Otten apologizes in policy statement flap
In answering a poll on education policy, he says he inadvertently copied an analyst's written testimony.
By Meredith Goad mgoad@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
A Republican gubernatorial candidate issued a statement Saturday answering charges that his campaign plagiarized an answer to a political website’s questionnaire on education policy.
Les Otten
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But Les Otten’s initial mea culpa, posted on the website Augusta Insider – augustainsider.us – didn’t sit well with Stephen Bowen of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, whose work Otten is accused of calling his own.
Bowen posted an angry response on the policy center’s own website, saying he is “not buying it.”
The political kerfuffle began when the Augusta Insider website teamed up with another website, Dirigo Blue, to develop a survey on education policy for all of the Blaine House candidates. The candidates’ answers were posted Friday.
“I got a comment on the blog that said, ‘Well, you should take a look at Les Otten’s response to this particular question because it’s awfully similar to something written by Stephen Bowen from the Maine Heritage Policy Center that he testified on last March,’” said Derek Viger, administrator of the site.
“I took a minute to look at Stephen’s testimony,” Viger said, “and realized (Otten’s answer) was basically an exact copy, word for word. I notified Stephen at once.”
Bowen said he began getting e-mails and phone calls from people asking him about it.
The Otten camp sent in an apology and explanation, which was posted at the bottom of the questionnaire Saturday. The campaign noted that Otten and his staff had met with Bowen and his colleagues, and that they had “pointed us toward this public testimony.”
Otten’s response gave credit to Bowen and apologized “for the inadvertent oversight as the final draft of our response was being prepared. This is an error of omission, not an error of commission.”
Otten said in a phone interview Saturday that there were only two paragraphs out of 50 that were not attributed to Bowen. Bowen, however, claims the situation is more serious than that. Whoever wrote the material, he says, didn’t simply lift it but rewrote and edited it, taking his work and turning it into bullet points.
Otten said a staffer made the mistake of not attributing the material, but Otten reviewed it “so I have to take responsibility.” He said he had called both Bowen and Tarren Bragdon, chief executive officer of the policy center, to apologize.
“I want to be very clear,” Otten said. “We made an error. We were made aware of the error, and we immediately corrected it and apologized for it. I’d like to tell you that I’m perfect. I’m not. But what I do believe is that when you make a mistake you need to own up to it immediately and apologize for it, and that’s what I’ve done.”
Viger said he didn’t take the incident personally, but he understands why Bowen is upset.
“I had just intended on providing a service for the voters,” he said. “I’m an education policy major, so it’s something that I’m really interested in.
“It was just to give information to the voters, so in that respect I’m disappointed that someone wouldn’t take it seriously and would try to pass off someone else’s work as their own.”
Bowen said he worried that the phrasing of Otten’s written apology might lead some people to believe that the policy center, a conservative think tank, endorses certain candidates by helping them.
“The tone of their response is, I guess, what bugged me,” Bowen said Saturday. “It suggested it was inadvertent and accidental, and I don’t believe it was.”
Bowen said that when Otten called him Saturday to apologize, “He said, ‘I should have stayed on top of it, and I didn’t.’”
So is he satisfied with that response?
“To the extent that gubernatorial candidates are using our information, that’s a good thing,” Bowen said. “That’s what we want. We want to be a part of the public policy discussion in Maine. We just ask that you give us the proper credit for it, that’s all.”
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
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35 COMMENTS
DasBoot said...
Another liar
May 2, 2010 at 3:33 AM Report abuse
redbike said...
Plagiarism derailed Joe Biden's Presidential bid years ago. It should do the same for Otten's Gubernatorial bid.
May 2, 2010 at 6:25 AM Report abuse
taxationland said...
Didn't intend to vote for him anyway. This just solidifies my decision.
May 2, 2010 at 6:55 AM Report abuse
eWFyZGJpcmQ%3D said...
I'd like for someone to look into how Otten made all his money on those ski areas. I remember a lot of money borrowed from the state of Maine and losed through bankruptcys , resold for nothing, this happened several times if this doesn't smell , I'd like to know what does
May 2, 2010 at 7:32 AM Report abuse
oldstudent said...
At least he can be President now because if Obama can plagiarize and be President and be defended by his supporters then Otten should be supported by these same people unless they are hypocrites... Or he could be a Globe or NYX writer because we know they like plagiarists.
May 2, 2010 at 7:47 AM Report abuse
Scrib said...
Not someone any non-rino would ever think of voting for anyway...
May 2, 2010 at 7:48 AM Report abuse
GAWeinand said...
This is not the first time that Otten has "borrowed" from the work of others. As the blog Maine Politics pointed out last June, there is a certain similarity in his campaign logo to that of another: http://bit.ly/bX7lDa
May 2, 2010 at 8:16 AM Report abuse
dilligaf said...
He didn't have a prayer anyways. Although, the guy did run a cooperation into the ground though, so he might be qualified to run a state....
May 2, 2010 at 8:17 AM Report abuse
jake007 said...
oldstudent ...well said!!!!
May 2, 2010 at 8:36 AM Report abuse
lovinit said...
oldstudent Sorry, he also needs enough votes and that is why OBama kicked bu$$ on Mckain and Palin. The Republican party has no ideas and no leadership. Stick a fork in them, they are done.
May 2, 2010 at 8:40 AM Report abuse
Maine_Huntah said...
Fellow primary voting Republicans, you now know the kind of leader you'll get if you vote for Otten. I think I'm beginning to favor the man with experience and knowledge, Peter Mills, who frankly has the best chance of winning a general election against Mitchell, Rowe or McGowan.
