There was one on Dr. Seuss' 104th Birthday. There was another for Ben Stein's visit to Jefferson City. There was even one for David Cook's recent ascension to the post of America's Idol.
Of course these are all references to press releases issued by Republican Gov. Matt Blunt since he decided not to seek re-election in late January.
For those keeping track (readers of FiredUp Missouri and nearly all Democrats), Blunt's announcement came 132 days ago yesterday. On Jan. 22, Blunt declared all his priorities as governor completed.
Since that date Blunt's office has issued a total of 461 press releases, some relevant to the elected office, others less relevant.
Here's a breakdown based on Keywords from the title alone:
- 12 attacked political rival Jay Nixon
- 61 announced grants or project funding
- 4 addressed Blunt's greatest political goal for the session, Insure Missouri, which ultimately failed
- 9 mention immigration
- 4 cover jobs (apparently not much to say these days)
- 11 laud something or other (e.g. tax holiday, John Buck, DARE program, MSU's marching band, an attack submarine)
- 4 with the same title: "Change is working for Missouri's economy" (by most accounts it's not)
- 29 statements (e.g. the great 2008 earthquake, gay marriage, confirmation of appointees)
In the last two days, Blunt's office issued three statements criticizing Attorney General Jay Nixon. Some blogs have questioned who is actually writing the releases, speculating that US Congressman Kenny Hulshof's gubernatorial campaign team may be working behind the scenes to take a bite out of Nixon's commanding lead in recent polls.
One of those press releases Tuesday began with this lengthy statement, to say the least: "Attorney General Jay Nixon is failing to represent Missouri by failing to support an effort to allow the people, not the courts to decide if marriage is between one man and one woman even after the California Secretary of State approved a ballot initiative to allow the people, not the courts to decide on the definition of marriage."
A staggering number of press releases seeking to cast Blunt in a positive light during his final months in office address material formerly released by respective state agencies. Those releases about serious topics are often mired by controversial and politically motivated releases such as those attacking Nixon.
The busiest day of the week, by the way, is Thursday which has accounted for 19 percent of the total press releases since Blunt's Jan. announcement.
On average Blunt's office has released 3.5 statements per day. Believe it or not, that trend is actually declining. The most releases on a single day came on May 16th, the final day of the legislative session when Blunt's office released 13 statements. On 31 days since January Blunt's office issue no statements.
The question being raised by some is just how valid are press releases from Blunt's office, particularly when they are mixed between highly important and childish partisan attacks. Leave your comments below.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Blunt press releases inundate press, often have little relevance to office
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7 comments:
Blunt's blatant use of office to make partisan, political attacks is a disgusting waste of taxpayer dollars just like his salary. Whoever is authoring some of these press releases should be investigated for misuse of state resources! Missourians don't want to hear this garbage from the top elected official in the state, there's an expectation of more civility and maturity than what Blunt's office is exhibiting.
Can this be interpreted as a sign of desperation for the Missouri Republican party?
Blunt has little relevance to office too. Interesting that there have been 14 official attacks on Jay Nixon from Blunt's office since he announced he wasn't even running for re-election. That's an indicator of Republican's willingness to use every resource at their disposal to smear Nixon. Anyone want to county attack releases from Doyle Childers at DNR? There are probably just about as many!
Sorry, meant to say 12 attacks on Nixon (I promise I can read).
Only one way to interpret this: Blunt has been a disaster for Missouri. During his final days in office, the Missouri GOP is doing whatever they can do make Blunt appear as a success. Incumbent governors don't just one day decide to not run for re-election. Blunt looked at his internal polling numbers and saw that his chances were about as good in beating Nixon as his first term was actually a success!
Wow, nice work on this! It's a shame Blunt has become so partisan in his role as governor. And some call him an actual leader.
I’d be curious to know what Nixon’s press releases look like and how often he uses the AG’s office to attack Blunt. I can’t recall seeing any.
12 of 461 attacking Nixon doesn't seem so bad, it's the ones about all the irrelevant things that bother me. At least if Blunt's attacking Nixon you know Nixon did something right.
I just took a few minutes scanning over Blunt's list of releases and seriously, who does this guy think he is? There's crap in there that no one cares about, especially coming from a governor. Is anyone paying attention? Maybe that's why he has to send out so many press releases, in hopes that at least one gets repeated somewhere down the road. Reminds me of the child standing in the middle of a crowd of adults screaming "why isn't anyone listening to me?"
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