An advertisement that was just released by Jennifer Wexton, a top candidate in the VA-10 Democratic primary, briefly features three police officers signing a poster promising “Change is Coming.” Unfortunately, the attention she’s gotten over the past few days from the ad is not good for an establishment-picked candidate.
The police officers seen signing the banner are actually fake cops. Quite comically, one of them is Matt Leslie, Wexton’s field director.
A report from Roll Call details that none of the three featured in the ad have ever been with a law enforcement agency, nor do the uniforms they are wearing match any of the 11 law enforcement agencies in the Northern Virginia district.
“I have never seen uniforms in Virginia like that…at collective trainings or otherwise,” said Brian White, a former sheriff’s deputy in Portsmouth, Virginia. “Looks like Party City uniforms,” he added.
After some criticized the ad, Ray Rieling, Wexton’s campaign manager, explained, “We’ve seen campaigns get criticized for using police in uniform in ads, so we wanted to be respectful and avoid that issue.”
Although many political ads feature campaign staff and volunteers dressed as farmers, workers, and other types of extras, operatives and ad-makers alike believe that Wexton’s decision to have one of her top campaign aides dress up in costume portraying a police officer is not just a careless move, but a disingenuous gesture to voters and disrespectful to police officers.
“It’s beyond stupid. I have no idea why they’d do it for a 1-second clip,” said Will Ritter, a Republican ad-maker for Richmond-based Poolhouse, who is unaffiliated with the VA-10 race. “I guess buying police costumes at Party City is easier than getting support from actual police,” he said.
“It’s more than a mistake, it’s a lie, and shows how far Wexton is willing to go to appear to have support,” Ritter added.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has called for Wexton to take down the ad for being “extremely disrespectful” to law enforcement and police officers.
Over the weekend, she quietly changed the ad on her YouTube channel, dumping the fake cops. However, the damage is done. Regardless of what Wexton and her spin doctors say, she has neither a relationship with the local law enforcement community, nor the respect for them.
Less than one week from the primary election and Wexton is finishing out her campaign the same way in which it began: grasping for relevancy
