Horton, Willie Ad
blinded: 1st wedge issue
rove?
// SWIFT BOAT? AMY ACTON?
ROGER STONE?
AILES?
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neg ad fuckery driven bc repeat fail eg doge or bad polls 10 26?
mma
Here are the right-wing media figures endorsing “despicable” ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy
The ad features Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s estranged mother, who defended her husband’s reported sexual assault of Acton when she was a child
Written by Zachary Pleat
Research contributions from Gideon Taaffe
Published 10/21/26
Multiple right-wing media figures are promoting an ad released this week by Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign targeting his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, featuring her mother calling her a liar. However, Acton has been estranged from her parent since the age of 12 in 1978, when her mother defended the candidate’s stepfather against accusations he had sexually assaulted Acton for two years, then fled the state with him as he became a fugitive from charges of child sexual abuse.
In Ramaswamy’s ad, which right-wing media personalities praised as “brilliant” and “absolutely hilarious,” Acton’s estranged mother accused her of lying about her past. But court records accessed by ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland back up Acton’s story, with the outlet reporting, “Mahoning County Court records we obtained show that Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with sexually abusing Acton, then 12 years old. The abuse went from ages 10-12, she said.” The article continued: “After pleading not guilty, he posted bond and fled, becoming a fugitive of the state until his death in 2004. Police tried to find him for numerous years, documents state. He and Acton's mother moved to Pennsylvania, according to public records.”
Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, issued a statement following the Ramaswamy ad’s release, saying, “It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point. … After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”
Yet some right-wing media personalities are celebrating the ad, which Ramaswamy campaign manager Jonathan Ewing said “is a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton.” Ramaswamy also shared commentary on the ad and Acton more generally from right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly.
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles praised Ramaswamy’s ad as “brilliant, brilliant.” Knowles added: “I think it's a very, very effective ad. It's brutal.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 10/20/26]
Newsmax host Greg Kelly: “Everybody in Ohio and the country should be listening to Amy Acton's mom.” Kelly repeatedly praised Acton’s mother, saying, “The mother speaks with love here. I believe the mother loves Amy.” He continued: “And she seems like a very nice lady, actually.” Kelly concluded: “Wow, that's some — the mother, I believe her.” [Newsmax, The Greg Kelly Show, 10/20/26]
Video
Citation
From the October 20, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports
Podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said of Ramaswamy’s ad: “This is the most destructive political ad I have ever seen.” Bongino added: “How do you vote for this lady? It's her mom. That's mom dukes. Ma, mommy, mom, ma. My kid goes, Ma. How do you vote?” [Rumble, The Dan Bongino Show, 10/20/26]
Trump political operative Roger Stone used the ad to smear Acton, saying, “Turns out she’s been lying for personal gain.” Stone claimed that Stearn’s statement “seems like a poor explanation.” [Red Apple Audio Network, The Stone Zone, 10/20/26]
Gateway Pundit’s Wayne Allyn Root called the ad “absolutely hilarious.” Root used the ad to say, “The more you meet these Democrat candidates, they’re all crazy. They’re all covering up for the fact that they’ve had mental illness their whole life. They’re crazy, whacked-out people.” [The Gateway Pundit, War Zone with Wayne Allyn Root, 10/20/26]
10/21/26 8:56 AM EDT
10/21/26 9:00 AM EDT
10/21/26
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Bbrt offers as evidence of no effect:
no lnx a graf
It’s time to stop the endless hype of the ‘Willie Horton’ ad
By John Sides January 6, 2016
A still image from the Willie Horton ad (Source: National Political Action Committee)
A still image from the Willie Horton ad. (National Political Action Committee)
The specter of William R. Horton looms over politics. A convicted murderer, he was temporarily released from a Massachusetts prison in April 1987 as part of the state’s weekend furlough program. Horton, a black man, then raped a white woman and brutally assaulted her white fiance.
When then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis became the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988, Horton was the centerpiece of attacks on Dukakis’s record on crime. Called “Willie” by the campaign of Republican candidate George H.W. Bush, Horton was most famously depicted in an ad called “Weekend Passes,” produced by an independent group supporting Bush.
The impact of the Willie Horton ad has been described as “devastating to Dukakis.” In a profile of Larry McCarthy, the ad’s creator, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer described the ad as “the political equivalent of an improvised explosive device, demolishing the electoral hopes of Dukakis.” Dukakis himself now thinks that he was “getting killed.”
