Why was WLOX meteorologist Carrie Duncan scrubbed from her husband’s political campaign?
Popular WLOX-TV weather forecaster Carrie Duncan has disappeared from campaign material advertising the candidacy of her husband, Dan Cuevas, for District 1 supervisor in Harrison County.
Photos that once featured a husband and wife smiling with their two sons now show only Cuevas and the boys. In the case of large campaign signs that would be expensive to replace, Duncan’s visage has been covered in ghost-like white overlaid with the word “VOTE.”
Duncan, the South Mississippi TV station’s chief meteorologist, was told in a meeting at WLOX last week that all images of her had to be removed from Cuevas’ campaign materials, said Howie Morgan, Cuevas’ political consultant. He said Cuevas, who did not return a telephone call to comment, relayed the news.
“Mr. Cuevas has complied with all the requests from WLOX,” Morgan said. “ . . . I have to admit that I”m pretty upset that, visually, my client looks like he’s a single Dad, when the truth is he’s a very proud husband of his wife and is unable to include her as part of the campaign, especially with the prohibition that she can’t help out, even on her personal time,” Morgan said.
Candidates running in Republican primary
Cuevas is running against incumbent Supervisor Beverly Martin in the Republican primary. With no independent or third-party challengers, the winner will take office in January. Martin said there’s no truth to the rumor that she complained to WLOX about Duncan’s image being on her husband’s campaign signs.
“Neither me nor anybody in my campaign or family, to my knowledge, has made any complaint about those pictures,” Martin said Thursday morning.
Photos with Duncan in them have been scrubbed from her husband’s political candidate page on Facebook. The family photo on two billboards is being replaced with one of only Cuevas and the boys, Morgan said. Duncan, who joined WLOX almost 21 years ago, has been edited out of his television ads.
The 25 large signs at major intersections, where Duncan has been transformed into a ghost, cost $1,319, so Cuevas covered her with white stickers to save money. The signs were printed about three weeks ago, said Kevin Ladnier of Biloxi, who sells political signs.
Rick Williams, vice president and general manager of WLOX-TV, said he could not comment on “activities related to personnel.”
The Sun Herald asked Wednesday to speak with someone at Atlanta-based Gray Television, which owns WLOX, about Federal Communications Commission rules that might have prompted the action but so far has not heard from anyone.
The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates political programming and campaign advertising on television and radio, publishes a fact sheet about its rules. The fact sheet addresses on-air radio and TV personalities that run for office but not their spouses.
