While a politician including lovely views of the city he or she hopes to represent in campaign materials is always a good strategy, it is imperative that in doing so — and I think most political science majors will back me up here — you use pictures of the city you actually hope to represent.
Eagle-eyed politicos in Northwest Arkansas have noticed that a banner that’s front and center on the campaign website (see update below) of Republican Tracy K. Hoskins, a business developer who hopes to win a seat on the Fayetteville (Arkansas) City Council in a run-off election being held today, features two stock photos of the Old Market House in downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina. The building, built in 1832, was used as a slave market before the Civil War, and was once displayed on the Fayetteville, N.C. city logo.
Hoskins’ opponent in today’s election for the Ward 3 seat is Fayetteville real estate agent Sarah Bunch, who Hoskins has called “ultra-liberal” and “extremely partisan” in other campaign materials. No word yet on whether Bunch knows which Fayetteville she actually lives in.
UPDATE: Since we published this story, it appears the photos in the banner ad have been swapped out for photos of Old Main on the U.A. campus and a generic shot of Fayetteville, Arkansas’s downtown. Luckily, we had saved a screengrab of Hoskins’ website as it appeared as of this morning.