Jeff Smith on "Ethical Dilemmas in Running for Congress"

Jeff Smith will speak about on June 5 11 am at the St. Louis Ethical Society.

This talk will explore the pressures on modern-day congressional candidates to mount a certain type of campaign, a campaign centered around money, image, and the imperative of avoiding controversial positions at all costs. It will describe ethical dilemmas I encountered in a variety of campaign activities: the money chase, formulating campaign advertising, and even unexpected dilemmas during quotidian one-on-one campaigning. The talk will raise hard questions both about specific decisions that our campaign made and also broader questions about the nature of high-priced, sound-bite-oriented campaigns in the modern age. Finally, it will suggest a road map for candidates to follow that facilitates a meaningful and substantive public conversation while respecting voters, the political process, and themselves.

Got that?