Thursday, March 22, 2012

Missouri Democratic Party to Spence: Remove lies from ad


The Missouri Democratic Party immediately jumped on a portion of Republican governor candidate Dave Spence's new ad which shows a newspaper article repeating his claim to have an economics degree, when in fact Spence's degree was in home economics. The news release is printed below.


Today, the Missouri Democratic Party called on Dave Spence to remove a graphic from his new TV ad that highlights a newspaper article that contains more false information about Spence's academic credentials. Spence’s ad highlights a 1989 Post-Dispatch article in which Spence told the paper he earned a degree from the Business School at the University of Missouri, despite the fact Spence was recently forced to admit his degree is in Home Economics because he didn't have the grades necessary to attend the Business School. [Post-Dispatch, 1/10/12]

"After Dave Spence got caught pretending to have a degree from Mizzou's Business School, you'd think he'd be careful not to repeat that false information, but that's exactly what he's doing in this ad," said Caitlin Legacki, spokesperson for the Missouri Democratic Party. "If Spence is running a ‘biographical’ ad that continues to mislead voters about his background, what else is inaccurate? If Dave Spence ever expects to earn the trust of Missouri voters, he'll admit once again he was wrong and immediately change his TV ad."

The Post-Dispatch article featured prominently in Spence's ad [screenshot from Spence's ad available here, microfiche of article available here] says that Spence is a "1980 graduate of the College of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri-Columbia."  

Spence's campaign materials initially repeated the false claim that Spence received a degree from the University of Missouri's School of Business, which his campaign implausibly blamed on a “staff oversight.”  In fact, Spence received a Home Economics degree from the College of Human and Environmental Sciences. 

Spence's academic dishonesty earned him significant national media coverage and made him the punchline of national jokes, even earning him a spot on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

1 comment:

Treeske said...

LOL!