Americans for Prosperity – Oregon today denounced State Rep. Nick Kahl for a misleading political mail piece he has sent to voters in his District. Kahl uses the tired “guilt by association” tactic to try and link his opponent, AFP, and blog posts by activists on an unofficial website to a “Fair Tax” proposal on which AFP has not taken a position.

“You can’t blame Nick Kahl for trying to deflect attention from his record of supporting job-killing taxes in the State Legislature,” noted AFP-Oregon State Director Jeff Kropf. “However, his mail piece claiming that AFP supports the federal ‘Fair Tax’ proposal is just flat out wrong and he knew it when he authorized the mail piece. Discussions by activists on a public blog forum do not constitute an endorsement, and AFP has not taken a position on any ‘fair tax’ proposal in Congress. We demand that Rep. Kahl send out another similar postcard mail piece correcting his mis-statements to the same voters who received the first one at his campaign’s expense.”

“AFP activists are encouraged to study and debate issues,” Kropf continued. “AFP enjoys tremendous diversity of thought within our Member base – which is to be expected in an organization with more than 1.5 million Members. The fact that one of our Members supports a certain policy does not mean it is endorsed by all Members or the organization as a whole. That is probably a hard concept for Rep. Kahl to grasp, given that he’s used to hanging out with people who all think the same way on every issue. It’s ironic that Representative Kahl - who voted for billions of dollars in tax and fee increases in the 2009 Session, including increased sales taxes on items like health insurance - would lead off by complaining about high taxes.”

AFP expects Kahl to issue an immediate public retraction in addition to mailing the postcard as soon as possible.

To provide comments on his misleading campaign tactics, you may contact Rep. Kahl at 503-481-7264 or nicholaskahl@gmail.com.

UPDATE - 9/19/10 - The MSM and blogs are now taking Rep. Kahl to task for what they describe as "dirty politics and "sleaze." Kahl is on notice from AFP to retract his statements about AFP or face further action.