Gard testimonials headed for the trash bin

We told you on Monday about the stealth campaign commercial filming by Congressional candidate John Gard, whose campaign was collecting video testimonials from workers in a manufacturing plant without disclosing it was for Gard.

Spivak and Bice flesh out the story in today's Journal Sentinel, and the story gets worse. It wasn't just the employees who were kept in the dark:

What's more, a Pierce spokeswoman said this week that the Gard campaign never asked for permission to tape its employees saying anything. Ann Stawski said the camera crew was given the OK only to get some footage in a Pierce facility for use as a "backdrop" in an ad.

Told of the concerns about the ad, Gard's campaign jumped into action. The legislative leader immediately began calling the four Pierce workers this week, apologizing for not being upfront about the purpose of the video and telling them that he would not be using them in his ads, according to the 50-year-old female Pierce employee.

Mangi, however, said an ad involving Pierce is still under consideration. But she said it probably wouldn't include video from any of the four workers.

"I wouldn't think so," she said.

I had an email on Tuesday from Jerry Bader, a conservative talk show host at WTAQ in Green Bay, who said his station had checked out the report and been assured by the Gard campaign that everyone had signed a waiver to appear in the commercial. That's apparently true, the Spice Boys report, but people didn't really know what they were signing.

This morning, I heard from Bader again, and he sounded more than a little hacked off about being misled by the Gard camp. Bader, who says he's stayed neutral in the GOP primary race between Gard and Terri McCormick, says he'll be talking about the Gard fiasco on today's show.