Barrett ad's wrong election date makes national headlines

(MIRS) — An error with a Tom BARRETT campaign advertisement in a free Black-owned newspaper in Lansing led to quick national headlines and a cease-and-desist letter from the Attorney General’s Office today.

Marcus JEFFERSON, publisher for the free Michigan Bulletin, ran a back-page, full-page color advertisement during the Oct. 1-15 publication from Barrett urging readers to vote on Nov. 6, when the General Election is the day before, Nov. 5. A page prior, there's a full-page advertisement from U.S. Senate candidate Mike ROGERS, that has the correct Election Day mentioned.

“I’ve been in newspapers for most of my life.  I’m not in the business of misinforming my readers,” Jefferson said.

He said the file came from the Barrett campaign, made it through the proofers and was published. He said the file was meant to be an ad-ready copy.

The same advertisement was sent to the free City Pulse in Lansing, but publisher Berl SCHWARTZ said they caught the error and had the campaign change the date in the file before publishing.

The Michigan Bulletin error was immediately compounded by being quickly picked up by the Washington Post, New York Times, and CNN after a complaint was filed by the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.

Jason ROE, with the Barrett campaign, said the advertisement was initially designed for the City Pulse, but after it was changed for that publication, it was sent to the Bulletin. Roe said somehow the original version ended up being sent by mistake.

“There would be no reason for us, three weeks out from an election, to try to mislead any voters when we would obviously get caught, but more importantly, everything else we’ve been doing has been focused towards reaching Black voters and building support there,” Roe said.

Roe said this was the first of three ads and that there would be a correct ad that would appear in the next issue of the Michigan Bulletin.

He said there are multiple campaign fliers and mailings targeting Black voters that have had all the correct election date and the campaign has been talking with local leaders.

He said the typo has snowballed into being amplified as a Democratic “stunt.”

“It’s frustrating, because anybody looking at it knows it was just an error, but they’re allowing this to be turned into a voter suppression story that does not exist,” Roe said.

Attorney General @Dana NESSEL issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Barrett campaign today. 

Michigan Legislative Black Caucus Executive Director Chris JACKSON said the caucus did not contact the Times or Post regarding the story. He said they did file the complaint with the AG and Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office after readers from Lansing brought it to their attention.

Jackson said the general readership of the Michigan Bulletin is Black voters and said there was still potential for voter suppression from the ad.

“If there’s one person at this point that’s confused or has put a paper up on their refrigerator that speaks to the Nov. 6 date from the ad that was the wrong one, then there’s a problem,” Jackson said.

He said there needed to be awareness because voter suppression tactics have happened in the past.

In 2020, Nessel’s office prosecuted a Californian man and Virginian man who had targeted 12,000 Detroit voters with information about the wrong days for the election (See “AG Charges 2 Political Operatives With Trying To Intimidate Voters,” 10/1/20). 

Jackson gave kudos to the City Pulse for catching the error and said he didn’t fully put the onus on Jefferson with the Michigan Bulletin, because the advertisements were supposed to be “photo ready.”

He said the tug-of-war between the right to vote and voter suppression was playing out across the country and that he felt it was the duty of the caucus to bring attention to a “potential ploy.”

“It’s my job to take the priorities of my members in the Legislature and do what’s best for not just Black communities, but communities of color, and make sure that there’s equity across the board for everyone,” Jackson said.

(Published with permission  by the Capitol news service MIRS.)