Some GOP arena supporters irked by Beutler email appeal

Last week, a Republican arena supporter (there were many of them) forwarded me an email he received from a supporter of Mayor Chris Beutler’s urging him to donate to Beutler’s campaign and vote for Beutler tomorrow.

What was curious to him was that the author apparently tapped the old pro-arena database to send out this mass e-mail, which said, in part:

Mayor Beutler’s leadership and determination were critical in getting the Arena passed. Now, he is less than a week away from his own re-election campaign and he is being attacked for his support of the Haymarket Arena by the same nay-sayers who’ve always opposed the Arena.

Although Arena construction has begun, there is still a tremendous amount of work left to be done. Lincoln needs Mayor Beutler’s steady hand and leadership to ensure that the project is completed on time, on budget, and to ensure it’s full potential is realized.

The email was sent by Phil Montag, who was part of the “Citizens for Jobs and the Lincoln Haymarket Arena” or YES group (who’s against jobs? I always wondered). The recipient of the email was bothered by it, because he said during the arena campaign, many Republicans signed on to the YES campaign even though it was being run by the usual band of Democratic PR pros. They were assured the database wouldn’t be used for political purposes down the road, he said.

Of course, it was. In that case, an in-kind contribution should be recorded somewhere in campaign finance reports. We’ll see if it shows up.