MADD About Lamb
Sheriff Mark Lamb says he was "cancelled" by the "woke mob" at MADD. Is it a political ploy?
The headline seemed made for Fox News. Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb says he was uninvited to speak for Mothers Against Drunk Driving over his politics.
Over a nearly 3-minute Instagram video, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb — who is running for Kyrsten Sinema’s Senate seat as a GOP candidate — and his wife Janel told a tale of what Lamb described as “woke craziness.” Lamb said he and his wife were invited to be keynote speakers for a Phoenix MADD event. Then, tragically, the couple was disinvented. “I was told it was over my politics. The things that I stand for,” he said in a tone of mock-outrage.
He went on to talk about how MADD went “that woke way” because the official MADD platform includes “fair and equitable traffic safety enforcement.” Now, the MADD website takes great pains to explain that MADD is pro-law enforcement and is interested in reducing “administrative traffic stops” which don’t really address impaired driving. But, nevertheless. OWNED.
Lamb promptly sent a fundraising letter, asking readers to “sign a petition.”
The buttons actually just redirect you to a fundraising website.
I’m not an expert on objective surveys, but I think this definitely qualifies as a series of leading questions.
So what really happened? Well, I contacted MADD and received a response from a spokesperson:
There was an unfortunate miscommunication that led to this situation. MADD's status as a 501(c)(3) organization prohibits us from endorsing political candidates or engaging in political activities, which we planned to discuss with Sheriff Lamb once we learned of his candidacy for US Senate. We had a positive conversation with him and reiterated that, as a member of the law enforcement community and someone whose family experienced a tragedy resulting from drunk driving, Sheriff Lamb has always been welcome to speak at MADD's Honoring Heroes banquet.
Fox News didn’t seem to get the message that the problem, from MADD’s point-of-view, was the fact that Lamb is running for office. MADD doesn’t want to give the appearance of endorsing his Senate campaign.
Now, of course, that begs the question of whether MADD was okay with Lamb’s support of unfettered gun access, given that firearms are the leading cause of death for children in the USA. But, maybe that’s another bad survey?