MOUNT VERNON — A recent mailing by Margaret Ann Ruhl soliciting contributions to her campaign for state representative included at least two letters sent in an envelope with a return address for the county auditor’s office. The envelope had the old address for the auditor’s office, and had a sticker with Ruhl’s home address stuck over the printed return address.
At least two of these envelopes went out in this manner and are in the possession of the Mount Vernon News.
“Oh my gosh,” Ruhl said when apprised of the situation. “That must have been a mistake. I don’t [send out] my campaign stuff using taxpayer dollars. That must have got stuck in with something else. I can’t imagine how that happened.”
The possibility that old auditor envelopes were inadvertently used because the envelopes were being stuffed in her office was also addressed by Ruhl.
“No, I don’t use my office,” she said. “Sometimes I have people who want to come in and talk to me about the campaign, so I shut the door. I don’t do it publicly. But I wouldn’t knowingly use auditor envelopes for campaign purposes.”
Ruhl added she buys commercially available envelopes and uses the stickers with her home return address.
“I know [the envelopes] were blank, so I don’t know how that could have happened,” she said.
After checking with her staff, Ruhl had a possible explanation.
“I had some old envelopes from the Young Republicans Club,” she said. “I had those printed up at my expense years ago when I was treasurer of the club. They had a return address printed in blue, [like the old auditor envelopes]. I probably grabbed some of the auditor envelopes, thinking they were the Young Republican ones and took them home.”
Ruhl said she had kept a few of the Young Republican envelopes at her office in case she needed them.
“That’s the only thing I can think of,” she said. “I only sent out about 30 letters, so I don’t think too many went out like that.”
