Elwood

It is not permitted for the incumbent to either use his MA colmun or his AMA Dist web site.

There is no indication whose funds were used. It is doubtful that Dr. Frank would try to use AMA funds to do this. Since SWAC is mentioned, it may well be written off by SWAC as a business expense, or it might have come out of his pocket. He owns SWAC and that is no concern of the AMA's. The AMA makes mailing labels available to all candidates, including the incumbents, for a small fee, for just such mailings. The idea is that the names and addresses should not be taken from the AMA records by those that have access to them in order to keep all candidates on an even footing. Whether those were purchased by Dr. Frank, or he used some other source is unknown to me.

My instincts tell me that after he made an error during the nominations, that he would not cross the line on this mailing. I have no way of knowing for certain. That is why I asked Bill Lee to step forward and clarify the situation. We all know that he monitors RCU and does post here, yet, he remains strangely quite.

JR