The 'Kid Committee' Faces Its Election Tab
Democratic party campaign workers and local publishers spar in court over unpaid bills for 1892 election advertising.
The members of the Democratic central committee, properly known as the 'kid committee,' which conducted the campaign in the city election last March, were the defendants yesterday in a case where the plaintiffs, E. Thuland and C. M. Thuland, proprietors of the Pacific Posten, seek to recover $275 for campaign work. The plaintiffs allege the committee, including Percy W. Rochester and C. Heifner, agreed to pay for a special 1,500-copy edition and editorial services. The defendants argue there was no positive agreement to pay, only a conditional promise to settle if any campaign funds remained, which they claim is not the case.
“They did make a conditional promise to pay them something if there was anything left from the campaign fund, but as there was no balance they were unable to pay.”
Political campaigns have long relied on local media for exposure, and the 'kid committee' shows that the messiness of local party funding and the question of who holds the bag at the end of an election cycle is as old as the city itself.
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