Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Arkansas Politics 'Education,' AFP-style: Cut-rate gas for the right kind of politics
Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 1:04 PM
According to the post, the station was hosting the event with the AFP and Sen. Irvin. What's more, the first 150 people who showed up between noon and 1:30 p.m. were to be able to buy gas for $1.84, a whopping savings. Irvin might disavow her hostdom, but she certainly didn't disapprove. She distributed the photo I've put at the top.
Who's paying? I've asked AFP. Doesn't it amount to a campaign contribution to the senator by somebody if she's a named "host"? It certainly smells like something other than ethyl was being pumped today. For point of reference: A savings of $1.75 or so per gallon is worth a whole lot more in sum in an SUV than the $1.20 half-pints of vodka passed out to voters in East Arkansas in a controversial special election last year that wound up on the federal court docket.
There's also a "gas event" at 5:30 p.m. today at the Exxon on Union Street in Dardanelle, where AFP has been spending to beat a Democratic candidate for representative. One was held this morning in Beebe and another was scheduled today in Forrest City. All happen to be in the heart of districts where AFP has been spending in behalf of Republicans or, more often, directly against the Democrats they want defeated
This is supposedly education. Not advocacy. Because of that fine legal distinction, however transparently dishonest, AFP does not have to report its expenditures. It's a national scandal, as you can see from the AFP U.S. map, speckled with subsidized gas fillups aimed at influencing votes for political office.
Think this gimmick might be effective. See photo of cars waiting for fillups.
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