A candidate wore hunting gear in his ad, but he doesn't hunt
He doesn’t believe the ad portrays him in a misleading light because he grew up hunting
Illinois congressional candidate Jesse Reising (above, center) released a campaign ad earlier this year that briefly shows him wearing camo and an orange hunting vest while holding a shotgun, but state records show the Republican doesn’t have a hunting license.
St. Louis-based news station KSDK reported that Reising didn’t have the license based on Illinois Department of Natural Resources records. When asked by the station about the ad, Reising said he hasn’t hunted since he was young.
“We shot a shot that day, we were out, some friends went hunting with the crew, I didn’t actually go out that day, but we got the photos, and that’s what they are,” he said.
The shot is on screen for about two seconds in the middle of a montage of typical campaign ad b-roll, like Reising wearing safety goggles while talking to a man in a factory and chatting with women on a porch. He told KSDK he doesn’t believe the ad portrays him in a misleading light because he grew up hunting.
Reising said the reason he doesn’t hunt today is because of a neck injury he suffered during a college football game, a biographical detail that anchors the ad: it opens with footage from that game and closes with Reising saying, “I’m not afraid to take big hits for you.”
Outdoor Life panned it, comparing it to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s hunting photo-op during his 2004 campaign and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) saying he hunted “small varmints” during a 2007 debate. Says the article’s subhead, “Nothing good can come from politicians faking their credentials as a hunter.”
What do you think?