Harrison Roday launches anti-Avula TV ad, but legal disclosure is incomplete
Richmond mayoral candidate Harrison Roday is stepping up his attack ads against opponent Danny Avula with a new TV ad that says Avula served in the “anti-abortion administration” of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. But the commercial is missing a legally required disclosure that requires Roday to say he’s the candidate sponsoring the ad.
It’s unlikely many TV viewers would be confused about the ad, because it features Roday speaking directly to the camera and includes a line of text saying “Paid for and Authorized by Roday for Richmond.”
But there are extra rules for negative TV ads that specifically mention another opponent, requiring a higher level of clarity on who’s behind the message. Under Virginia’s campaign laws, Roday must speak aloud some variation on: “I’m Harrison Roday, candidate for mayor, and I sponsored this ad.”
Though the omission may be small, slip-ups on campaign advertisements can get campaigns fined up to $25,000 by the State Board of Elections. Fines of that magnitude rarely happen, but the state board usually tries to assess whether an omission was accidental or deliberate and what steps a campaign took to correct an error.
When contacted by The Richmonder Wednesday, Roday’s campaign said it would correct the ad.
“This is being corrected, as we will hold Harrison Roday’s record working for Sen. Kaine and Presidents Obama and Biden against Youngkin appointee Danny Avula’s record working for a governor who was trying to ban abortion any day of the week,” said Roday spokeswoman Katie Baker.
The Avula campaign spotted the omission and filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the State Board of Elections.
“Harrison Roday has made a conscious decision to not only specifically refer to Danny Avula, but to attack him in a televised advertisement, and yet he has failed to make the clear oral disclosure required by Virginia law,” Avula campaign manager Lawson Wijesooriya wrote to state election officials. “Given that Election Day is less than two weeks away and early voting is already underway, I urge you to act swiftly so that an unlawful advertisement cannot continue to impact this election.”
The state board usually only takes up campaign advertising issues after election season is over.
Avula and Roday have engaged in the most direct political combat in a five-person mayoral race that has been largely civil and free of major policy disagreements.
Roday, who worked in the private equity world before making his first run for elected office, has repeatedly sought to cast doubt on Avula’s status as a Democrat who supports abortion rights by invoking Avula’s time in the Youngkin administration.
Avula, a former public health official who led Virginia’s vaccination effort during the COVID-19 pandemic, has said he supports reproductive rights and served as Youngkin’s commissioner of social services because it was a role that primarily involves helping low-income Virginians.
Last week, Avula’s campaign touted its own internal polling that showed Avula as the frontrunner in the race.
But that was before Roday and former Richmond City Council President Michelle Mosby, another top contender, began running TV ads of their own.
In a recent interview, Mosby, the only woman in the race, marveled at what she called “the audacity” of two of her male opponents fighting amongst themselves over who is and isn’t a champion for women’s rights.
“No one should be able to tell us what we're doing with these bodies of ours,” she said. “And how dare y'all fight over trying to tell us that you're the best person at telling us. Stop it.”
