It isn't the colors, font or style of the website that matches up, but rather the words in the sections that are supposed to be outlining Sullivan's views on topics like jobs, national debt, seniors, health care and education.
Former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan's campaign website has a lot in common with that of former congressional candidate Richard Tisei.
It isn't the colors, font or style of the website that matches up, but rather the words in the sections that are supposed to be outlining Sullivan's views on topics like jobs, national debt, seniors, health care and education.
The Boston Globe first reported the similarities which were attributed to Sullivan sharing the same campaign manager as Tisei: Paul Moore.
Moore told the Globe that he copied and pasted sections of the website because of the abbreviated timeframe in the special election.
“The issues in this election are very much the same issues — jobs, economy, and debt — as in 2012, and in this case, the campaign manager was the same person, and campaign managers typically write these things," Moore told the Globe.
In 2012, Congressional candidate Andrea Nuciforo Jr. had policy papers published on his campaign website that were copied or heavily borrowed from other Democratic politicians without attribution. One of the Democrats words were lifted from was disgraced former Presidential candidate John Edwards, a previous client of Nuciforo's campaign manager who left his campaign before election day.
Nuciforo's campaign stumbled in its initial handling of the incident, and later lost the election to U.S. Rep. Richard Neal.
In October 2011, former Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's website was found to have a passage that contained several sentences which were verbatim remarks delivered by ex-North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole in 2002. At the time, Brown's Senate office in Washington attributed the similarities to his website being based off of the template of Dole's website.
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, candidate Hillary Clinton accused then-candidate Barack Obama of lifting parts of a speech delivered in Milwaukee, Wisc., from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
Once the allegations hit the news, Obama said that he and Patrick, a longtime friend, wrote the speech together, and he acknowledged that he should have credited him. But before long, Obama moved past the plagiarism allegation and went on to become president of the United States.
Another incident dates back to the 1988 presidential campaign by then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, who was found to have taken without credit portions of a speech by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party. When media reports emerged about the similarities between the two speeches, Biden didn't address the controversy head-on, and further reports emerged that he had borrowed without attribution from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.
The response to the plagiarism stories are partially credited for ending Biden's 1988 presidential run, although 20 years later, Biden ended up becoming a vice president to serve alongside Obama in the current administration.
Sullivan is preparing to take the stage along with former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez and state Rep. Daniel Winslow Tuesday evening at their first forum debate at Stonehill College. The event, which takes place from 7-8 p.m., will be streaming live on MassLive.com for those wishing to get a closer look at the Republicans running for U.S. Senate.
The Democratic candidates, congressmen Stephen Lynch and Edward Markey, will take part in a Stonehill College forum on April 1.