A campaign advertisement for state Legislative candidate Steve Tharinger mailed last week to voters has prompted objections from Olympic Medical Center officials.
The two-page flier shows a photograph of the Democratic candidate talking casually with a man dressed in a white doctor’s coat and a retirement-age couple outside OMC’s campus in Sequim.
The hospital’s logo is seen in the background near Tharinger, a Clallam County commissioners who is running for the 24th Legislative District 2 seat against Jim McEntire, a Republican, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner and retired Coast Guard captain, in Tuesday’s general election.
OMC staff said that Tharinger did not have permission to display the hospital’s logo in the ad, nor do they recognize the man in the white doctor’s jacket.
Rhonda Curry, OMC spokeswoman, said hospital administrators were surprised to see the picture and added that it should not have been used because it implies that the hospital endorses Tharinger.
“We never authorize the use of photographs that contain our logo or our buildings in an attempt to endorse or make the appearance that we endorse a political candidate,” she said.
“As a public hospital district, we are very constrained by law in what we can do in ballot measures and political races.”
Curry said Friday that OMC Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis’ assistant had left Tharinger a voice mail regarding the ad.
She said Lewis and Tharinger hadn’t spoken directly.
Tharinger, who would represent the North Olympic Peninsula and a third of Grays Harbor County if elected to the state House, said Friday that the ad was not meant to imply that OMC supports him as a candidate, even though the picture was placed next to a list of his endorsements.
Tharinger: No big deal
“I understand their concerns, but to be honest with you, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” he said.
Tharinger said the purpose of the picture in the ad, which he approved before it was mailed, was to represent his support for health care.
Jon Zey, a retired doctor living in Port Angeles, confirmed that he is the doctor in the picture. He said he supports Tharinger but has not worked at OMC.
Tharinger said the picture was taken in August or September and that he couldn’t remember the names of the other two people in the picture.
He said that “people who are politically motivated” were making the ad a “bigger deal than it actually is” by phoning OMC to protest the use of the logo.
Curry said OMC received “four or five” calls Thursday about the ad and more than a dozen calls Friday.
But she said they weren’t the reason for the hospital sending a press release regarding the ad.
“Olympic Medical Center would have attempted to clarify the unauthorized use of our logo regardless of whether we had gotten phone calls,” Curry said.
Tharinger’s campaign manager, Sam Gibboney of Port Townsend, said the fliers were mailed last week to voters across the 24th District who would be influenced by the candidate’s “11 years of experience with health care.”
Not everyone will receive a flier, Gibboney said, and she said she couldn’t recall how many were sent.
County finances
Tharinger also defended a statement printed underneath the picture that touts the county’s fiscal situation.
It says that the county, with him as a commissioner, is “one of only two counties in Washington not facing massive budget deficits.”
The phrase is almost identical to an erroneous statement made in a campaign ad that appeared on www.peninsuladailynews.com in early October.
The erroneous statement said that Clallam County is “one of two counties in Washington state not facing a budget deficit.”
Tharinger, about three weeks ago, said that the ad should have said the county is one of two in the state without debt, since it is actually facing a $2.6 million deficit in 2011.
The biggest difference between that ad and the one mailed to voters last week is the addition of one word: massive.
Asked if he felt the recent ad adequately addresses the error, Tharinger said:
“I have no idea because it’s not that important to me.”
He added that he doesn’t think that it is important to voters, either.
“What they are interested in is someone that can provide them with good government both at the local and state level,” Tharinger said.
“I think I am the person who can do that.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
