Another story that I saw last week on WGOP that struck me as a little odd was this one. Hey “liberal” News Journal, if I, as a party activist and blogger, run against an entrenched incumbent upstate in 2014, will I get such meaningless yet glowing coverage as this:
State Senate Candidate Matt Opaliski is discarding candidate surveys and is declining endorsements and contributions from liberal groups. Opaliski on Tuesday was reviewing postal and electronic mail that is typically sent to campaigns during the election season by various organizations seeking to survey candidates on positions that usually favor these groups and, in most cases, hint at a potential endorsement.
Opaliski tells WGMD that he threw two questionnaires in the garbage; one was from the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Delaware and another was from the Laborers’ District Council of Delaware. Opaliski says that since Planned Parenthood treats babies like trash, he decided he would treat their survey and any potential endorsement or campaign contribution from them like trash. Opaliski is running for the newly reapportioned 18th District Senate seat.
Hey all women and all workers, you got that? The message from Opaliski is: “YOU’RE TRASH.”
I highly doubt many aspects of this “story.” While it is possible that both Planned Parenthood and the Laborer’s Union sent Opaliski candidate surveys, it must assuredly done as a matter of course as such organizations want to appear nonpartisan and thus they send their surveys out to anyone and everyone who has filed to run for office. And it is possible that each organization’s enclosure letter to him mentioned that any possible endorsement and contributions from them is tied to the completion of their endorsement survey. But make no mistake, Matt Opaliski was never, ever, in a million years, going to be endorsed by a Union that values worker’s rights and fair pay, nor was he going to be endorsed by Planned Parenthood since he is not at all concerned about the health and welfare of women.
So that’s the story, a fringe candidate threw surveys from two organizations in the trash, two organizations from which he had no hope whatsoever of ever getting an endorsement or funds from.
And that’s news on WGMD in Sussex County.
The most important part of the story in my mind is how WGMD characterizes the seat Opaliski is running for.
Opaliski is running for the newly reapportioned 18th District Senate seat.
This makes it sound like Opaliski is running in the newly created 20th RD or the newly created 6th SD. “Newly reapportioned?” All 62 districts in the House and Senate are newly reapportioned. That’s what happens after a census. But do you notice what is missing from the story?
Any mention … at all… of Opaliski’s opponent. No mention of the fact that he is challenging the most powerful Republican incumbent in the state. Yes, you all remember Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson, don’t you?
He garners nary a mention. It is almost as if Matt wrote the piece himself.