Herman Cain‘s latest campaign ad stars his campaign manager, Mark Block. The ad is creepy. It shows Block speaking about Cain and the campaign and why they will win, and ends with Block inhaling a lit cigarette, then blowing smoke. No wonder it’s posted on YouTube, by Herman Cain’s campaign, as “unlisted.”
The YouTube description reads, “Chief of Staff Mark Block talks about Herman Cain’s Presidential Campaign and urges people to act because together we can elect Herman Cain!”
This ad, aside from how creepy and offensive it is (smoking a cigarette? Really?) is a big mistake, because it highlights Mark Block, Cain’s up until now fairly anonymous campaign manager.
Who is Mark Block? Apparently a Koch Brothers backed line-crossing pol who has been in legal trouble for his political activities, and has been forced to pay thousands of dollars in fines and was banned from politics in the late 1990s.
“Block formerly served as the executive director of the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a free-market advocacy organization. Block serves on the Board of Directors of the MacIver Institute and the First Freedoms Foundation,” according to Ballotpedia.
The MacIver Institute has been described as “a conservative propaganda organization dolled up to look like a conventional news service.”
“Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) and First Freedoms Foundation are challenging the new same-sex domestic partnership law authoried and signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle in the 2010-2011 state budget,” according to the First Freedoms Foundation website.
Ballotpedia adds:
“Mark Block managed the 1997 election campaign of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon P. Wilcox. Wilcox won the election, and Block was later charged with illegal coordination with the political activities of Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation. During that period the constitutionality of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was facing a legal challenge. If Wilcox’s opponent Walt Kelley had been elected the Milwaukee program might have been ruled unconstitutional.”
“Block reached a settlement to end litigation by paying a $15,000 fine and agreeing to a three-year ban on volunteer or paid political activity. Brent Pickens, a former Wisconsin State Assembly staffer who was running Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation, ended related litigation against him by agreeing to pay a $15,000 fine. Pickens also agreed to avoid political activity for five years.”
“In 2007, The West Bend Area School District attempted to pass a $120 million school referendum. This would have been the largest school referenda in Wisconsin history. Americans for Prosperity organized a phone call campaign to communicate with voters in the district about the referenda’s tax ramifications. The school district’s attorney responded to a request from It’s Time, a West Bend group supporting passage of the referendum, to investigate whether the message violated state law. The calls were placed Friday before the referendum in November 2007.
“Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens ruled in favor of Americans for Prosperity, writing, “I believe the language in the call comes dangerously close to express advocacy…Although it appears that some of the information in the call is misleading and a distortion of the true financial impact of the referendum on taxpayers, the veracity of the political speech is not the issue in determining whether Americans for Prosperity is required to register as a political committee.”
“State election law requires anyone expressly promoting the passage or defeat of a referendum question to register to campaign, according to the state Elections Board.
“Block has said the message was intended to educate West Bend residents.
“In the West Bend referendum, Americans for Prosperity’s telephone message said the building plan would cost “$574,000 for each child” added to the district since a 2001 referendum.
“West Bend School Superintendent Patricia Herdrich described the message as ‘inaccurate and misleading‘.”
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If Herman Cain thinks this is a good representation of him and his campaign, imagine who he’d hire in the White House.