May 13, 2010 in Idaho

Ward’s position statements cribbed from other websites

Betsy Z. Russell The Spokesman-Review

Tags:2010 electionIdaho electionsIdaho politicsVaughn Ward

Website text

This cached version shows the website before it was changed this afternoon.

BOISE - Five of the 10 position statements Idaho congressional candidate Vaughn Ward has touted as his own on a campaign website are word-for-word identical to statements on other candidates’ and congressmen’s sites.

The apparent duplications included a reference to “my roadmap legislation,” which actually was introduced by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose campaign website contains an identical paragraph.

Others include Ward’s statement on tax relief, which is a repeat of a statement on the campaign website of third-term U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Kentucky.

Half of his statement on health care matches a Jan. 7, 2009 Wall Street Journal article by U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia. And his entire statement on “Definition of Marriage/Family Issues” matches a statement posted on the website of U.S. 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. Ryan O’Barto, Ward’s campaign spokesman, initially blamed the campaign’s Web vendor for the duplications. “Our Web vendor just posted the wrong thing,” O’Barto told The Spokesman-Review. “The new issues will be up today, and what it should have been. It was just a technical error.”

Ward, in an interview, said, “You’re looking at something that is completely raw. You’re looking at clippings of ideas that were spliced into there, it was being edited. But the people that were editing it put in the wrong stuff.”

He added, “It’s being fixed, the content’s moving over, the right stuff’s getting on there.”

On the website, original position statements on business tax incentives, limited government, guns, abortion and immigration were intermixed with the duplicative statements on tax relief, jobs, trade, health care and marriage. Asked who made the small changes — such as substituting “people of Idaho” for “people of Wisconsin’s 2nd District” in the jobs statement, and subbing “I will fight against” for “I have fought against” in a trade statement that otherwise matches one from Wisconsin Rep. Ryan, Ward had no firm answer. “I don’t know how that occurred,” he said. “I have a team of people, these are all volunteers, people take a look at stuff,” he said. “I say, ‘Hey, guys, how does this sound to you? How does this grab you?’”

He added that he’s “always reading different thoughts out there, from Newt Gingrich to the Heritage Foundation, a whole slew of people that I take a look at all the time.”

Asked if the positions statements on his website for the past months actually represented his positions, Ward said they did in content. “This is about style vs. content,” he said. “I mean, how many ways can you say, ‘I support 2nd Amendment rights?’ How many ways can I say, ‘I support returning jobs back to small business and cutting waste and over-regulation?’”

Ward said he hasn’t read Rep. Ryan’s “Roadmap for America’s Future” legislation, versions of which Ryan proposed both in 2008 and again this year. In Ward’s statement on trade, which includes the reference to “my roadmap legislation,” the first two sentences match statements on the website of Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, while the rest matches Ryan’s campaign website, including this sentence: “My roadmap legislation would level the playing field for American-made goods and services in the international marketplace.”

“Obviously I don’t have any legislation,” Ward said. “That was in a draft status.”

Ward also said he’s not necessarily a backer of 2009 legislation to establish “tax-exempt individual development accounts,” though that concept was touted in his tax relief statement. He said he wasn’t familiar with the bill, which was proposed by three Republicans in the House and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., in the Senate.

In Ward’s issue statement on jobs and small business, one sentence matches the website of GOP congressional challenger Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, who’s running for the seat being vacated by retiring 7th District Democratic Rep. David Obey; while nearly all of the rest matches a jobs statement on the website of Wisconsin 2nd District GOP congressional challenger Chad Lee.

15 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

zelda on May 13 at 2:49 p.m.
That has truly got to be the most weasely set of excuses I’ve ever heard. It’s a technical malfunction, it’s a bunch of inexperienced volunteers, the wrong stuff got posted, there aren’t any new ways to say it. It just goes on and on.
If he had any brains, he’d put some business lingo into action and say he was “leveraging his staff resources to effect positive synergies and increasing the productivity of his team through collalboration and sharing of best practices.”
Phaedrus on May 13 at 3:14 p.m.
Looks like it is Ward who should have fired his campaign manager, not Labrador. This is the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight” yet all we get from Ward is “I’m fallible, I make mistakes, I move on.” Maybe he should try to slow down and do things right the first time, for a change. Each of the flubs and blunders of the past few weeks might be excusable if they were isolated occurrences, but they aren’t, they are a series of actions and excuses that indicate a pattern of deception, half-truths and incompetence.
YGBSM on May 13 at 3:37 p.m.
At least Ward served in uniform however un-honorably now as a civilian. Unlike Baumgartner.
toms on May 13 at 3:50 p.m.
Betsy good story. Did anyone save a copy of the old pages? Having those now would be fun. Would make an interesting before-and-after QED of how political websites can bite you if you don’t play straight.
bluegal on May 13 at 4:55 p.m.
I thought Republicans believed in personal responsibilty.
spokanada on May 13 at 5:56 p.m.
Sounds like a real winner. I know Americans have a reputation as being lazy but this takes the cake. He must think that the voters are stupid.
Wapshilla on May 13 at 6:31 p.m.
What difference does it make?!?. Who cares that Ward copied positional statements from other websites. He agrees with conservative principles and was just using he efficiencies of already-written talking points. Does anyone think this actually undermines the candidate ? I’d much rather have a war veteran representing Idaho, than an LDS immigrant from Puerto Rico with the likes of Dennis Mansfield as his campaign manager. And no, this post was NOT borrowed from any other website.
spokanada on May 13 at 7:23 p.m.
So you have something against Mormons and Puerto Ricans but you support a guy who steals someone else’s work simply because he is a war veteran. Like I said before, he must think the voters are stupid.
You can support conservative principles without plagiarizing. If he is too lazy to write his own opinions what makes you think he will make a good congressperson?
It sounds like you watch Fox news. You just want a congressperson who follows the “talking points”. And you are aware that Glen Beck is a Mormon right?
oneanddone on May 13 at 7:32 p.m.
Doncha just love dumbass canucks who like to insult their betters? Maybe we should go help ourselves to some canadian natural resources.
spokanada on May 13 at 7:37 p.m.
Are you defending his statement or are you simply trying to insult me?
zelda on May 13 at 7:48 p.m.
Sadly, I don’t think this will make a bit of difference or cause people to vote for someone else. The conbservative strategy — more than ever — is that the end justifies the means. Lee Atwater walks among us still.
But I am curious as to how this will be handled within the GOP family. Appropriating statements and phrases from other conservatives and claiming them as your own probably won’t win him any friends or elicit a lot of trust from fellow party members. Unless they just want to chalk it up to youth and inexperience.
And, yes, good story, Betsy!
Scoutster on May 13 at 7:50 p.m.
A Tea Party candidate without an original thought!
What an outrage!
spokanada on May 13 at 8:05 p.m.
Oneanddone,
You are welcome for the wood, oil, and electricity. We appreciate all the money you pay for such resources. It helps keep the Canadian economy out of the hole the Americans dug. We welcome you ignorance.
lindabrush on May 13 at 9:26 p.m.
this guy scares me. Who’s pulling his strings? With guys like Kempthorn, Sullivan and Snodgrass (self professed “moderate republican” on IDPTV) support this guy, it has to make you wonder if you can believe anything he says.
If this guy was a real conservative, would he have these guys in his corner? I think not, there is a Skunk in the henhouse, something don’t smell right.
misjustice on May 16 at 7:45 a.m.
Too intellectually lazy to propose his own solutions to the problems facing Idaho and the Nation; sounds like the PERFECT Republican’t/Teagagger Candidate, ala the Quitter on Twitter. What a douche!