There is a candidate for statewide office here in California who has exaggerated their credentials, taken credit where credit is not due and poured millions of their own money into their campaign coffers. If you guessed Meg Whitman you would be wrong. It’s Democrat Chris Kelly who is running for attorney general.
I hate to break it to California voters, but this is Chris Kelly’s kingdom and we’re just visiting. Mini Meg, as some have come to call him, is content as he pours his own fortune into his campaign. Kelly has already dumped around $10 million of his money in his campaign. Sure, hes not even close to the kinds of money that his GOP counterparts, Queen Meg and Steve Poisner have poured into their own camps, but considering other AG candidates like Ted Lieu, Alberto Torrico and Kamala Harris have been running solely on donation from supporters, he clearly has the similar conviction that he can buy the Democratic nomination.
Then there is his recent TV ad in all its glory. Most of us tend to embellish a little bit when we tell a story. Like that little fish you caught was actually a 10lb-er, or you totally kicked that one guy’s ass when in reality he just happened to trip on the sidewalk. But when you spend $10 million of your own money and a new SurveyUSA Poll shows you third in line behind behind Kamala Harris and Rocky Delgadillo, then you definitely try turning water into wine when it comes to padding up your resume.
But only in a Chris Kelly kingdom he claim credit for President Bill Clinton’s 1994 passage of the Crimes Bill. In his TV ad, Kelly claims that he helped put 100,000 new cops on the streets as a policy advisor for Bill Clinton. But this isn’t true. Chris Kelly, 23 years old at the time, was a junior level staffer… in the Department of Education. Not even some mail-room intern in the Justice Department. Wow. Even Karl Rove would say that’s a stretch.
Chris Kelly also claims as Facebook’s privacy czar, he has worked with all 50 states’ attorney generals. Well, yea… i can tell you that you will work and develop a relationship with all 50 state attorney generals real fast when you’re hit with a subpoena because of Facebook’s egregious privacy policies, as the SF Chronicle reported last month. That’s like saying im experienced in working with the police departments of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno and Santa Monica because i got a parking ticket in all those cities.
How about protecting consumers? Ask the millions of people who use Facebook if they feel protected by Chris Kelly. Kelly was the man behind Facebook’s privacy policies that received a lot of negative attention and in December of 2009, the uproar over privacy (or lack thereof) at Facebook was the result of privacy guidelines HE designed. Maybe that’s why Kamala Harris has twice as many Facebook fans as him? I know, Chris- when the online community of the company you used to work for and now tout as your biggest asset prefers Kamala over you 2-to1, it’s like being rejected by an old girlfriend. That’s gotta hurt.
This misleading ad has not gone unnoticed. The blog California Majority Report and the Fresno Bee newspaper, two sides of the political spectrum, have brought attention to the inaccuracies of Kelly’s claims. Kamala’s camp has also released a video ripping apart this ad (see below).
Chris Kelly lives in his own world and we’re just visiting. It’s time to wake up and realize that we need a attorney general who has experience in the real world. A candidate who has created real policies to address all levels of crime and looks not just to put criminals in jail but to keep them from having to be put in their to begin with. This is why Kamala Harris is the right vote for the Democratic nomination for attorney general.
Join EBYD and support Kamala Harris as the next California Attorney General!
Check out Kamala’s video in response to Kelly’s TV ad:
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Kamala Harris is endorsed by EBYD as our choice for Attorney General of CA. To see a list of other EBYD endorsed candidates, please visit our Endorsements page.
