Jehan Gordon held a press conference today. She didn’t announce any new policy ideas. She didn’t announce her stance on any controversial matters in the 92nd district.
No, she announced that she was once convicted of shoplifting:
“As a teen I was charged with a misdemeanor for attempting to take a bracelet from a store,” Gordon said. “This life experience taught me a lot. It is one of the reasons why I work so diligently with young people today because I know what it’s like to be young and impressionable.”
The article says this happened in Champaign county when she was 18; she’s now 26.
What possible reason could there be for her to announce this? Was someone threatening to reveal it to the press, and this was a preemptive confession? Or is this a campaign strategy designed to endear her to voters for her transparency and openness?
Perhaps a more pertinent question would be, should we care? Is this piece of information relevant to her candidacy? It was a misdemeanor, on par with a traffic citation. Should we be questioning candidates about their speeding tickets, too?
The graduation issue was pertinent because she made a claim in a campaign ad that was false. The shoplifting conviction, on the other hand, happened eight years ago. I can’t help but think this was a tactical error. She didn’t need to reveal this information, and it would likely have backfired if someone else tried to make an issue of it. By calling attention to it herself, it gets everyone talking about her faults instead of her virtues or her policy initiatives. It’s a distraction that she’s brought on herself.
I think this revelation, despite her attempt to go on the offense with it, and despite the fact that it’s arguably irrelevant, will end up hurting her candidacy more than it helps.
I heard this on WMBD this afternoon. Oh, I am absolutely convinced that she was trying to beat her opponent to the punch.
Boy, Jehan is asking supporters to expend a lot of mental energy finding reasons to overlook a lot of minor things, from the graduation thing (explained away to my satisfaction) to shoplifting arrest (which is NOT as innocent as traffic ticket, and 18 is a BIT too old to write this off as a youthful mistake).
Looks like your’e damned if you do and damned if you don’t; good for her to bring it out in the open before some idiot tries to emberass her with it.
I agree. We rip people a new one if they don’t tell and rip them if they do.
This is a classic example.
All I’m saying is, I think announcing it is a dumb move for her campaign. I think she’s a weak candidate who has made poor choices, and it may in fact cost her in the primary.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Dem leadership responds to her campaign missteps…will they continue to line up like good little soldiers or will they realize that the best candidate may not be the one they initially supported?
It’s not a dumb move. It hurts her, but less so if the press gets a hold of it first.
“and 18 is a BIT too old to write this off as a youthful mistake”
Some people are a LOT younger at 18 than others. (Some people are still making “youthful mistakes” at 30.) I’m willing to give someone the automatic benefit of the doubt on youthful stupidity (that is, assume they’ve outgrown it) committed through the college years as long as they paid their debt (in whatever way the law determined appropriate) and acknowledge the error.
Let’s just say that I was over MY shoplifting stage WAAAAAAAY before I was old enough to vote, join the military, sign contracts, etc.
I never had a shoplifting stage. All I’m saying is that our culture allows a very extended adolescence, especially for college students, and I’m willing to forgive “youthful mistakes” during that extended adolescence as long as they’re genuinely repented of and atoned for. (Although glancing at CJ’s next post on the topic, I now have my questions.)