County Auditor Candidate Richard Kelley Reacts to Anonymous Political Mailing

Richard Kelly, who is challenging McHenry County Auditor Pam Palmer, gave me permission to publish the following letter to Daily Herald columnist Amy Mack:

Dear Ms. Mack:

On today’s date, I received an anonymous mailing at my home residence, which included a reprinted version of an article which you authored and which originally appeared on Sunday, September 16, 2007 in the Daily Herald.

The backside of the document indicates that it was reprinted by permission of the Daily Herald.

The article mentions my opponent, Pam Palmer, numerous times.

I have learned that this article was mass-mailed anonymously to members of the electorate throughout McHenry County.

As no name appears on the return address of the envelope, and no identifiers as to who sent this article appear on the document, it appears as though the Daily Herald sent this article to voters on Pam Palmer’s behalf.

In light of your decision to actively campaign for my opponent through a mass mailing of a newspaper article you authored, I will not be attending the meeting of January 7, 2008.

I am uncertain whether your paper has adopted a code of journalistic ethics, but by allowing your paper to partake in an anonymous mailing in order to promote your paper’s political agenda, you have offended fundamental principles of impartiality and integrity.

I will be contacting the Illinois State Board of Elections to determine who made this in-kind donation on behalf of Pam Palmer.

I am disappointed in your newspaper’s actions, as I wanted an opportunity to discuss Ms. Palmer’s failures in the past to discharge her duties as auditor, questions surrounding her qualifications and appointment, her apparent use of the office for political gain, and the ambiguities surrounding Ms. Palmer’s educational background.

Sincerely,

Richard Kelly


Comments

County Auditor Candidate Richard Kelley Reacts to Anonymous Political Mailing — 1 Comment

  1. Well, Mr. Kelly has just summed up what I to have felt about our county wide newspaper, NW Herald.

    Rather than providing a “fair and balanced” forum for ALL candidates, heck, I spent 1 hour and 45 minutes on the phone with a reporter after I registered for a countywide office, and found a small announcement article about my 30 year career.
    Obviously, this paper cares not about the people who support it. If they did, they would not cherry pick candidates that feed into their own greedy agenda. Way to Go Rich Kelly!

    David J. Bachmann
    Candidate for McHenry County Coroner

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