As of this week, the Willie Horton ad has surfaced again. According to a New York Times story on Monday, congressional efforts to reform the criminal justice system are threatened by the possibility that supporters could be attacked just as Dukakis was. As one advocate of criminal justice reform, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), put it: “The Willie Horton story is still part of the legend and lore of American politics.”
But like a lot of legends, the prevailing characterization of the Willie Horton ad — that it cost Dukakis the election — has one important shortcoming: It is largely wrong.
The real story of the Willie Horton and the 1988 campaign is far more complicated. It is about how few people likely saw the ad itself, how it was actually news coverage that brought Horton into Americans’ living rooms and how Horton’s possible impact on voters disappeared before Election Day.
Bush began mentioning Horton in speeches in June 1988, well before the ad aired. But this generated little news coverage of Horton. In an extensive study of the 1988 campaign, political scientist Tali Mendelberg identified only 25 stories in major newspapers between June and the beginning of October — an average of less than one story a week. Polls from this time period show notable movements only around the period of the two party conventions.
The Republican convention was particularly important. It took Bush from a double-digit deficit at the beginning of August to a narrow lead at the end of that month. After that, Bush never lost the lead. This is something that conventional accounts of the Willie Horton ad rarely mention: Dukakis was already behind when the ad appeared.
The aid first aired on Sept. 7, but could not have had much direct impact. It aired only on cable television networks whose market share amounted to less than 1 percent. On Oct. 3, “Weekend Passes” was pulled and another ad that focused on Dukakis’s record on crime began to air more widely, but this ad did not mention Horton. A third ad, produced by the same independent group, began to air later in October. It featured Horton’s victims but did not include Horton’s image.
In short, not the infamous Willie Horton ad nor any of its successors both included Horton’s image— the very thing that played on racial fears — and could have been seen by large numbers of Americans.
Mendelberg argues that Americans were actually more likely to learn about Horton from news coverage. She documents 19 separate evening news broadcasts between Oct. 7 and Election Day that mentioned Horton, often including his photograph, photos of his victims and/or images from the “Weekend Passes” ad.
On its face, this news coverage appeared influential. Drawing on a large survey conducted during the two months before the election, Mendelberg compared voters interviewed before Oct. 3, when the Bush campaign and news coverage began to emphasize Horton more often, to those interviewed between Oct. 3 and 21.
In this second time period, Bush’s popularity was sharply higher among people who already harbored unfavorable feelings about blacks. And during roughly the same period, Bush’s margin over Dukakis in news media polls more than doubled — from about five points to about 11.
If we assume that this shift is attributable solely to stories about Horton — and not to the debates, other ads or news coverage that aired during this time — then the conventional wisdom seems born out. A racially coded message appeared to benefit Bush by activating some people’s prejudices.
But what happened after Oct. 21? On that day, Jesse Jackson said on CBS News what few had said publicly to that point: that using Horton’s case as a campaign message actually played on racial fears. In so doing, Mendelberg argues, Jackson took an issue that had been only implicitly about race and made it explicit. Subsequent news stories began to mention race and racism when they discussed Horton and the campaign.
Most crucially, voters, now aware that this campaign message potentially violated norms against racism, no longer reacted in the same way. Among voters interviewed after Jackson’s statement —between Oct. 22 and Election Day in Mendelberg’s survey — racial prejudice ceased to predict attitudes toward Bush and Dukakis. Jackson’s argument had neutralized the issue.
In other words, a series of attacks on Dukakis’s record on crime — though not the Willie Horton ad per se — coincided with an increase in Bush’s lead over Dukakis in the first part of October, particularly among white voters with negative attitudes toward African Americans. It is difficult to know whether this increase is due to those attacks or to a variety of other things that occurred in this time period. But the apparent effect of these attacks on Dukakis disappeared after the use of Horton as a campaign message was framed as a racially coded appeal.
Of course, there is always the counterfactual: Could Dukakis have come from behind in October and won the election if not for the attacks on his record on crime? We do not and cannot know. Regardless, the story is far more complicated than phrases like “improvised explosive device” would imply.
The true story of the Willie Horton ad does not mean that race and racism have no potency in American politics, or that racially coded attacks can always and easily be neutralized. For example, white Americans’ views of blacks are related to their views of Barack Obama in myriad ways — to their views of Obama himself, the policies he champions, and even his dog. Race isn’t the only factor affecting views of Obama, or views of our criminal justice system, but it is an important one.
