Doing What They're Paid To Do: Gates Funded Duo Pitches Common Core Misinformation
It is no surprise that the latest attempt by pro-Common Core advocates to keep Republican candidates from speaking out against Common Core has come from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's damage-control team, Michael Brickman and Michael Petrilli.
In a recent article posted on Townhall.com entitled Opposing Common Core: A Losing Issue, Even in GOP Primaries, they claim that election results nationwide largely prove that "Republican candidates cannot win over conservative voters by bashing Common Core."
Tell that to vocal Common Core opponent and political outsider Curt Clawson who handily won the Republican nomination in Florida's 19th Congressional District against Lizbeth Benacquisto, the choice of GOP establishment and Common Core proponent Jeb Bush! And tell that to Christopher Judy and Curt Nisly who made their rivals' refusal to end Common Core in Indiana a central issue and won the Republican nominations for Indiana House seats after trouncing entrenched incumbents.
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And in Ohio, Brickman and Petrilli got their facts wrong in labeling defeated contender Kelly Kohls as a candidate from "Ohioans against Common Core" (OACC); she was not. They couldn't even spell Kelly's first or last name correctly. In fact, according to OACC founder Heidi Huber, "Common Core opponents achieved a huge victory for Tom Brinkman in the 27th Ohio House District against incumbent Peter Stautberg where Common Core was the number one issue. The tipping point in Brinkman's winning the Republic nomination was the use of hundreds of "GO Brinkman –STOP Common Core" signs throughout the district. That stuck with voters; it was the first time in 18 years that a Republican incumbent had been defeated in a primary. At least three other Ohio House Republican candidates in Districts #54, #79 and #85 won their primaries with a heavy focus on and commitment to repealing Common Core."
The Brickman and Petrilli article, just like the recent McLaughlin poll, wasn't about information-it was about trying to silence candidates so they won't create even more doubts about Common Core in voters' minds than they already have. McLaughlin's poll featured questions worded to generate responses in agreement with the positions of paid sponsors (among them the Gates Foundation) and selective reporting of poll results.
Brickman and Petrilli repeat the big lie that Common Core is "state-led," repeat the misleading findings of the McLaughlin poll, and claim that more conservative Republican primary voters would vote for a candidate who supports Common Core over a candidate who fights against it.
Since Brickman and Petrilli are likely doing what they are being paid to do, it is incumbent upon the media to ferret out truth from propaganda, especially when they find a Gates Foundation-supported organization advising Republicans to be silent on Common Core in order to win elections!
