Dispute Over "What Would Ann Do?"
Deja vu all over again. Remember the dust-up during the 2006 gubernatorial race between Kinky Friedman and Chris Bell, when Kinky's campaign started touting that Ann would have voted for Kinky... but then the Democratic candidate, Bell, came back with "Ann always voted a straight Democratic ticket"?
Now there's "What Would Ann Do" questions again, this time, regarding the tight Texas presidential primary race.
The Clinton campaign's Women for Hillary group is promoting a video showing that former Texas Governor, the late Ann Richards, would have voted for Hillary. The video shows pictures of Hillary edited with pictures of Ann.
According to the Texas Observer, the video was introduced this way:
"The bond between the legacy of Ann and what Hillary brings to us today is palpable and it is strong. It's this legacy that is untied the young and the young at heart. We here in Texas are standing up together, uniting to help women break that ultimate glass ceiling," said Courtney Spence, former Clinton staffer.
But now, the sons of the late Ann Richards are objecting to the video, and its suggestion that Richards would have supported Clinton. Here's the AP:
Clinton's campaign had permission from Richards' youngest daughter, Ellen, who said in a statement provided by the campaign that her mother was an "ardent feminist" who would be thrilled by her friend Hillary Clinton's candidacy.Perhaps to avoid this kind of strife in the future, political candidates should stop claiming posthumous endorsements?"I believe that if my mom were alive today that she would be stumping across Texas and around the country supporting Hillary for president," her statement said.
...
But sons Dan and Clark Richards, partners at an Austin law firm, say nobody can know who the outspoken and opinionated former governor would have supported in the race between Clinton and Barack Obama.
Dan Richards said in an interview Tuesday that they denied permission and he's angry the campaign published the video anyway. He said the campaign contacted him again last Friday to ask him to reconsider, and he repeated his objections.
"They asked me if I would sue the campaign, and I said no, I wasn't in the business of suing the campaign, but I didn't think they should do it," he said in a telephone interview. "To try to present who she would endorse a year and a half after she died is offensive to me."
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