YCT Joins Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul in PolitiFact Distinction
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2014
Contact: Jenna White, Executive Director
Mobile: (281) 460-8545
Email: [email protected]
AUSTIN, TX — Last Friday, Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) received its first PolitiFact rating. YCT is honored that the left-leaning PolitiFact cares enough to rate YCT statements. While we disagree with the rating of “false,” we will gladly wear it as a badge of honor and accept that we are in good company with conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.
“As a conservative organization, you always have to be careful to cite your sources when putting out a press release,” said State Chairman Jeff Morris. “Though we had multiple sources, we don’t get a hall pass like President Obama, so we must make sure that everything we put out is accurate.”
The claim rated “false” by PolitiFact was that Railroad Commission candidate Ryan Sitton’s company (Pinnacle AIS) “accepted over $650,000 in Obama stimulus dollars.”
YCT cited multiple reputable sources when making this claim, including a news story on Sitton’s company letterhead that stated “the company’s executives decided to take advantage of stimulus funds.”1 Additionally, ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that investigated where stimulus dollars went, stated that the company was awarded $652,000 on September 24, 2009.2
Apparently, Sitton’s company applied for the funds but did not actually receive them. It did, however, accept over a quarter of a million taxpayer dollars one year earlier from the City of Pasadena.3
“When we put out the initial release, we had no reason to doubt the information on ProPublica or what we found on Sitton’s own website,” said Executive Director Jenna White. “While ‘applied’ now appears to be the appropriate verbiage, the issue raised remains the same. Ryan Sitton has a history of using government to benefit his own interests.”
While YCT unintentionally used the wrong word, it wasn’t the only one mixing up language on the issue. Ryan Sitton’s consultant Allen Blakemore took to Twitter, stating PolitiFact rated YCT “Pants On Fire” when in reality it rated the claim “false.”
@ChristianForTX & @yct scores Pants-on-Fire lie from @PolitiFactTexas http://t.co/RSztygN61X Shame on you! #txlege #tx2014 — Allen Blakemore (@AllenBlakemore) April 26, 2014
“I was just in shock to see such a slip in verbiage from a professional consultant,” continued White. “Surely with such easy access to the information, Blakemore knew that the word for YCT’s statement was ‘false’ rather than ‘Pants on Fire.’”
Young Conservatives of Texas enthusiastically endorses Wayne Christian for Texas Railroad Commissioner. To learn more about our endorsements, please visit YCT.org. To learn more about Ryan Sitton, please visit RinoSitton.com.
1 http://freepdfhosting.com/ce34898eae.pdf
3 http://freepdfhosting.com/b2abe10ede.pdf
Young Conservatives of Texas is a non-partisan organization that has promoted conservatism at universities across the Lone Star State for over three decades. The State’s most active political youth organization, YCT is composed of hundreds of members and alumni who participate in the full spectrum of politics. YCT issues the most respected ratings of the Texas legislature and is the only conservative group to have done so without interruption over the past 20 legislative sessions. For more information about YCT, please visit www.yct.org.
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