But in the case of Willie Horton, the actual impact of race has gotten lost in the usual mythology that surrounds elections, whereby shadowy and shrewd campaign “gurus” produce ads fine-tuned to activate our worst impulses in only thirty seconds — thereby determining the outcome of the election.
Dukakis calls his slow response to the Willie Horton ad “the biggest mistake of my political career.” He shouldn’t be so hard on himself. And politicians today should look skeptically on the conventional wisdom that has grown up around this ad.
John Sides is Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. He specializes in public opinion, voting, and American elections. His books include Identity Crisis, a study of the 2016 presidential election.[princeton U press]
11/18 nbc ran diring football? cnn refused? ~ KHJ
willie horton reboot
Trump tweeted an explicitly racist, anti-immigrant ad Wednesday, less than a week before midterm elections. The new ad features a Mexican man who was convicted of killing two California deputies earlier this year. In the ad, the man smiles and says, “I’m going to kill more cops soon,” as the text on screen reads: “Democrats let him into our country. Democrats let him stay.” The ad also shows apparent crowds of migrants pushing through a gated barrier. The ad has been described as the most racist political ad in three decades, with many denouncing it as fearmongering. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez slammed the ad, saying it is a sign of Trump’s desperation. The man in the ad was deported twice, under Presidents Clinton and Bush.
==
==
dark genius; ads said 268 escaped, implying murderers, but only 4, and only one WH, did crime in 10 yrs p 91
revolving door, boston harbor, tank
denied Horton role, but then ran kidnapper scam w/ next 2 clients38, incl Rudy. only q is show w or w/o knife p 88 2 track system NSPAC runs dirty version (floyd brown
buddy Craig Shirley at NSPAC anti-clinton 89
in bush version said 268 escaped, actually 4 murders in 10 yrs and only horton offended 91 Duk soft on crime rose to 65% 92
FEC found connections between NSPAC and bush team 94-5[but no charges?]
revolving door ,boston harbor (in fact 1st gov to try to clean, (good green record) 52 blocked by gop, tank
==
Willie Horton ad: odd twist on sucess has bunch of fathers, but failure is an orphan; no question the ad worked/successful, so maybe just trying to avoid dirty tricks/ racist blowback. Atwater?
Larry McCarthy
1988 Ailes had been so successful he had choice of clients, went B1 though van buren last vp elected; 150 yo; genteel team, r mosbacher plus,but RA and atwater convinced b1 to go neg later (tag team at compund) p126 eg boston harbor gray morning sign for sub base decommissioned 126; In 1970 dukakis repeal law on sodomy and bestiality , so Ailes wanted to do an ad with barnyard noises, shot down 127, RA says not negative but "comparative" 127
9/21, 4 days before 1st debate,Am for Bush, arm of nat sec pol action committ:put out "weekend passes" ad: grainy shot of horton; ailes denied involvement [which wd be illegal coord) but in august boast to press, only question is with knife in hand or not; larry McC last ailes comm prev year, Jesse Raiford there 6 yrs 128; r stone does not think RA involved[why wd we believe?](Sherman 126-8)... 10 days after debate Rev Door plays off Horton ad; RA approve tank ad 129; Dukakis unfavorable rose from 20 to 43%, bush stayed 40% (p 129); Duk later sez blew by not respond; b1 wanted to stop ad hominem get back to issues, RA says we will day after we win (by 8 pts)
Someone esle (brock) notes that same play run in subsequent Ailes -run campaigns (kidnapping?)
1988 B1 huge win but RA "hot potato" and bailed out of politics. all clients 88-'92 lost, sought redemption. published a book
1988 B 1
Willie Horton ad: odd twist on sucess has bunch of farhwers, but failure is an orphan; no question the ad worked/successful, so maybe just trying to avoud dirty tricks/ racit blowback. Atwater?
