Posted at: 11/06/2009 3:52 PM | WHEC.com
Updated at: 11/06/2009 7:58 PM
By: Berkeley Brean

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Was it fair to make a Dem candidate look dopey and drunk? You be the judge

You be the judge. A democrat who lost his race for county legislature is upset over family pictures used against him that make him look dopey and drunk. He says they were taken out of context and he think you should know about it.

“It wasn't personally intimidating having a football background. I get hit by 300 pound guys all the time.” But for Mike Condello, a former Rochester Raider, the pictures were misleading. “The thing is it upset me for the voters. It was a disservice to the voters, purposefully trying to distract them from the true issues of this campaign.”

You be the judge. The mailing that went out Monday (click here to view) is a series of photos of Condello that he says made him look silly and in some cases passed out drunk and asks the voter, can he be taken seriously?

Now compare them to the real pictures (click here to view).  The images were actually pictures of Condello dancing with his wife and posing with a bear carving at the family vacation in the Adirondacks. In the mailing, the bear and his wife were cut out.

Condello said, “They wanted to put them together to make me look like I was party animal or belonged in Animal House or something and unfortunately, that's not who I am.”

The photos came from Condello's family website on Shutterfly.

“We try to tell our students to be careful what you put on your social networking, apparently now we'll have to talk to our politicians that.” Tim Kneeland of Nazareth College says politicians have virtually no legal privacy, especially on the web. “Was it legal and technically in the campaign laws? Very likely yes. Was it a nice thing to do? Probably not.”

Condello said, “I think it's important that the voters know the truth about how they're being treated. They purposefully put out one to deceive them and sell an image of who Mike Condello is not.”

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