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| Ad firm suing Grayson | |
| 2009-11-01 | |
| Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) has been served with a lawsuit alleging he failed to pay a $20,000 "win bonus" to a Minnesota advertising firm that worked for his campaign last year, POLITICO has learned. The lawsuit stems from a disagreement between the Grayson campaign and North Woods Advertising, a firm that has worked for politicians including former Minnesota Governors Jesse Ventura and Paul Wellstone.
Grayson won the campaign and was elected to his first term in Congress -- but never paid North Woods the $20,000 win bonus, both sides acknowledge. More than a year later, North Woods has filed suit against Grayson to collect the bonus, and another $50,000 for breach of contract, since Grayson's campaign hired another advertising firm late in the campaign, allegedly violating an exclusivity clause in the North Woods contract. Grayson chief of staff Julie Tagen said that the bonus wasn't paid because North Woods owes the campaign a refund for advertisements that were purchased but never ran on television. North Woods "massively overcharged us for everything -- the most blatant thing was they never gave us a refund for ad-buys that didn't run," Tagen told POLITICO. "They wouldn't send us a refund check -- which is unheard of -- and that's what this all stems from. We've told them repeatedly: When they send us our refund, we'll give them their win bonus." But Vaughn Juares, business manager and creative director of North Woods, said that all of Grayson's advertisements ran -- meaning no refund was given to them from the TV station -- and that they had already sent Grayson evidence proving just that. | |
| Posted by:Fred |