Kinder's "Official Function" Dysfunction

Last week, the Friends of Peter Kinder campaign published and distributed a video outlining Kinder's misinformed concerns about the Senate Finance Committee health care proposal. The video was shot in Kinder's official office, immediately raising eyebrows about the separation of Kinder's official duties and campaign work.

Responding to the concerns, Kinder not only stood by the decision to film the videos in his official office -- his spokesman actually said that the YouTube clip was "absolutely... an official function," even though it directed views to Kinder's campaign website and was never published on a government website.

Indeed, a Sunshine request for information showed that the onscreen text "teamkinder.com/healthcare" was added in the official office.  Furthermore, the Lieutenant Governor's office could provide no evidence that any other government agencies, state staffers or members of the public received the video before it appeared on the Kinder campaign's YouTube channel.

If the video had not included the explicit instructions to go to the campaign site, and had actually been released to anyone before it went up on the campaign channel, this would be a different story.  But it didn't, and it wasn't.

It's a campaign video.