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Bernard Parks Campaign Mailer Touts Endorsements From Dead People

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A new campaign mailer from the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce in support of L.A. Councilman Bernard Parks has many scratching their heads at the number of dead people lending their names for endorsement.

Parks and challenger Forescee Hogan-Rowles are involved in a fierce campaign for Council District 8, which includes USC, Exposition Park, Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills and Crenshaw.

The mailer lists supporters like "Honorary Co-Chair Ethel Bradley, the widow of former Mayor Tom Bradley, who died in 2008, according to the LA Weekly. But she isn't Parks' sole dead supporter.

The mailer also includes: Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (died in 2007), Ray Charles (died in 2004), TV producer Aaron Spelling (died in 2006) and civil rights activist Ida B. Kinney (died in 2009).

According to the mailer, Parks does have living people endorsing him, too, like Laker legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson, whose name is embarrassingly misspelled as "Ervin."

PR flack from Englander, Knabe and Allen Ruben Gonzalez later took the blame for the error-ridden mailer, the LA Weekly reported. Gonzalez told the Weekly that the mailer included an outdated list of endorsements from an earlier campaign.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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