Larry McCarthy
1988 Ailes had been so successful he had choice of clients, went B1 though van buren last vp elected; 150 yo; genteel team, r mosbacher plus,but RA and atwater convinced b1 to go neg later (tag team at compund) p126 eg boston harbor gray morning sign for sub base decommissioned 126; In 1970 dukakis repeal law on sodomy and bestiality , so Ailes wanted to do an ad with barnyard noises, shot down 127, RA says not negative but "comparative" 127
9/21, 4 days before 1st debate, Am for Bush, arm of nat sec pol action committ: put out "weekend passes" ad: grainy shot of horton; ailes denied involvement [which wd be illegal coord) but in august boast to press, only question is with knife in hand or not; larry McC last ailes comm prev year, Jesse Raiford there 6 yrs 128; r stone does not think RA involved[why wd we beli?](Sherman 126-8)... 10 days after debate Rev Door plays off Horton ad; RA approve tank ad 129; Dukakis unfavorable rose from 20 to 43%, bush stayed 40% (p 129); Duk later sez blew by not respond; b1 wanted to stop ad hominem get back to issues, RA says we will day after we win (by 8 pts)
Someone sle (brock) notes that same play run in subsequent Ailes -run campaigns (kidmapping?)
1988 B1 huge win but RA "hot potato" and bailed out of politics. all clients 88-'92 lost, sought redemption. published a book
==
Ailes used a similar strategy in 1988, when he worked with Lee Atwater to mastermind George
H.W. Bush's come-from-behind victory over Michael Dukakis. The Bush/Quayle '88 campaign
combined morning-in-America imagery with ads that ridiculed Dukakis through deceptive visual
imagery. One TV spot took Dukakis to task for pollution in Boston Harbor, displaying a sign
that said, "Danger/Radiation Hazard/No Swimming." The sign actually had nothing to do with
pollution or Dukakis. It was posted to warn Navy personnel not to swim in waters that had
once harbored nuclear submarines under repair.
The most egregious ads, however, used visual imagery to exploit racial feelings. One
featured a threatening photograph of William Horton, a black inmate who had escaped from a
prison-furlough program and raped a woman, to suggest that Dukakis was unusually soft on
crime. (Actually, Massachusetts was one of 45 states with prison furlough programs at the
time of Horton's crime.) A second prison-furlough ad depicted a "revolving door" through
which a line of white men entered prison, while blacks and Hispanics exited. "That phrase
'revolving-door prison policy' implies, of course, that Massachusetts criminals could,
thanks to Governor Dukakis, slip out of jail as easily as commuters streaming from a subway
station," observes Mark Crispin Miller. "But the image makes an even more inflammatory
statement. . . . The 'revolving door' effects an eerie racial metamorphosis, implying that
the Dukakis prison system was not only porous, but a satanic source of negritude--a dark
'liberal' mill that took white men and made them colored."...
http://www.counterpunch.org/stauber05272004.html
==
Campaign Trail; A Beloved Mug Shot For the Bush Forces
By BERNARD WEINRAUB
Published: October 03, 1988
''I've Seen Elvis in the Flesh!'' ''Statue of Elvis Found on Mars!'' ''Kablaam! Body Builder Explodes as He Was Pumping Iron Too Fast!''
These banner headlines (not from The New York Times) are pinned on the bulletin board beside the desk of Mark Goodin, the deputy press secretary of George Bush's campaign at the national headquarters here.
There is also an array of photographs. There is a picture of a smiling, sweet-faced Roger Ailes, the campaign's media consultant, who once got into a fight with two men in leather jackets in a Houston hotel lobby; he broke the wrist of one of and tossed the other into the lobby fountain.
There are strikingly similar pictures, side by side, of Roy Orbison, the country singer, and Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Polish leader. (''Actually, it's a bizarre conspiracy,'' Mr. Goodin said, laughing. ''They're the same person.'')
And there is, finally, a mug shot ofWillie Horton.Willie Horton? Willie Horton is a convicted murderer who was furloughed from the Massachusetts prison system for a weekend, escaped and later raped a woman in Maryland and stabbed her husband. (Mr. Horton is now in prison in Maryland, serving two life sentences plus 85 years.) Of course the man who was Governor of Massachusetts at the time and who supported the furlough program is - who else? - Michael S. Dukakis.
Governor Dukakis has been portrayed by Mr. Bush as soft on crime. (Mr. Ailes, who has been known to go for the jugular, has said, ''The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.'') And Mr. Goodin said: ''I found myself talking about this guy every day. Reporters calling with questions. I said I wonder what he looks like. Somebody gave me this mug shot.'' Perhaps there's another motive for pinning up the mug shot.
