POLITICAL BATTLE
“…using their illegitimate children…”
Dear Boss,
I read an article on the internet about an odd battle in Alice Springs between two politicians who were going to amazing extremes to get the attention of the press and the electors. They were using their illegitimate children to get sympathy …
-Sandra O’Meara, Wellington, New Zealand.
*Reply: The media contest was conducted by “The Centralian Advocate” newspaper between two political opponents vying for the same seat.
One was the mayor (or is it mayoress?), Fran Erlich (Labor) and the other was Dr Richard Lim (Liberal).
Fran suddenly announced on the front page that she had re-discovered a daughter she had secretly produced in her wayward youth. The daughter had attained adulthood in Scotland and there had been a reunion between Fran and her current daughters and all was well with the world. All the anguish and uncertainty was over, broken hearts were mended – and the electorate sympathised so much the story dribbled over into the inner pages.
Now, her opponent, Dr Lim was apparantly incensed at this blatant abuse of the media and desperately needed to even the matter. He sat down and scanned his memories until he found a long-lost unofficial son. Then he demanded equal media space so the electorate could sympathise with him, too.
In the subsequent election, Fran scored quite highly, but Dr Lim scraped through as the winner by the skin of his teeth.
Since then, the various illegitimates have limped back into their respective closets and have scarcely rated a line of media attention.*
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