The candidate and the missing preposition
An otherwise unremarkable little political ad in our sister paper, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, upset some readers who wondered why Ron Stark was declaring himself city clerk of Rancho Cucamonga. Stark, who works in the Bulletin's advertising department, pays for an ad each week to promote his radio and cable show. At the bottom of this week's ad was his "Ron Stark/City Clerk" campaign logo and a note to "Please vote Nov. 4th."
Wrote one reader:
I was very disappointed to see a "Misleading Advertisement" in this morning's edition by one of your own employees. If you go to the "City News" section, page 13 - you will see an advertisement by Ron Stark (the paper's Retail Sales Manager) declaring himself the "City Clerk" within his "Voice of The Inland Empire" ad. The current "City Clerk" for Rancho Cucamonga is Debra Adams not Ron Stark as the ad would have you believe? Shouldn't the ad read "Ron Stark for City Clerk" Please Vote November 4th, as opposed to readers assuming the City Clerk also works for the Daily Bulletin? Having one of your own employees take advantage of your readership for their own personal gain in this manner, is highly offensive and possibly borders on being a conflict of interest. Is the Daily Bulletin supporting what the content of the ad states, that your own Retail Sales Manager is the City Clerk, or is the paper supporting Ron Stark for City Clerk? Can anyone claim what they want in your paper as long as they have the money to pay for it? I assume he pays for the ad like everyone else does? Not even the Presidential Candidates can advertise in this manner, they have to say John McCain or Barack Obama for President, not President. If you continue to run the ad, at least have it corrected to show "Ron Stark for City Clerk", that way the paper looks impartial and show's no favoritism to one of their own.
And the answer is ...
Mr. Stark works in our advertising department - apart from our news division - and like any private citizen who chooses to run for public office, is free to pay for a political ad (which he did). Because of his involvement in the newspaper, his race is not one in which we would endorse a candidate.
As for not including the preposition "for" in his campaign logo, that is not an uncommon practice in political campaigns. You see it (or don't) in campaign literature quite often, and there are no formal rules governing that. Here are a few examples, for what it's worth (and, no, I couldn't help myself on that last one).