Reporters see Mr. Goodin frequently. They ask, who is that fellow on the bulletin board? Mark Goodin reminds them. With a smile.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/03/us/campaign-trail-a-beloved-mug-shot-for-the-bush-forces.html
IS NRA a front for more than gun mfg?
hodai:
Three strikes called for mandatory life imprisonment for a third felony
conviction. In some states this was interpreted as life imprisonment for
a third violent offense conviction, while in others, such as
California, the law was enacted in such a way as to include those
convicted of petty offenses such as shoplifting. [PLN was the first
media to report the instrumental role the NRA played in bankrolling Washington’s Three Strikes law in 1993 (the first in the nation)and Washington State’s “Hard Time for Armed Crime” initiative in 1995.]
The NRA campaign, dubbed “CrimeStrike,” headed by victim’s rights
advocate and former Arizona Chief Assistant Attorney General Steve
Twist, was seen by many as :{a reactionary strike at the Clinton
administration’s gun control efforts when it moved into high gear in
- CrimeStrike was the campaign which set forth the precept that
“guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” As such, CrimeStrike promoted state and federal tough-on-crime legislation and derided any lawmaker backing gun control as being “soft on crime.”}:
With memories of the Willie Horton disaster of the failed 1988 Michael
Dukakis presidential campaign still fresh in the minds of most American
legislators, this accusation invariably hit a raw nerve among Democrats
and elicited kneejerk support of the laws.
:{While the NRA was busy
pushing these laws through CrimeStrike, ALEC was pushing its agenda in
Pennsylvania with the help of former Herbert-Walker Bush U.S. Attorney
General William Barr and ALEC member, then-Pennsylvania governor, and
future director of the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge.}:
In 1995, the Pennsylvania legislature passed several tough-on-crime
bills based on ALEC proposals and model legislation. In 2005, while
serving as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, state
Rep. John Perzel, an ALEC member and Pennsylvania House Majority Leader
from 1995 to 2003, joined GEO Group’s board of directors.
hmmn, seems biased/sanitized?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton
Willie Horton
From Wikipedia,
For the former professional baseball player, see Willie Horton (baseball). For other persons named William Horton, see William Horton (disambiguation).
Horton's mug shot from "Weekend Passes" Ad
William R. "Willie" Horton (born August 12, 1951) is an American convicted felon who, while serving a life sentence for murder, without the possibility of parole, was the beneficiary of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program.He did not return from his furlough, and ultimately he committed assault, armed robbery and rape.A political advertisement in support of the candidacy of George H.W. Bush during the 1988 U.S. Presidential race was critical of the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, for his support of the program.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Criminal activity and incarceration
Horton was born in Chesterfield, South Carolina. On October 26, 1974, in Lawrence, Massachusetts,Horton and two accomplices robbed Joseph Fournier, a 17-year-old gas station attendant, and then fatally stabbed him 19 times after he had cooperated by handing over all of the money in the cash register. His body was dumped in a trash can. Fournier died from blood loss.[1] Horton was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and incarcerated at the Concord Correctional Facility in Massachusetts.[2]
On June 6, 1986, he was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return. On April 3, 1987 in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Horton twice raped a local woman after pistol-whipping, knifing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. He then stole the car belonging to the man he had assaulted. He was later captured by police after a chase. On October 20, Horton was sentenced in Maryland to two consecutive life terms plus 85 years. The sentencing judge, Vincent J. Femia, refused to return Horton to Massachusetts, saying, "I'm not prepared to take the chance that Mr. Horton might again be furloughed or otherwise released. This man should never draw a breath of free air again."[3]
On April 18, 1996, Horton was transferred to the Jessup Correctional Institution (then called the Maryland House of Correction Annex), a maximum security prison in Jessup, Maryland, where he remains.[4]
Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton's release, and while he did not start the furlough program, he had supported it as a method of criminal rehabilitation.The State inmate furlough program was actually signed into law by Republican Governor Francis W. Sargent in 1972. However, under Sargent, convicted first-degree murderers were not eligible for furlough. After the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that this right extended to first-degree murderers, the Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill.[2] The program remained in effect through the intervening term of governor Edward J. King and was abolished during Dukakis' final term of office on April 28, 1988. This abolition only occurred after the Lawrence Eagle Tribune had run 175 stories about the furlough program and won a Pulitzer Prize.[5:{]:(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}:Dukakis continued to argue that the program was 99 percent effective; yet, as the Lawrence Eagle Tribune pointed out,no state outside of Massachusetts, nor any federal program, would grant a furlough to a prisoner serving life without parole.[*citation needed*][45 others did at the time?]
