DeWeese uses children as props
Thousands of voters recently received a political piece of direct mail from state Rep. Bill DeWeese labeled, “Special Report.” The report was supposed to focus on children’s health programs. I am the campaign manager for Greg Hopkins, who is challenging DeWeese in this fall’s election, and I would like to explain the truth behind that report. On the cover of this piece of political propaganda were children from Day Camp, which was run by the county’s Parks and Recreation Department. My children attended Day Camp and thoroughly enjoyed it.
On the last day of camp, my son, 12, returned home upset. He said that it seemed odd that the children from Nineveh (Hopkins’ home town), were told to stand toward the front of a large group of day campers for a photograph with DeWeese.
He was very uncomfortable with what he thought was a “set up.” He said DeWeese spoke to a woman and pointed in my son’s direction. She walked over and told my son to hold the Nineveh sign. He told her that he did not want to hold the sign or pose for the photo. She repeated that he must hold the sign.
When my son told me the story, I told him not to worry. Camp was over, and I was sorry that Day Camp had turned political. But it wasn’t over.
Recently, I opened the mail and received the flyer. My son was right. It had been a set up!
There was a grinning DeWeese, standing in front of a Nineveh sign and my son’s face.
The unknowing public would open the “Special Report” and not realize that DeWeese used the children in that photograph to take a stab at me, the Hopkins’ campaign and Greg’s hometown. The taxpayers paid for that mean tactic.
The Hopkins campaign has been advised that this is not the first time unknowing or unwilling “models” have been used in DeWeese’s political propaganda.
I have never signed a photograph release for my minor children with DeWeese’s office or Parks and Recreation. It was unethical to use children for this political game. All children deserve ethical treatment, including a political opponent’s.
This is a new low for politics.
Kelly Loughman
Sycamore