Something strange seemed to have happened with Michigan Democratic candidate Jerry Cannon’s campaign last week.
Cannon, the Democrat challenging Rep. Dan Benishek (R-MI), was interviewed by the most experienced reporter for Michigan’s Daily Mining Gazette on Wednesday.
As recounted by National Review, the reporter, Garrett Neese, called up Cannon after the interview for a follow-up question. Neese wanted to get Cannon’s stance on Obamacare and a proposal on extending unemployment insurance. Here’s where things got weird. When Neese called the number on Cannon’s card he heard a voice that sounded the same as the one from the interview.
“I don’t like Obamacare. It’s been a disaster for me. I want to go back to the way it was before,” the voice on the phone said.
That, by itself, as National Review notes, was strange given that Cannon earlier in the week said the “worst thing that could be done” to Obamacare is to “throw it all away.”
Neese’s paper published the new, anti-Obamacare quote on Thursday.
Cannon’s campaign manager, Ted Dick, then reportedly called the Mining Gazette to strongly push back on the quote. The Gazette then retracted the entire story and the next day published a new story quoting Cannon taking a position on Obamacare that was different than what was relayed in the interview on Wednesday. That new story included a paragraph that said “Campaign manager Ted Dick said Cannon had not been the person speaking in the call, and that the phone with the number provided to the Gazettte had been turned off during the call.”
Cannon’s campaign manager, Ted Dick, said the first comment that was critical of Obamacare did not come from Cannon.
“We appreciate the newspaper pulled the original version that included a comment that wasn’t what General Cannon said when contacted and posted a quote consistent with General Cannon’s interview the prior day to the Daily Press that General Cannon believes we should not repeal the consumer protections in the bill and that he will work with both parties to fix the problems with the Affordable Care Act,” Dick said in a statement to TPM on Wednesday.
This story was updated.
Photo from Kurhan/ Shutterstock
