"Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
Yesterday the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) e-mailed the advertisement pictured to the right to a historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) recipient list.
Surprising? No.
Illegal? Yes.
The NAFEO is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group registered under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, and as such is prohibited by law from "directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."
But don't worry: NAFEO president Lezil Baskerville promises it was an accident!
Ricochet member Trace Urdan writes:
If this mailer were instead sent to the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities membership base with the same rhetoric exhorting its members to vote for Republicans: "If you don't vote, they win," how quickly the charges of racism would come.
But the HBCUs might want to reconsider, because the same strong hand of government impacting the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) membership could easily turn its attention next to the appalling outcomes performance among its member schools.
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
It's always an accident with the left, while it's always deliberate with the right. Can't we turn that little bit of liberal dogma into a counterargument? Something like "all these accidents are proof of the left's incompetence."
Aug '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
With no id required, accidental voting is occurring in Wisconsin on a very frequent basis.
But it's no accident that George Soros has a large number of Secy of States around the country in his satin-lined pocket.
Jul '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
Who ever heard of this group? And thousands of others like them.
This is where the Right is at a huge political disadvantage. The Left has established - usually with the help of government money - a plethora of shady activist organizations. They're like a plague of locusts.
Aug '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
Yes, of course it was an accident. It seems like once a week that I accidentally send professional looking graphics in emails asking people to vote for candidates of my political persuasion. Doesn't this happen to everyone?
Aug '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
As someone who cheered at Citizens United I honestly can't say I'm that upset at this. On the other hand, pretty much the entire left thought Citizens United was a breach of democracy on par with a military coup so there's always the hypocrisy angle.
May '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
The group exists to lobby Congress and the president for more direct subsidies (and to avoid oversight) for Historically Black Colleges & Universities which have been a protected group since the beginning of the Title IV program. The president has come through for them since holding office despite their having a graduation and loan default track record that is genuinely abysmal. The issue is silly from the perspective of whether this ad was likely to make any difference in the election. I think it's simply the supreme hypocrisy that it suggests that makes it worth highlighting and pursuing.
Oct '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
I can think of a lot of adjectives for this kind of electioneering, but unless you can put a name to the candidate or campaign NAFEO is lobbying for or against, I'm afraid "illegal" isn't one of them.
There's hardly a poster or a mailer out there that doesn't imply partisan support or opposition.
Sep '10
Re: "Nonpartisan" Group "Accidentally" Turns Partisan
Shouldn't that organization be called the NAEOHE?