May 2, 2010 at 8:42 AM Report abuse
Steph said...
"policy statement flap?!" Otten plagiarized his education answers, plagiarized his job plan that he's spending millions to advertise, plagiarized his logo and website. This guy is stealing right and left and it's a "policy statement flap?!" Why was the last statement of the article removed? It's on the KJ: "Otten did not return calls left at his home and on his cell phone Saturday." He didn't apologize. His handler apologized. What does it say about our state if we let the guy who ran American Ski Company into the ground buy the Blaine House?
May 2, 2010 at 9:00 AM Report abuse
Scrib said...
Hunta- If Mills wins the primary those who care might as well start collecting signatures to overturn the next homosexual "marriage" bill.
May 2, 2010 at 9:37 AM Report abuse
Citizen said...
I frankly think Les Otten is a decent guy (and I'm a Democrat). Let's be clear on what happened: He owned and apologized for the behavior of the weak junior staffer who lifted this stuff. The staffer should take the grief, frankly, but Otten behaved like a mature adult and never put that person out there for humiliation. (I assume he took care of it internally.) Let's move on.
May 2, 2010 at 10:02 AM Report abuse
NH said...
Another candidate who is incapable of thinking for himself. Write your own stuff Otten. There's be less trouble in the world if politicians actually had to do their own work.
May 2, 2010 at 10:09 AM Report abuse
R.Doofus said...
Citizen - is that same weak staffer also responsible for plagiarizing the portion of Otten's Jobs for Maine plan that was lifted from a different MHPC document? That's the part of this story that has been left out. It's not just about one answer to a question on a blog. It's a repeating pattern.
May 2, 2010 at 10:27 AM Report abuse
Steph said...
scrib - Mills has made clear that he will respect the will of the people on the marriage vote. He has always advocated letting people vote on controversial issues.
May 2, 2010 at 10:49 AM Report abuse
Citizen said...
Thanks, RD -- I had no idea. And now that you mention it I remember a flap about how much his initial web page resembled Obama. Still, I have worked with the guy; he is decent. If anything he may be overly protective of the staff who keeps making these bonehead moves. Maybe time for them to go, or may be too late.
May 2, 2010 at 11:10 AM Report abuse
SacoSam said...
"The Republican party has no ideas and no leadership. Stick a fork in them, they are done." Hopefully the Democratic party as well. Then everybody can stop trying to fit into boxes and put everybody else in boxes and we can have a real discussion on how to fix our country.
May 2, 2010 at 11:31 AM Report abuse
TheSaint said...
This is patent Les Otten. He's been doing this sort of thing for years. Otten finally got caught with a hand in the cookie jar. His claim to have created 500 jobs at his ski resort is another Otten mendacity.
May 2, 2010 at 12:33 PM Report abuse
Felix said...
LOOKS LIKE MR HAIR'S ANTICS ARE CATCHING UP WITH HIM.....AGAIN!!!!!----------------------AND WHERE IS LES'S BIG MONEY COMING FROM, ALL THE PEOPLE HE STIFFED YEARS AGO???????
May 2, 2010 at 12:59 PM Report abuse
Scrib said...
Steph- When we have someone's past actions to help determine what they will do in the future, it always trumps what they may say to try to be elected. We need a Governor that the legislature KNOWS will veto such foolishness. Remember Baldacci said he was for traditional marriage but signed the bill the moment it passed? Actions speak louder than words and Mills actually voted FOR homosexual "marriage".
May 2, 2010 at 1:16 PM Report abuse
PAJ said...
I'm not buying Mr Otten's explanation
May 2, 2010 at 2:36 PM Report abuse
Biddy said...
I wonder if he uses crib notes on his hands too. This is another example of the poor quality of the candidate field and lack of honest leadership. In BOTH parties.
May 2, 2010 at 2:48 PM Report abuse
Bobby said...
Time to thin the field.....
May 2, 2010 at 4:32 PM Report abuse
juanepstein said...
This is funny: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mainers-Against-Les-Otten/118591031502898
May 2, 2010 at 4:48 PM Report abuse
brightOne said...
ego maniac
May 2, 2010 at 5:32 PM Report abuse
JulieP said...
Les Otten just lost my vote.
May 2, 2010 at 6:00 PM Report abuse
Davedubya said...
redbike joe biden is not a plagiarist he's an obLiar
May 2, 2010 at 10:12 PM Report abuse
Photographer said...
Otten lost my respect when he copied Obama's logo and totally denied it. Of course, if we could just find another state that is doing everything right, we could elect Otten and tell him simply to copy everything that other state does.
May 2, 2010 at 10:17 PM Report abuse
francis58 said...
Les did Apologize'He had no alternative. He would be wise to Fire Edit Smith for a good Campaign Manager would never sign off on an egreious error such as this. Les Otten does not deserve a seat at the Table. Peter Mills does and when he wins the Primary Democrats with a Conscience will croww across Party Lines and Vote Peter Mills to the Blaine House.
May 3, 2010 at 12:59 AM Report abuse
UofA said...
Maine_huntah- Do you really want the Mills family running the State? Gov., AG, Judge. Another Kennedy dynasty???
May 3, 2010 at 6:38 AM Report abuse
MSH said...
"LESS" Otten...."I run large things into the ground....."
May 3, 2010 at 7:21 AM Report abuse
brightOne said...
Blow hard ego maniac. What "O"?
May 3, 2010 at 7:33 AM Report abuse
Page5Girl said...
we have some real dill holes running this year.
May 3, 2010 at 9:14 AM Report abuse