Congressman Chuck Fleischmann speaks to the Hamilton County Pachyderms at the Hamilton County Republican Headquarters. He will Debate Weston Wamp in the GOP 3rd District primary race today.U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Chattanooga, in person is deferential but guarded, earnest but reticent. Some of his negative ads are another thing entirely.
They’re downright dishonest.
The worst one to date in the 2014 campaign is a mailer that portrays Weston Wamp, Fleischmann’s opponent in the Aug. 7 Republican congressional primary, burning a passport over the words “Weston Wamp supports amnesty for illegal immigrants.”
The issue aside for the moment, the ad was created by photographic manipulation. Wamp’s head is placed on a photo of someone burning a passport, giving voters the idea Fleischmann’s challenger actually took the opportunity to thumb his nose at the 3rd District and show them what he really thinks about people passing across the border.
The ad also includes the logo of WTCI, on whose airwaves the words by Wamp quoted on the ad were uttered in a debate earlier this month sponsored by WTCI and the Times Free Press.