesent them. Even Democrats win elections and help make policy. Get used to it.

[Ephram]

Laura keeps saying that she can't help that her name is Pastor. I come from a family of fourteen children. My four sisters took the last names of their husbands, my wife and my nine sister in laws took the last name of us guys call me old fashion but the last time I looked Laura's husband and children do not go by the name Pastor.