Hurricane season has begun early this year in the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina.  The voters along the east coast of the Palmetto State can see the storm brewing.  The outer rings of PAC (Political Action Committee) commercials have already come ashore.  Soon to follow will be a torrential downpour of approved, and not approved political ads that will relentlessly pelt the Lowcountry airways. 

The incumbent, Congressman Joe Cunningham [D-SC-1] has already been targeted by a conservative PAC ad. The American Action Network is running an ad the AAN calls “Frustrating”.  In this ad Cunningham is scorned for voting to impeach President Trump.  According to AAN President Dan Conston, “Congressman Cunningham put impeaching Trump above delivering on what’s best for his constituents, and South Carolinians are imploring him to get back to work on the issues that matter.”

Dark money.  Attack ads.  The Cunningham campaign wasted no time responding to the Frustrating ad.  Its response is a commercial titled “That’s Joe”.  A real aw-shucks, dewy-eyed, look at me I’m different video, Cunningham is seen peddling his I’m not a liberal Democrat persona while looking down his nose at Republicans for running dark money attack ads against him.  Joe ends his That’s Joe commercial with an adorable picture of himself and his son, Boone, playing in Charleston’s iconic Pineapple Fountain located in Waterfront Park.  This pineapple, a symbol of hospitality, creates a wholesome backdrop for the Cunningham campaign.  Family. Father. Familiar. Faithful. Fair.  The goal is to keep the viewer from seeing that it is Fake. 

Cunningham boasts about not taking any corporate PAC money for his campaign while remaining silent on dark money that is supporting his campaign.  For those of you who do not know, dark money is political money spent by non-profit organizations that are not required to disclose their donors.  These non-profits can take unlimited amounts of donations from corporations, individuals, and unions. 

Congressman Cunningham has benefited from liberal House Majority Forward ads that have, and are currently running in the 1st Congressional District.  House Majority Forward is a 501(C)(4) that is affiliated with the House Majority PAC.  House Majority PAC receives funding from the Sixteen Thirty Fund.  Being twice or three times removed from groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund while benefiting indirectly from their funding puts Cunningham in the purse of some radically liberal identities.  To claim otherwise is to purposely mislead the people of the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina.  

Cunningham is also misleading voters about his role in convincing House Democratic leaders to hold off on a pay raise for itself and congressional staffers.  As the narrator of the That’s Joe commercial puts it, “And when politicians tried to raise their own pay, he stopped them.  That’s Joe”.  That sure sounds like our Joe stood up to all of Congress, all by himself, like David against many powerful Goliaths, and made them see the error of their ways, does it not?  Can you see it?  Congressman Joe Cunningham, 37-year-old newcomer to the United States House of Representatives, stopping them?  It’s not very likely, is it?  It’s hard to imagine, is it not? 

The truth is Congressman Cunningham was not alone.  Many of the newer Democrat Congressmen and Congresswomen, particularly those that won seats in historically Republican districts, expressed their concern to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.  Even though the House and its staffers have not had a cost of living allowance increase in over ten years, Hoyer and his leadership saw the political risk. 

Passing a pay raise would have put control of the House in serious jeopardy.  Across the nation, Republicans and conservative PAC’s would have ran commercials condemning these selfish lawmakers for taking a raise when our national debt is over 22 trillion dollars.  As reported by Cristina Marcos with The Hill, close to a dozen vulnerable swing-district Democratic freshmen had submitted or co-sponsored amendments to block the pay raise.

So, did Joe Cunningham stop the pay raise for Congress?  No.  He did not.  Did Joe Cunningham join others, like Haley Stevens of Michigan, Ben McAdams of Utah, along with other vulnerable swing-district Democratic freshmen in voicing concern about the timeliness of a congressional pay raise?  Yes.  Would Joe Cunningham be better off not misleading the voters of the 1st Congressional District of South Carolina with deceptive nuances and trickery?  Yes. He would be much better off if he simply spoke the clear, plain truth.