Friday, November 2nd 2018, 10:48 pm
We’ve all seen campaign ads where we question whether all the facts are, well, factual. But there’s one case where we found an outright lie.
Democrat LaVelle Compton is running for House District 90 in Oklahoma City against Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols.
Compton’s campaign sent out mailers to voters that included a glowing endorsement from former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, saying “LaVelle understands the unique challenges facing Oklahoma’s students and teachers. He is an exceptional young man, who will be an asset to our legislature. I urge you to vote for Lavelle Compton on November 6th. We need new leaders like LaVelle to turn our state around.”
Problem is Governor Henry never said it. "I was surprised because I consider Governor Henry a friend so I picked up the phone and talked to him and it turned out that quote was made up out of thin air and Governor Henry never made an endorsement in our race." Said Echols.
Compton admits his campaign made up the quote and he should have double checked their work.
"I am here to say it is not factual.” Compton said, “And the reason I am saying that is because I did not properly vet my resources in terms of making sure that this is something comfortable for Brad Henry to agree with or his direct words for that matter."
Compton says he’s not making excuses, and the buck stops with him.
"I want to be with you here to own this that this is my mistake. It was not my intention to misrepresent Mister Brad Henry, misrepresent myself or at the end of the day even lie," he said.
Echols said, "Things get tense and you get tempted to do things that you wouldn't otherwise do. It's really disappointing when things get tense to simply make up something that's not true."
Compton says he also reached out to Governor Henry to apologize.
Governor Henry did not respond to a request for comment.
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