Charitable organization demands Porter retraction

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

A charitable organization is demanding a retraction from Republican congressional candidate Jon Porter for what it says was an implied endorsement from its group in a television commercial.

The CASA Foundation is a non-profit organization of court-appointed special advocates which assists children in adoption and other legal matters. The group's former president, Jane Gibbons, is quoted in print typed on the Porter commercial as calling him a true friend of children.

Under the quote is Gibbons' name and title as CASA Foundation president.

Norm Kirshman, who serves on CASA's board and provides legal services for the organization, phoned Porter's campaign last Friday asking the campaign to pull the spot from the air because federally tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations are not permitted to endorse political candidates. Kirshman feared CASA could lose its tax-exempt status because of the ad.

But Porter's campaign made no effort to pull the ad -- saying it would have taken until Monday to get the ad off the air. Monday was the final run date of the 10-day buy for the ad anyway.

"In my opinion it's not an endorsement," Porter's campaign consultant Mike Slanker said. "Nowhere in there is she saying, 'I endorse Jon Porter.' "

But Kirshman said he found it "appalling" that the campaign did not immediately address CASA's concerns.

"It's absolutely incorrect for someone who's running a campaign on integrity and ethics to not be willing to admit an error," Kirshman said.

Porter's campaign is running numerous ads questioning Democrat Dario Herrera's character.

But Slanker said he thought criticism of the ad with Gibbons' quote was "silly."

"It happens every cycle," Slanker said. "In this case, she said what she said, and that's it."

In the 2000 U.S. Senate race between Republican John Ensign and Democrat Ed Bernstein, an advertisement used in Ensign's campaign came under scrutiny for the same reason. Slanker was also Ensign's consultant.

In that case, Gail Allen, president of the Breast Cancer Coalition of Nevada Inc., said her appearance in a television ad represented her personal views and was not an endorsement from the organization.

The Internal Revenue Service investigated the ad in question at the time as it does any potential violation of federal tax exempt status by non-profit groups. No action was taken by the IRS related to the ad in the Ensign campaign and the issue died after the election and Ensign's solid victory.

Slanker said he can't understand why either case is worthy of any newsprint.

"Why in the world can't an American citizen say something nice about another person?" Slanker said. "The other side is just mad she's not saying something nice about Dario Herrera."