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Gun group linked to ads

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited September 2002 in General Discussion
Gun group linked to ads
Weiss was targeted for database bill
Weiss: 'There's a real subterfuge going on.'
LYNN BONNER, Staff Writer


In the days before the Sept. 10 primary, a radio advertisement sponsored by the North Carolina Medical Privacy Council told listeners to send a message to state Rep. Jennifer Weiss "and other prying politicians," and vote for her Democratic opponent.

Weiss, who had co-sponsored a bill that would create a database of mentally incompetent people denied gun permits, had never heard of the council, which had not finished filing its state PAC registration forms or disclosed all its contributors. As it turned out, the Privacy Council paid for the ad with money from the PAC of Grass Roots North Carolina, a gun-owners group.

"The public is listening to an ad that in no way refers to guns," Weiss said. "I think the public has the right to know who's behind those ads. There's a real subterfuge going on."

Weiss' husband, Bruce Hamilton, filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections on Sept. 13 that included the council's failure to file required disclosures.

Privacy Council treasurer Keith Miller, a member of Grass Roots North Carolina, filed the information last week. He said Monday that his need to care for sick relatives and the rush to run the ad during the primary season delayed the filing.

"I got a little bit of paperwork in late," Miller said. "I'm completely new at this."

Miller reported that the Privacy Council received a total of $200 from individual contributors on Aug. 18 and 19, and $1,300 from Grass Roots' federal PAC on Sept. 5. The ad ran on at least one radio station from Sept. 7 to 9 at a cost of $1,185, according to information obtained by the State Board of Elections.

Paul Valone, president of Grass Roots North Carolina, said the PAC decided to contribute to the Privacy Council's ads because Grass Roots was concerned about disclosure of medical records. Valone said he read and agreed with the script of the Privacy Council ad.

"To the best of my knowledge, Keith decided to do this because of his concerns over medical privacy," Valone said, "particularly with regard to people with histories of mental health treatment."

Kim Westbrook, the State Board of Elections' deputy director for campaign reporting, said it's fine for one PAC to donate to another PAC, as long as both disclose it.

In this case, the Medical Privacy Council should have disclosed the contribution from the Grass Roots PAC within 48 hours, and the Grass Roots PAC should have reported its contribution within 10 days, according to Westbrook.

Paul Sanford, director of Washington's nonpartisan FEC Watch, said it is fairly common in national elections for political committees to provide money for ads sponsored by another group. "That dynamic, the transfer of funds to allow for ads to be run under a different name, is a theme that runs through various campaign financing arrangements," he said.

The bill Weiss co-sponsored would set up a "crime gun interdiction task force" to stem the flow of illegal guns through the state.

A section of the bill, which is in a House committee, would establish a database of people who do not qualify for gun permits because courts have found them mentally incompetent or because they have been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.

"It would make it easier for sheriffs who are running a legally required gun check to get information that they have the right to get," she said.

Miller said Grass Roots didn't pay the entire cost of the ad. "They have a common interest from a different angle," Miller said.

"This is much more than a gun issue. [The government] shouldn't have databases of people's mental histories. I'm concerned with the government precompiling information on people."

The Grass Roots North Carolina PAC sponsored a separate anti-Weiss radio ad before the primary that mentioned the privacy of medical records as well as a gun storage bill she sponsored, which was defeated last year.

Weiss won her primary. Neither Valone nor Miller would say whether Grass Roots or the Privacy Council will run ads opposing her in the general election.

Staff writer Lynn Bonner can be reached at 829-4821 or lbonner@newsobserver.com.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1759709p-1770030c.html

"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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