Greenwich GOP cries foul over political ad
GREENWICH — The Republican Town Committee and the League of Women Voters are calling out a local political action committee that they say improperly used clips from a state representative debate in an ad boosting Democratic candidates.
The PAC, Greenwich Voices for Democracy, posted the ads online late last week showing candidates’ responses when asked whether they would support “codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose” an abortion in the state constitution if Roe v. Wade became “in jeopardy under a new Supreme Court.”
“This is a problem because it erodes the discourse further, and I’ve gone to great lengths that
Republicans don’t do that,” Republican Town Committee Chair Dan Quigley said Monday.
The ad used clips of Republican candidates Kimberly Fiorello, Joe Kelly and state Rep. Harry Arora from last week’s debate. The candidates had agreed with the league to post the entire debate, not clips, if they used it on their websites and social media.
The ad strings portions of the candidates’ answers together. They “made it look like they were stammering and not giving an answer. That is not reflective of what was said,” Quigley said.
He urged the league to “use its moral authority” to call out Greenwich Voices for Democracy.
Over the weekend, the league issued a statement that said the rules had been communicated to the RTC and Democratic Town Committee, and both had agreed to them.
“We are asking anyone with plans to share the debate videotape contrary to this guidance to reconsider,” the league said. “The league adds the most value to our community when it is understood by those at both ends of the political spectrum that it is nonpartisan. This is a hardfought election, but it’s our collective responsibility to protect civil discourse. We hope we can count on the community’s support.”
The league did not specifically name Greenwich Voices for Democracy in its statement.
The ad states that it was paid for by Greenwich Voices for Democracy, and that it was made independent of any candidate or political party.
The PAC is run by Sandy Litvack, a former Democratic member of the Board of Selectmen, and it was posted on the Twitter accounts of Greenwich Voices for Democracy and Indivisible Greenwich, an advocacy group that was co-founded by Joanna Swomley, who is married to Litvack.
On Monday, Litvack defended the ad.
“We’re not a party to any agreement (with the league), and we didn’t know of any agreement,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been a party to any agreement like that. We haven’t edited (the video). We took exactly what they said in answer to a question.”
The ad takes fragments of statements and puts them together in one video, taking them out of the order said in the debate. But Litvack said he felt it “accurately portrays what they said.”
“We didn’t twist any words,” he said. “We didn’t change any words. I guess my view is that it is accurate reporting. Having said that, there’s no reason why the public shouldn’t know it. If they had listened (to the debate) they would have heard those words.”
Quigley said he wanted the ad taken down, which Litvack said he would not do.
Litvack also said there was no coordination about the ad with Swomley or Indivisible Greenwich.
The three Republican candidates are all shown in the one minute and 39 second ad with the message, “Harry Arora, Joe Kelly and Kimberly Fiorello will not fight to protect a woman’s right to choose” and “Greenwich Democrats will.”
Fiorello is running in the 149th District. Kelly is running in the 150th. Arora is running for reelection in the 151st District.
Clips of their answers about the abortion issue are edited together, in one example it omits part of Fiorello’s comments. In the debate, Fiorello said that Connecticut has protections for reproductive rights in its Constitution so she did not know why the question was asked.
Her Democratic opponent, Kathleen Stowe, said she agreed that reproductive rights are protected in the state Constitution. But she said she understood the question was due to the expected addition of a new Supreme Court justice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which could lead to striking down Roe v. Wade and sending the issue back to the states.
The ad includes a clip of Fiorello saying, “That’s a conversation that I would ask my husband to have” and then saying, “Because it does take two.”
During the debate, Fiorello in full said, “On the topic, there’s another conversation we can have. As the mother of a son, a teenage boy, when we talk about unwanted pregnancies, I think we should also be talking to our boys about them being responsible because it does take two. That’s a conversation that I would ask my husband to have.”
During the debate, Arora and Kelly both said Roe v. Wade “is the law of the land” and neither speculated about what they would do if the court changed that.
On Monday, DTC Chair Joe Angland said the key issue was whether the video excerpts captured fairly what the candidates said. He said the ad did do that, because none of the Republicans said they would protect a woman’s right to choose an abortion if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
Angland also said, “Given that the parties and campaigns agreed not to use excerpts from the debate, I personally would not urge others to use them or facilitate such use. But that does not mean that others are wrong to exercise their First Amendment rights.”