I just watched another commercial for Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey’s Democrat candidate for Governor. And, along with other ads she and her supporters have run, it is claiming that Republican candidate Jack Ciatterelli is touting “A 10% tax on everything, including food and clothing”. The ad specifically plays Ciatterelli saying those words – nothing before or after that might give it context.
Reality check: the claim is a lie. Every ad that says it is lying. And they damn well know it.
Here, again (I’ve put this up before but it bears repeating now) is where that “quote” came from – with the context they so dishonestly leave out:
“I just came back from Tennessee not too long ago. We were on a fundraising trip there, and Tennessee has no income tax. What Tennessee has is a 10% sales tax on everything, including food and clothing.
“The philosophy has always been in this state [that] we have like a 7% sales tax just to round off the numbers, but there’s no sales tax on necessities of life, food and clothing. I will work with the New Jersey State Society of CPAs. We’re going to look at what other states do. And every option is on the table.”
As you can see, Ciaterelli was not promoting a 10% tax on everything, including food and clothing. His only reference to that 10% tax was that it he had recently been in Tennessee and that was what they do. He then went on to mention that New Jersey has a different tax structure. And, finally, he said, in a completely general sense, NOT related specifially to Tennessee, that he would look at what other states do.
Let me say this again as clearly as I know how. Ciatterelli saying he would look at what other states do and that every option is on the table is not – repeat, NOT – a suggestion that New Jersey copy Tennessee’s tax structure. It is not – repeat, NOT – stated as such. Period.
If Mikie Sherrill has even the slightest amount of integrity she would be disclaiming this lie and telling anyone putting it in her advertising to stop immediately.
But she isn’t. According to Madison Fernandez’s article at politicopro.com:
Her campaign responded that she “will continue to educate New Jerseyans about Assemblyman Ciattarelli’s insistence on pushing the Tennessee 10% sales tax proposal to the center of the state’s policy debate.”
This is a disgrace. But it is also politics. So I am not surprised…
…nor am I surprised that most mainstream media have not called her out on it. They are allowing Sherrill, the Democrat, to get away with this lie.
And they still expect us to see them as neutral journalists? WHY?
