Bloglander

Mud season continues. A political action group aligned with a Democrat state senate candidate is accusing his opponent of plagiarism.

Spokane City Councilwoman and Third District senate candidate Nancy McLaughlin acknowledged that some of the issues positions on her website were copied straight from a GOP site.

"If I had actually been aware that it only had been copied and pasted, I would have made it my own," she told The Inlander Friday.

But, "Plagiarizing to me means an unauthorized use . . . for school work or whatever," McLaughlin said, adding that since so many of her "ideals as a conservtive candidate line up" she didn't think the senate campaign committee would disapprove.

Billig has contributed to Inland Northwest Leadership PAC, the group circulating screenshots of the material on McLaughlin's campaign site appearing alongside the original on the website for GOP state senate candidates.

The issues section on McLaughlin's page is currently down, and the councilwoman says she's retooling the entire site.

McLaughlin's acknowledgment comes less than a week after she apologized to Billig for misstating his position on campaign mailers she sent.

An Inlander email to a senate Republican campaign coordinator hasn't yet been returned.