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Champaign ,
Oct 2 -
Retiring U.S. Rep. Timothy V. Johnson today announced that he has requested that both the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as both the Republican and Democratic candidates in the 13th Congressional race, immediately stop the negative advertising plaguing the campaign and by extension, the congressional office.
“The distasteful rhetoric, the distortions and misrepresentations are repelling to me as a citizen and the sitting congressman,” Rep. Johnson said. “In 44 years of office, covering scores of general and primary campaigns, I never resorted to negative language and never lost. I have represented this congressional district since 2001 and have attempted in that time to create a model for civility and integrity. But that model is being chipped away at with every airing of these negative ads.”
Rep. Johnson in 2005 founded the Center Aisle Caucus, a group of roughly 50 Republican and Democratic members of Congress, with the intent of building relationships with people of the other party, of furthering civil discourse, of opposing the very language that is being used today in this campaign.
“People complain, rightfully, about gridlock. This kind of advertising creates gridlock and harms our ability to create coalitions, work with the other side, and otherwise govern,” Rep. Johnson said. “The philosophical differences between David Gill and Rodney Davis could not be clearer. There is simply no need for either they or their surrogates to discredit one another or misrepresent their views.”
Letters from Rep. Johnson to the NRCC, DCCC, Davis and Gill were sent seeking an end to the negative advertising on Sept. 26. They are attached.
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