Party operatives playing fast and loose with the facts is commonplace in campaign ads, but a recent TV spot in the Kansas Senate race is stretching the norms.
A recent ad from Rep. Roger Marshall, the GOP nominee, is intended to paint Marshall’s opponent, state Sen. Barbara Bollier, as a typical left-wing politician. The spot asks viewers to imagine “how would it sound if Barbara Bollier’s ads actually matched her liberal record?”
But the advertisement itself is highly misleading, taking Bollier’s own words out of context and making it seem as if she’s commenting on hot-button issues when in reality she is discussing unrelated topics.
First, the narrator says that Bollier voted for “dismemberment abortions,” followed by a clip of Bollier, in an operating room no less, saying “that’s what I believe in my heart.”
The clip of Bollier actually comes from her October 2019 campaign launch video. Bollier is speaking about how her experience as a doctor prepared her for politics, and says:
“Doctors don't see patients as Democrats or Republicans. It’s our responsibility to look you in the eye and show you respect, honesty. To care for you, and to care about you. Public service shouldn’t be any different. That’s what I believe in my heart, and it’s the type of senator I’ll be.”
By using a clip of her standing in an operating room, Marshall is seemingly trying to connect her directly with the procedure, even though abortion is never mentioned in the original video. Bollier is an anesthesiologist, while Marshall is a pro-life OBGYN. Bollier is pro-choice, and the vote cited in the ad was a 2015 state House vote on a bill to ban the dilation and evacuation procedure...