From the St. Louis Post Dispatch

Illinois candidate pulls ad after complaint
By Paul Hampel
Of the Post-Dispatch
09/30/2004

Shriners Hospitals say commercial for judge resembles endorsement A candidate for the Illinois Supreme Court has pulled television and radio ads for his campaign in response to a complaint from the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
That organization said the ad violated Internal Revenue Service regulations prohibiting charitable institutions from endorsing candidates for public office.
The 30-second spots for 5th District Appellate Judge Gordon Maag, a Democrat from Glen Carbon, began airing Monday on KMOV, KTVI and KSDK, as well as some radio stations.
In the ads, Maag stated, "I serve on the board of Shriners Hospital. We provide free medical care for thousands of sick children."
Maag went on to say in the ads that he would fight "frivolous" medical malpractice lawsuits.
The commercials were filmed at Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville.
Jay Fleisher, managing attorney for Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa, Fla., called Maag on Wednesday and asked him to pull the ads. "Judge Maag has assured me that he has given instructions to the Illinois Democratic Party to immediately pull the ads from all television and radio stations, and that they will not be aired any further," Fleisher said.
Fleisher said that he had not seen the ads but that conversations with hospital officers who had seen them indicated to him that "a reasonable person could be led by the ads to believe that Shriners Hospital was endorsing a candidate for political office, which is prohibited by our status as a charity."
The commercials were the first to air in the St. Louis market for an Illinois Supreme Court race.
The campaign of Maag's opponent, Washington County Circuit Judge Lloyd Karmeier, a Republican from Nashville, Ill., said it would begin airing its own television ads in the next few days.
A spokesman for Maag, Brendan Hostetler, said, "If that organization is uncomfortable with us talking about the judge's service (at Shriners) in paid media advertising, we're going to honor that. The judge's respect for that institution is more important to him than a political campaign."
Hostetler said the campaign would substitute another commercial.