| In the Attorney General's race, things have taken a turn for the nasty. The latest incident is a huge television buy opposing San Francisco DA Kamala Harris on the death penalty. Without going into the details, it is an extremely cynical ad, even in a season of such ads. It calls for an unflinching adherence without a consideration of the individual facts.
The ad was paid for by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie's Republican State Leadership Committee. The group is funded mostly with a variety of tobacco and oil money. However a few entries in their contribution history stand out:
| Donor |
Date |
Contribution |
| Google |
07/30/2010 |
$20,000 |
| Yahoo! |
05/21/2010 |
$45,000 |
| Hewlett Packard |
06/04/2010 |
$36,500 |
| eBay |
03/05/2010 |
$40,000 |
Why are a small group of Silicon Valley companies paying for a cynical attack ad? After all, Google's slogan is "Don't be evil." How else can we describe the politics that brings together tobacco and oil money to do a widespread attack "issue" ad in a county that is 350 miles away from San Francisco?
Google, Yahoo, and the other tech companies should probably consider why exactly they have teamed up with Karl Rove to bring this brand of politics to our airwaves. |
