When even PolitiFact decides [1] the centerpiece of your campaign is little more than a tissue of lies, you know you’re in deep trouble. For Democrat Ward Armstrong, who is seeking to unseat Republican Del. Charles Poindexter in the redrawn 9th district, the big issue has been electricity rates, and how Mr. Armstrong is determined to take down the fat cats at Apco, if only the people will give him another term in Richmond. Except it seems his charges about Apco’s rates, profits and more just aren’t true:
Armstrong has charged in ads that Apco, which has raised rates nine time during the last four years, is making record profits.
Armstrong tries to support his statement on three legs but we find fault with each. His citing of Apco’s gross revenue is meaningless because they are not profits; his argument that Apco’s net income increased by 11.2 percent between 2008 and 2010 is misleading because profits in those years were less than half of the record set in 2003; and his emphasis on the record profits of corporate parent AEP is irrelevant because state regulators, in setting rates, focus only on Apco’s performance.
Armstrong, a lawyer, has been poring over Apco’s finances for more than a year and it’s mind-boggling to suppose he’s in the dark on these things. We rate his claim Pants on Fire.
“Meaningless,” “misleading” and “irrelevant.” Plus “pants on fire.”
That’s the Armstrong candidacy in a nutshell.
To stay ahead of this shambling, dissembling mess, make sure to check out “Wrong Again Ward.”