- General News Reporting
- Staff of Lawrence (MA) Eagle-Tribune
- For an investigation that revealed serious flaws in the Massachusetts prison furlough system and led to significant statewide reforms. 1988 pulitzer
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Walsh_(journalist)
[edit] Horton in the 1988 presidential campaign
The first person to mention the Massachusetts furlough program in the 1988 presidential campaign was Al Gore. During a debate at the Felt Forum sponsored by the *New York Daily News*, Gore took issue with the furlough program.However, he did not specifically mention the Horton incident or even his name, instead asking a general question about the Massachusetts furlough program.:{[:(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}:6]
Republicans picked up the Horton issue after Dukakis clinched the nomination. In June 1988, Republican candidate George H.W. Bush seized on the Horton case, bringing it up repeatedly in campaign speeches.[6] Bush's campaign manager,Lee Atwater, predicted that "by the time this election is over, Willie Horton will be a household name."[6][7] Media consultant Roger Ailes remarked "the only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it."[8]
[edit] The index card
In April 1988, Lee Atwater asked aide Jim Pinkerton for negative research to defeat Dukakis.[*citation needed*] Pinkerton returned with reams of material that Atwater told him to reduce to a 3x5 index card, telling him, "I'm giving you one thing. You can use both sides of the 3x5 card." Pinkerton discovered the furlough issue by watching the Felt Forum debate. On May 25, 1988, Republican consultants met in Paramus, New Jersey, holding a focus group of Democrats who had voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. After giving the focus group the material Pinkerton provided on the index card, most of the voters switched from favoring Dukakis to favoring Bush.[*citation needed*] These focus groups convinced Atwater and the other Republican consultants that they should 'go negative' against Dukakis. Further information regarding the furlough came from aide Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native whom President George W. Bush later named as his Chief of Staff.[9]
[edit] Jumping the gun
Although commercials about Willie Horton were not run until the fall campaign, Bush first mentioned him at the Texas Republican convention on June 9, 1988. The following week at the Illinois Republican convention in Springfield, Bush began to press the argument against Dukakis by declaring that Dukakis had let Horton loose to 'terrorize innocent people' and continued support of the furlough program until the Massachusetts legislature changed the law.[*citation needed*] Bush again mentioned Horton at the National Sheriffs Association in Louisville, Kentucky and declared himself in favor of 'life without parole' for convicted murderers.[*citation needed*]
Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1988, Atwater attended a motorcyclists' convention in Luray, Virginia.Two couples were talking about the Horton story as featured in the July issue of *Reader's Digest*.Atwater joined them and never once mentioned who he was. Later that night, a focus group in Alabama had turned completely against Dukakis when presented the information about Horton's furlough. Atwater used this occurrence to argue the necessity of pounding Dukakis about the furlough issue.[9]
[edit] The fall campaign
Beginning on September 21, 1988, the Americans for Bush arm of the National Security Political Action Committee (NSPAC), under the auspices of Floyd Brown, began running a campaign ad entitled "Weekend Passes", using the Horton case to attack Dukakis.The ad was produced by media consultant Larry McCarthy,who had previously worked for Roger Ailes. After clearing the ad with television stations, McCarthy added a menacing mug shot of Horton, who is African American. He called the image "every suburban mother's greatest fear."[*citation needed*] Additionally, although Horton actually went by "William", the ad's creators changed his name to "Willie."[10] The ad was run as an independent expenditure, separate from the Bush campaign, which claimed not to have had any role in its production.[11]
On October 5, 1988, a day after the "Weekend Passes" ad was taken off the airwaves, was the date of the Bentsen-Quayle debate, the Bush campaign ran its own ad, "Revolving Door", which also attacked Dukakis over the weekend furlough program. While the advertisement did not mention Horton or feature his photograph, it depicted a variety of intimidating-looking men walking in and out of prison through a revolving door.[12] The commercial was filmed at an actual state prison in Draper, Utah, but the individuals depicted — thirty in all, including three African Americans and two Hispanics, were all paid actors.[*citation needed*]
Attempting to counter-attack, Dukakis' campaign ran an ad about a convicted heroin dealer named Angel Medrano who raped and killed a pregnant mother of two after escaping from a federal correctional halfway house.[13] However, the Dukakis campaign failed to point out that Medrano did not have any record of violent crime, much less murder. This case was also much less relevant since Bush was not running based on his work in the federal justice system, in contradistinction to Dukakis, who frequently mentioned the innovative furlough program in campaign speeches.[14] The controversy escalated when Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen and former Democratic presidential candidate and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called the "Revolving Door" ad racist - a charge which was denied by Bush.[13]
In 1990, the Ohio Democratic Party and a group called "Black Elected Democrats of Ohio" filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that NSPAC had coordinated or cooperated with the Bush campaign in airing the ad, which would make it an illegal in-kind campaign contribution.[11] Investigation by the FEC, including deposition of officials from both organizations, revealed indirect connections between McCarthy and the Bush campaign (such as his having previously worked for Ailes), but found no direct evidence of wrongdoing, and the investigation reached an impasse and was eventually closed with no finding of any violation of campaign finance laws.[11] [with the knife or without?]
