Just two days ago I blasted the Smyth supporters for using Karl Rove style dirty campaign tactics. I thought it was just her supporters that were spreading outlandish lies in an attempt to smear Charlie Hall. With the exception of the Burke email, none of it was very official - random comments on blogs and meetings. Very. Dirty. Politics. But Linda herself had steered clear of this ugliness.I was wrong.
In the mailbox today I found a new mailer that unmistakably says "Paid for and authorized by Linda Smyth for Supervisor". Yes, this is official campaign material.
Receiving mailers from Smyth is no surprise - eight others have appeared in the past two weeks. And, until today, they've taken the high road and focused on promoting Linda. While I might disagree, those mailers were good, clean, fair politics. I had respect for that effort.
I lost all respect today. Linda Smyth officially took the lowest of the low roads in a despicable public attack against Hall.
Click on either image to see a large (readable) version.
The Lowlights:
* Tell the Republicans to Hit the road.* Charles Hall consults with Republicans before running in our Democratic primary.
* Hall is running a campaign to recruit Republicans to vote in our Democratic primary.
* Tell the Republicans to stay out of our primary.
This negative attack doesn't just say Hall is a Republican - that would be bad enough. But it goes deep by trying to drive a subliminal wedge between Charlie and Democrats through the repeated use of "our primary" or "our community", implying Hall doesn't belong. It is used six times in a mailer that contains a total of just 9 sentences.
Tell me this isn't Karl Rove politics.
Tell me this isn't Jerry Kilgore's Hitler attack on Tim Kaine.
Tell me this isn't George Allen's anti-women attack on Jim Webb.
This is negative campaigning based on deceit. The only question is which is worse: the smear campaign against Charlie Hall or the fact that members of our Democratic party would stoop this low.
Pathetic. Just pathetic.
What have the other mailers been like?
Which really goes to show that they've crossed a line and gone to the dark side. I'm extremely disappointed to see this out of what I had thought were clean Democrats.
Maybe they've seen some really bad numbers and are scared that Charlie is going to pull it off. Perhaps this is their last ditch effort? Dunno. But whatever the reason, it is clearly very dirty politics.
And, as someone else here has already said, it is exactly the "if you're not for us, you're against us" attitude that Connolly and Smyth have been showing Providence residents for four years.
Doug from Mt Vernon, I'm going to guess you've written me off already because I've posted that I like Charlie Hall in this race. But please, ask yourself and other Smyth supporters if this type of mailer, and the attitude it expresses, is doing any good for the Democratic Party in Fairfax?
Why would I have written anyone off? I don't really have a horse in this race despite my previous positive perceptions of Linda. I am open-minded. Why would I make a judgment of any one person solely based on their support of a candidate in a primary?
I'm obviously warming to Charlie. I was very much put off by some of the really nasty negative stuff being thrown at Linda, actually. But I truly see merit in both candidates.
Let the voters of Providence District decide!
This is the kind of lowlife politics that Providence residents have had to endure for 8 years. When Smyth/Connolly can't persuade constituents to their set of facts, rather than working with them - they start rumors and innuendos to slander their opposition. Or, they alter history with their own set of facts. Or, if all else fails, they verbally abuse them during the Board's public hearing process and not allow a rebuttal.
Glad you can see this for yourself, Eric. It is despicable and has gone on far too long. This is what is energizing people to demand change in Providence. We want good governance and respect for the process, as well as for the people who participate in it.
I voted for George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis (oversized Army helmet and all), Bill Clinton (proudly), Al Gore and John Kerry. If I'm a Republican, I have a severe case of ballot-booth dyslexia.
Until the last few weeks, it never occurred to me that anyone would think I was a Republican--certainly not my next door neighbor at the American Bar Association who is an ardent member of the GOP, and who has never offered me a membership application.So I was disturbed a few weeks ago when I learned that volunteers working for Linda Smyth were telling my supporters as fact that a) I'm a Republican; b) I'm working as a Trojan horse for Tom Davis; and c) all my considerable campaign funding is coming from Tom Davis.
Late last week, I learned from a Washington Post reporter where the ultimate source of these rumors was coming: Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly. As the Post reported today, in a story listed elsewhere on RK, Connolly personally approached reporter Bill Turque last Thursday night and pressed this claim upon him.
