Goyle
Pompeo
Congressional candidate Mike Pompeo has issued an apology to opponent Raj Goyle for accidentally directing Pompeo supporters to a blog post assailing Goyle’s religion and ethnic heritage.
A Facebook post by Pompeo said his campaign office “inadvertently posted a link to a tremendously offensive blog post” on his Facebook page and tweeted the link to his Twitter followers.
The blog post referred to Goyle, a US-born citizen of Indian heritage, as “just another ‘turban topper’ we don’t need in congress or any political office that deals with the U.S. Constitution, Christianity and the United States of America!!!”
Pompeo’s statement said directing his supporters to the post was “an honest mistake and our campaign truly regrets the error.”
“The statements of the blogger in no way reflect my views,” Pompeo said in his statement. “There is no place in campaigns or in public discourse for language of this nature. I have placed a personal call of apology and spoken to Rep. Goyle directly expressing our campaign’s regret for the error.”
The statement said a campaign staffer accidentally picked up the wrong link from an automated news alert. The staff member had intended to direct traffic to an inoffensive post offering analysis of and predictions for several Midwest congressional races, the statement said.
Earlier today, the tweet to the offensive posting was featured in a story on the liberal Web site Daily Kos.
Goyle spokesman Robert Becker issued a statement saying:
“His (Pompeo’s) campaign published this bigoted attack online under the heading “here’s a good read.” This goes beyond the rules of engagement in politics. This violates the principles and core values of Kansans.”
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