In the documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story longtime Republican operative Roger Stone charges that Lee Atwater, working for the Bush ‘88 campaign, funnelled millions of dollars into the “Willie Horton” ad, in violation of campaign finance laws. No investigation into this has been opened, and no evidence other than Stone's testimony has been presented to substantiate the charge.[anoter src stone says ailes not involved?]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- **^** Simon, Roger (1990-10-01). "The killer and the candidate: how Willie Horton and George Bush rewrote to rules of political advertising". Regardie's Magazine. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9217204_ITM.
- ^ ***^a^*** ***^b^*** Kessler, Ronald(2007-11-29). "Released Killer Won’t Be Romney’s ‘Willie Horton’". Newsmax. http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/released_killer_romney_/2007/11/29/53111.html.
- **^** Bidinotto, Robert (July 1988). "Getting Away with murder". Reader's Digest.
- **^** "Maryland DOC inmate locater". http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/inmate/search.do?searchType=detail&id=78228. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- **^** "Columbia Journalism Review". http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/95/2/pulitzers.asp.:{}:
- ^ ***^a^*** ***^b^*** ***^c^*** "Media Matters: Ingraham, Hannity revived claim that "Al Gore brought up Willie Horton"". 2005-02-16. http://mediamatters.org/items/200502160008. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
- **^** "the 80s club". http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id346.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- **^** Weinraub, Bernad (1998-10-03). "Campaign Trail: A Beloved Mug Shot For the Bush Forces". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2DE103BF930A35753C1A96E948260. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- ^ ***^a^*** ***^b^*** Germond, Jack W.; Jules Witcover (1989). Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency, 1988. Warner Books. pp. 159–161. ISBN 0446514241.
- **^** Hope, Tim and Richard Sparks, ed. Crime, Risk and Insecurity. p. 266
- ^ ***^a^*** ***^b^*** ***^c^*** "Independent Ads: The National Security Political Action Committee "Willie Horton"". http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/independentads.html. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
- **^** "Candidate ads: 1988 - George Bush". http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/candidateads.html. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- ^ ***^a^*** ***^b^*** Dowd, Maureen(1988-10-25). "Bush Says Dukakis's Desperation Prompted Accusations of Racism". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DE1F3AF936A15753C1A96E948260. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- **^** Coulter, Ann Godless: The Church of Liberalism. p. 69
[edit] External links
- Independent Ads: The National Security Political Action Committee "Willie Horton"
- "Willie Horton" advertisement via American Museum of the Moving Image
- Ingraham, Hannity revived claim that "Al Gore brought up Willie Horton"
- Anthony Walton's 1989 essay, *Willie Horton and Me*
Lee Atwater http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lee_Atwater
Roger Ailes
The first Horton ad had been run by the independent group, Americans for Bush, not the official Bush campaign itself. Indeed, when Bush media advisor Ailes put together his crime ad, he was careful not to use the name Horton or include any photos of the black felon. After Democrats protested Bush's blatant use of the race card, Ailes replied that outside group ads were using the Horton picture, not the "Revolving Door." This gave the Bush camp plausible deniability that helped its candidate avoid public condemnation for racist campaigning.
...
NSPAC nati' security (shirley?)
Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1402754450
Kerwin C. Swint - 2008 - Biography & Autobiography
Ads would be broadcast and speeches delivered emphasizing previously ... of Americans for Bush, the organizational parent of NSPAC.7 Longtime GOP consultant ... musings about whether or not to show Willie Horton with a knife in his hand. ... Floyd Brown and Craig Shirley were both heavily involved inanti–Bill Clinton ...
Context of 'September-November 1988: 'Horton' Ad Campaign ...
www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a091188hortonsuccess
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Scary Social Security letter - Gary Jarmin can destroy George Bush ...
https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all...
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