An Arizona candidate for Congress has sent out a mailer displaying the image of Trayvon Martin to attack her opponent’s record as a state lawmaker.
Mary Rose Wilcox used the mailer to slam her opponent, Ruben Gallego, in the Democratic primary for Arizona’s 7th Congressional District in Phoenix, according to The Arizona Republic, which posted a copy of it.
“America doesn’t need more Trayvon Martin tragedies,” the mailer reads, underneath a portrait of Martin in a hoodie. On the next page it lists Gallego’s support for “Stand Your Ground” legislation and what it describes as his B+ record from the National Rifle Association.
Gallego called the mailer “extreme” and another candidate, the Rev. Jarrett Maupin, has denounced the connection to Martin as “outrageous.”
A spokesperson for Gallego said Wilcox’s mailer ignores the candidate’s full record on gun control, such as his votes against guns in schools and other public areas.
Wilcox’s campaign, however, didn’t back down.
“Ruben Gallego’s vote to make it easier for gunmen to use deadly force and claim self-defense is just the kind of law that fosters tragedies like the Trayvon Martin case,” said Wilcox’s spokesman Sam Castañeda Holdren.
Whether this is an issue depends upon how the Martin family feels about the usage of this photo. The fact that Arizona candidates are accusing each other of intentions based on their gun-rights policies and votes isn’t surprising.
I am a liberal and would support allsorts of gun-related regulation.
However, use of this image is just wrong.
I agree, very poor taste using ANY victim of gun violence or images of rape victims, or images of car crash victims, or even images of investment fraud victims in political advertisements is well below civility and respect for victims, EVEN IF, the victim gave permission for their use, (which, of course,in the case of Trayvon Martin, could never happen).
The more I think about it, the more I agree with you and Chicago11 - they should have made their ads without using that photo.
Stand your ground in my opinion is a bad law but using this picture just isn’t right in this case. If george zimmerman was running for office or maybe some of his attorney’s were running for office for example then this would be appropriate.