It's tempting to duck the question above about my party label, but I want to respect those who genuinely fear some kind of subterfuge.
As the Post article noted toward the end, I did participate in one meeting with Tom Davis early in the year, and I'd like to flesh out the background of what I told Bill Turque, so that there are no misconceptions.
I am not a career politician. Three years ago, before I and several others formed Fairfax Citizens for Responsible Growth (FairGrowth), it never occurred to me I'd be a candidate for office. As it became clear I was on a short list of people willing to consider running against Linda, we were filled with many uncertainties, because FairGrowth had never operated as a political entity and remains nonpartisan today.
It was always my instinct to run as a Democrat--if I ran at all. Others familiar with the 2003 firehouse primary remain convinced that it would be difficult or impossible to win in such a process and worked very hard to persuade potential candidates, including me, to run as an independent.
One necessary piece of information in even evaluating this recommendation, which was made fervently and in good conscience by a number of people, was knowing whether any Republicans were planning to run. It was a question that only a Republican could answer.
I think the more interesting question that some folks don't seem very curious about is what happened after that meeting. I never met with Tom again. I never contacted anyone on his staff. Nor have they contacted me. As I told the Post, Gerry Connolly has spent far more time in Tom Davis's company than I have.
More importantly, there is no relationship between Tom Davis or his staff and my campaign.
For a whole host of reasons, my unease with the independent route grew to the point where I made it clear to my supporters that, whatever their fears, I would only run as a Democrat. And that's where we are today.
As the Post pointed out, neither Linda and I have the classic party-activist histories. She actually voted in three Republican primaries, emerging with clear memories of one of those votes, and she did not join the Democratic committee in Fairfax till 2003, the year she ran for supervisor.
What is the significance of all this? I'd like to say it's overblown. I believe we have two authentic, present-day Democrats in the race.
But I do believe real Democrats tolerate differing views. It's unfortunate that the current party has tried to ostracize its opponents as Republicans. There was a terribly misguided attempt to force Becky Cate out the county Democratic Party after she ran against Linda in 2003, and Connolly all but called FairGrowth a Republican front from the moment it gained public attention.
I think there are plenty of legitimate issues to discuss. I'm disappointed that anyone--whether it's Linda's volunteers, Gerry Connolly or some of the posters above--would casually tar a fellow Democrat to gain an advantage in an election.
I have no reason to think Linda is personally behind this, or was even aware of it until today's Post article, but I hope she will step up and call on all her supporters to set this aside as a non-issue for the rest of this campaign. And in the absence of any evidence beyond the much-discussed Davis meeting, I hope the rest of Linda's supporters will accept that I am a Democrat whose thinking reflects that of many Democrats in Fairfax County.
That's why we're holding this Democratic primary on June 12, and not as an election in November.
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by: charlie hall @ Tue May 29, 2007 at 22:44:51 PM EDT
Davis is worried that Connolly will take his congressional seat. Defeating Smyth undermines Connolly and serves the purpose of Davis. As a FairGrowth founder, Charlie opposes Connolly's practical approach to development. It is not surprising that Charlie would meet with Tom Davis given their common interest in defeating Connolly.
What does not make sense is Charlie's explanation of his Davis meeting. If he truly wanted to run as an independent, Charlie should have kept quite and announced his campaign after it was too late for Republicans to run.
Charlie very openly said he had considered an Independent bid for awhile. Whether or not the Republican party would field a candidate of its own was critical to his decision.
Charlie is not the one who has previously voted in Republican primaries. Charlie is not the one who joined the Democratic Party the same year he announced his candidacy. Linda Smyth has both those honors, yet you go after Charlie in an anonymous attack? Please....
I am officially leaning to Charlie now, as if it matters.
In the future, please let's blog more responsibly?!
It really is a gracious and fair response to the "you're a Republican" argument, and it's really got me impressed with him.
I still think that some/a lot of what is driving the anti-MetroWest types is NIMBYism, but I'll take Charlie's word for it that it's not for him, and that he simple wants these developments to be better designed and executed not for developers, but for the communities with everyone's input (and I wholeheartedly agree with that).
Although you're not in Providence you could still make a difference. If you can, please make phone calls to friends/family/coworkers/anyone-you-know in Providence and encourage them to vote for Charlie.
