LWV asks Smolenski to pull down video
The League of Women Voters of Park Ridge recently hosted a candidate forum for the Illinois 55th House District, between candidates Marty Moylan and Marilyn Smolenski.
All candidates who agree to participate in League forums are made aware that the League does not support or oppose any candidate or political party.
Both campaigns asked to videotape the event with the verbal agreement that the video could be used for internal purposes only.
Additionally, Marilyn Smolenski's campaign (managed by the Illinois Opportunity Project) offered to share its video with us to post for community members who could not attend.
Unfortunately, the League never received the video despite numerous attempts to contact the campaign.
Even worse, footage from the forum has since been used in an attack ad against Marty Moylan that was shared via email to Smolenski's mailing list.
We are profoundly disappointed that the Smolenski campaign chose not to follow our ground rules that state explicitly, "No voice, image or other duplication of the forum may be used by any candidate's representative or campaign in any campaign advertising."
In the spirit of civility and good faith, we ask that the Smolenski campaign remove the League forum footage from its ad immediately.
Mary Upson, president
League of Women Voters
Park Ridge