Kim Campaign Versus The Cops
Got a call from City Councilmember Jennifer Kim's general consultant, Elliott McFadden. He used his outdoor voice - and some choice words - to express his displeasure about not getting a chance to respond to Austin Police Association (and other law enforcement unions) calling Kim's latest robocall "a new low" and an "outright lie".
Background: The robocall claims Kim opponent Randi Shade made "promises" to increase funding for law enforcement to beef up its staff. Shade - and law enforcement - say there was no such promise. The Kim campaign says it's using information from an Austin American-Statesman editorial from January 24th:
It was highly disappointing that Cid Galindo and Randi Shade, two of the candidates endorsed this week, promised - in writing - to increase public safety staffing without knowing the rest of the city's needs or financial limits.The Austin Police Association, firefighters and EMS called the press together to say there were never any promises made, period. They called the Kim claims "outright lies".
McFadden took issue with being interviewed prior to the press conference, which didn't afford him the opportunity to respond to law enforcement's specific claims.
"To have an authority figure call us a liar, and to not go back to the campaign, that's ridiculous," said McFadden.
Since PJ is here to take you behind-the-scenes, here's how the day went down, and how things wound up.
We interviewed McFadden at 1:30pm for a six o'clock story. The law enforcement presser was at 2:30pm. During the earlier interview, I asked McFadden a.) what he thought about Shade saying Kim lied and b.) what he made of law enforcement coming out with a press conference against the robocall.
"I stand by the previous statements and if there's new information that comes to light we'll take a look at it and see," said McFadden, at 1:30pm.
That response was included in our piece, and all I could include given time constraints. But McFadden thought that wasn't enough. He took issue with not getting a chance to respond to APA's SPECIFIC claims.
I think that's a valid point, so we gave time in the 10pm newscast for McFadden's response to the specific claims. He says the Kim campaign was simply repeating what was in the editorial section of the Austin American-Statesman.
"Jennifer Kim did not lie, and it is outrageous that the police and firefighters, who are people who we are supposed to trust, are getting up and calling a sitting council member a liar, when all she did was repeat was reported in the daily paper," said McFadden.
What then, if the version of events in the paper was not entirely accurate? (The parties involved - law enforcement and Shade - say it wasn't.)
"We thought the newspaper had done its job. Maybe they didn't, but I have no idea at this point," McFadden said.
Mr. McFadden's
anonymous robocall
is making headlines