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Becker's Testimony: True or Untrue?

Expressed Advocacy 

Also during the October 31 session, Executive Director Wayne questioned Becker about whether he had expressly advocated for TABOR (express advocacy is a technical term for explicit campaigning - eg. making "Yes on 1" statements). The questioning turned to a radio debate that had taken place the previous day:   

JONATHAN WAYNE:  I wanted to ask, how can you be so sure that you haven’t engaged in express advocacy and I just wondered about Mr. Lindemann's example when Mike Violette turn to you and said, give us a yes on you know, one statement and then you replied. Sounds like you didn't say 'no we're are a tax-exempt organization and we are not really urging you one way or the other but here’s our analysis'.

MR. BECKER:  I can tell you exactly what I said because -

JONATHAN WAYNE:  (Interposing) Well just in general you know, in the context of what the spirit of the law is trying to do and what people take away from your presentation in the media, how can you be so sure you haven’t expressly advocated in support of TABOR.

MR. BECKER:  Because I haven’t expressly advocated.  As a matter of fact what Dennis Bailey said at the end of that interview yesterday was, could Becker keep his — I said specifically I said, Maine voters would be wise to look at this issue I said, and if they like the current status quo then they should vote against it.  If they think that we need a new direction and a new opportunity then there is much about the Taxpayer Bill of Rights that they might want to study. Dennis Bailey said then, to my left, he said because he can't specifically say vote yes on one vote no on one, I vote no on one and he said that is right.  Because I can't and I won't, I cannot put out stuff like that and I would not put out stuff like that which specifically says, “Hurricane TABOR wipes out real tax relief  - vote no” and that is express advocacy.  My organization has policy restrictions.  Their organization is doing political advocacy.  There is a difference between policy and politics. (pgs. 53-54 corrected)

Audio (1:30)

Check here for the complete debate on WGAN-AM discussed. It took place the day before on October 30, 2006 with Becker set against Dennis Bailey of Citizens United, the anti-TABOR PAC. WGAN's Mike Violette and Ken Altschuler moderated.

Closing statements complete (2:30)

Express advocacy close (:14)

(for full debate, go to archives, scroll down to "The TABOR Debate - October/November 2006)

Becker doesn't say "Yes on 1", right? Instead, Becker adapted the campaign slogan from the proponent PAC, taxopayerbillofrights.com: “Reasonable. Effective. Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” Under Ethics Commission rules (94-270, Section 10.2b - page 16), express advocacy includes "...communications of campaign slogan(s) or individual word(s), which in context can have no other reasonable meaning." So the use of campaign slogans is no different than the use of generic “Yes on 1” language. Here, Becker is asked to give a "Yes on 1" statement and instead says "The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is reasonable and effective." It's easy to see this in terms of ad slogans. Like a Coke and a smile, it's the Real Thing. 

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Still not sure? Compare these images. 

#1 A campaign flyer from taxpayerbillofrights.com:

#2 A slide from an MHPC TABOR slideshow presentation:

So, judge for yourself. Was Becker accurate when he emphatically asserted "I haven't expressly advocated", a claim that he and his attorney Dan Billings claimed time and time again.

I encourage all interested to review the materials and reach their own reasoned conclusions based on the evidence.

                                                                                                -CL

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