Thread: Taping of 'arrest' of 'migrants' is fought

Taping of 'arrest' of 'migrants' is fought

Jessica Coomes
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 23, 2006 12:00 AM


Campaign-advertisement footage depicting undocumented immigrants being arrested is facing its own legal challenge.

Attorney General Terry Goddard's campaign on Friday filed a complaint with the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission against challenger Bill Montgomery.

Goddard accused Montgomery of illegally paying undocumented immigrants to appear in the commercial and improperly spending $73,000 of his primary campaign fund for ads that will air only during the general election campaign.

Montgomery called Goddard's complaint "racist stereotyping."

"Unfortunately, when it comes to this issue in Arizona, it's far too easy to make a statement like that about Hispanic persons," he said. "I reject that kind of talk."

Montgomery said he does not know the immigration status of the men filmed for the commercial, who were hired by a company contracted to produce the spot.

Montgomery also said the $73,000 was spent properly. The video production and media buys were paid for on the day of the primary election, Sept. 12, before the primary campaign period ended.

"I spent my primary funds during the primary season, in accordance with Clean Elections rules and regulations," Montgomery said.

Marty Harper, an attorney for Goddard and the Arizona Democratic Party, who filed the Clean Elections complaint, called the dueling legal interpretations a "fundamental disagreement."

"It's been very clear for a while that you're supposed to be using primary money only for primary activities," Harper said. "If you have anything left over, then you're supposed to return that to the Clean Elections fund. If you don't do it that way, you get an undue advantage over the other side."

If that rationale holds up, Montgomery said, campaign signs purchased during the primary would have to be repurchased for the general election campaign.

Goddard, a Democrat, has been the state's chief law officer for nearly four years. Montgomery, a Republican, will have a significant voter-registration advantage at the polls Nov. 7.

The Clean Elections complaint will be sent to Montgomery for a response before the commission decides whether a violation occurred, said Mike Becker, Clean Elections voter education manager.

"We want to rectify all these situations as quickly as possible," Becker said. "The campaigns want to have an answer right away, both sides."

A Gilbert town employee, Matt LaMotte, watched as the commercial was filmed Sept. 12 at Freestone Park. He filed a town incident report documenting what he saw.

LaMotte's report was included in the Clean Elections complaint. He wrote: "The camera operator informed me that the commercial is about illegal immigration, the groups of Hispanic men are illegal immigrants, and they were being paid for their services."

Montgomery questioned whether the unnamed camera operator was in a position to know the men's legal status.

The ad has not yet aired.




http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clickt ... n0923.html

This is ridiculous! Who cares if the men in the ad are legals or illegals. He is just trying to show how he feels on the issues. How many actors play roles of people they aren't? Give me a break! What ever happened to freedom of expression?