What is a Senate candidate to do when a former president tells her not to use his image in her campaigns ads? Ignore him, apparently.
Michelle Nunn, the Democratic nominee in Georgia, found herself in another spat with former President George H.W. Bush after she showed a picture of them together in her latest television ad, despite repeated requests from his office for her not to do so.
Nunn is making a surprisingly strong run for an open Senate seat in the red state, and she often touts the seven years she spent heading up Bush's Points of Light Foundation. In the new ad, she highlights her work with several presidents, including both presidents Bush and Barack Obama. The Nunn campaign insisted she just wanted the voters of Georgia to know how much she respected the elder Bush. Not so, said the former president's spokesman, Jim McGrath.
“Michelle and her team have been clearly, repeatedly and consistently told that President Bush did not want them to use his photo as part of this campaign. Apparently, the Nunn team feels they can repeatedly disregard the former president’s wishes, which is very disappointing because it’s so disrespectful.”
Bush's people were similarly displeased when Nunn invoked his name and image in an ad in April. McGrath said in an email that "several of the president's representatives have discreetly and directly communicated to all levels of the Nunn campaign that his photo was not to be used under any circumstance."