Eye On Boise

Half of Ward’s position statements were cribbed from other websites

Posted by Betsy

May 13, 2010 2:27 p.m. • 5 comments

Five of the 10 position statements Idaho congressional candidate Vaughn Ward has had posted on his campaign website for at least the past five months are word-for-word identical to statements on other candidates’ and congressmen’s sites, including one in which Ward touted “my roadmap legislation” - actually something proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose campaign website contains an identical paragraph. Ward’s statement on tax relief - all but its first sentence - is a repeat of a statement on the campaign website of third-term Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Kentucky. Half of his statement on health care matches a Jan. 7, 2009 Wall Street Journal article by Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia. And his entire statement on “Definition of Marriage/Family Issues” matches a statement posted on the website of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., with such minor changes as substituting “I believe” for “Sen. Jim DeMint believes.”

Within a half-hour after a reporter called Ward’s campaign Thursday with questions about the position statements, all links to them on his campaign website were disabled; Ward said new statements should be up shortly. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

Five comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Sisyphus on May 13 at 2:36 p.m.
Holy Mary mother of god. This is pathetic. Heads gonna roll anytime soon?
spokelooneh on May 13 at 3:24 p.m.
Now now, nobody’s complaining and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. ;)
ericn1300 on May 13 at 3:59 p.m.
Seems to be a comedy of errors, is he one of the not ready for prime time players?
MountainGoat on May 13 at 5:53 p.m.
Another inexcusable blunder by Ward… and they’re becoming all too frequent with his campaign. As a Marine, Ward should know that mistakes get people killed. That’s why the Marine Corps stresses “attention to detail” in all phases of training. A campaign isn’t war and there aren’t any live rounds being fired here, but at some point, “taking corrective action” simply isn’t good enough.

On another note, I’m curious who the source of this information was. I seem to recall a similar issue raised in Minnick’s campaign against Bill Sali in 2008. It was first “reported” by the Unequivocal Notion blog here:

http://unequivocalnotion.com/2008/09/plagiarism-on-bill-salis-website/

and was breathlessly touted as “great reporting” in an email from Minnick campaign spokesman John Foster the next morning. I’m curious if Betsy’s source is the same as Unequivocal’s was.
lindabrush on May 13 at 9:35 p.m.
Even Harley Brown hasn’t made as many “miss steps” as Vaughn has. Had I known this last year when I met him I would have been more diligent in asking him questions.

But then who knows if he’d told me what I wanted to hear or what he was told to say.

I hate to see people self destruct like this, it’s so sad.