There's a Pierre Cardin fake, but a Ben Cardin fake?

by Richard Miniter

Benjamin Cardin, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat open in Maryland, apparently paid campaign staffers to pose as students, workers and other “real people” in a campaign advertisement.

In contrast with other commercials, it is considered unethical to fail to identify paid spokesmen or to have them pose as random members of the public in political advertisements.

Cardin’s campaign did not disclose the links between these “real people” and his campaign.

In Cardin’s ad, a number of Marylanders endorse Cardin. Ashley Peddicord, apparently a college student, says “Thanks to Ben, I can afford college.” In reality, Peddicord works for the campaign. Her campaign email is: Ashley@bencardin.com.

Kelton Anderson, posing as an ordinary working man, is in fact a high-ranking official with United Auto Workers union, which has endorsed Cardin. The UAW gave $9,258,308 during 2006 election season, virtually all of it to Democrats, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. Cardin

And there’s Carl Tuvin, who tells the camera “And he’s fighting for better health care.” What he does not say is that he is a paid Democratic party organizer, who has long worked with Cardin.

“These revelations demonstrate that Ben Cardin has not been honest with the voters of Maryland. If he can’t be honest about having real people as supporters, what else is he lying about?” said Doug Heye, spokesman for Michael Steele, the Republican candidate for Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat. “After 20 years in Congress, you would think he would have some actual real people who support him.”

Oren Shur, Cardin’s spokesman, repeatedly failed to respond to inquiries.

Cardin’s ad has aired 174 times in the Washington and Baltimore television markets and cost the Cardin campaign $162,000 so far, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group.
Campaign Media Analysis Group is the leading provider of television advertising tracking data to trade associations, Fortune 100 firms, broadcast networks, and hundreds of national, state and local political campaigns.
This is not the first time the Cardin campaign has been faulted. One campaign workers, Ursula Gruber, was fired for making anti-black and anti-Semitic comments on her private blog. In addition, two staffers at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee were caught stealing Steele’s credit report. They were promptly fired and later faced criminal charges.