Chet Edwards For Congress

VOTER ALERT: AARP Warns TX GOP, Van Taylor to Stop False Mailings

A direct mail piece sent to voters in the 17th District falsely attacks Chet Edwards on Social Security, claiming:

…on a recently released candidate survey, Democrat Chet Edward (sic) stated he supports “benefit formula changes” and “indexing the age of full benefits” for Social Security.

The mail piece, a collaboration of the Texas Republican Party and the Van Taylor campaign, cites the “AARP 2006 Candidate’s Survey” as the source of these direct quotes. However, these direct quotes do not occur anywhere in the entire text of the AARP Candidate survey and answers. (See the survey here: http://www.aarp.org/issues/ state_elections/race_display.html?race_id=438)

When asked about the mailer, Van Taylor stood by it, saying, “It is well-documented, factual and correct.” (Waco Tribune-Herald, Oct. 10, 2006)

In response to this gross misuse of their name and survey, the AARP sent the following letter to the Texas Republican Party and the following press release to the media, saying

“Don’t play politics with AARP’s name”

and calling for an immediate stop to the distribution of the erroneous information.

Click here for a PDF copy of the AARP press release.