As I said in one of my comments, the transparent lies that Linda is now pushing are very bad for our Democratic party. This will hurt the party's reputation and hurt us in November. It's important to put a stop to this and show Virginia that we, the people of the Democratic party, will not reward such behavior. Vote Linda Smyth out of office on Tuesday. Spread the word.
Smyth?s mailing is hypocritical because SHE is the one with the Republican voting record. As reported in the Washington Post on May 29, Smyth?s voting record shows that she voted in Republican primaries in 1988, 1989, and 1996. She admits voting Republican in 1996, but says she has "no recollection" of voting Republican in '88 or '89. That?s dishonest.
Then there?s the issue of the second candidate?s debate, as blogged recently here on RK. The Connection newspaper reported that e-mails forwarded to them showed that Smyth was sent invitations on May 18 and May 22. Furthermore, one of the organizers of the debate approached her on May 23 and she declined the invitation. But Smyth was quoted in the paper saying "I didn't hear about this debate until Tuesday [May 29]". That?s dishonest.
A recent post on the Democratic Party ?Party Builder? blog was titled ?Some Republicans will Stoop to Any Depth, and even Sacrifice the Dignity of the Congress To Get What They want?. Linda Smyth appears to be just such a Republican. Except in this case, she?s sacrificing the dignity of the Democratic Party.
Furthermore, and I might catch some flack for this, but what should the Republicans of Providence do? It doesn't seem their Party has put a candidate forward. It does seem that the winner of the primary will go on to be Supervisor. Should they have zero say in the next four years? Do they have a right to weigh in?
Last, and maybe least, I spoke to Chap Peterson a few months ago. I hate to say it but I'm not too excited about him. When I expressed my concerns he said something like, well, if you want the Democrats to be in the majority, you've got to vote for me. And, yes, he's got a point,and gee, I just can't get excited about that line of reasoning. We shouldn't care about the candidate, just the party label? Party-ism will not get us to a better future.
The shame is that I know that this sort of mailing can work. Too many people don't know enough about the issues and get swayed by this kind of crap.
Then after she won, Smyth and Connolly actually tried to get Cate kicked out of the Democratic party! They failed miserably in that attempt due to the integrity of the FCDC but no thanks to the Providence Committee which acted on her behalf.
The best way to end these disgusting tactics that are destructive to the party is with your vote.
Vote for a clean Democratic Party. Vote for Charlie Hall!
2) Hall is a Democrat, running in a Democratic primary. Why would it be a trick or a problem for anyone in the party to hold a fund raiser for this candidate?
By the way, what does Becky Cate hosting a coffee in 2003 have to do with Charlie Hall exactly? This is a stretch at best, but "nice try," I guess.
She didn't show up.
Smyth's republican voting record is fact. It was reported by the Washington Post and is in the public domain.
So why are you so quick to brand someone as republican based on hearsay yet ignore the factual basis of your own candidate's voting record?
But you should be ashamed of yourself for propagating that bullshit smear against Charlie (and Ms. Cate) in your last sentence. You and all of Linda Smyth's supporters know damn well that Charlie is not a Republican.
Linda Smyth is not part of the Democratic party that I support. I do not support self-important campaigns that take a "win-at-any-cost" approach. I do not support campaigns or politicians who think they know better than everyone else. I do not support desperate candidates who need to fabricate complete lies.
I support honest Democrats. I support Democrats who work hard to make a better society and have the balls to stand on that position. I support open government and officials who actually practice that open government and are willing to speak in front of the people, and listen to the people, instead of hiding from them.
You, Linda Smyth, and rest of her supporters who are pursuing this preposterous smear against Charlie epitomize everything that people hate about politics. And I'm disgusted that you're making our party look like cheats. The Democratic party is not going to win over middle-of-the-road Virginians this fall by running campaigns based on blatant lies. People will see through it and take their votes elsewhere.
So, a sarcastic "thank you" to you and Linda for doing your part to help set our party back a notch. Keep up the good work.
It does anger Dems to have their party brought to the lows of innuendo and rumors. It must stop and challenges in primaries must remain issue oriented. I commend Hall for sticking to this principle.
Point 1: Becky Cate hosted a coffee for Supervisor Smyth's republican opponent in 2003 AFTER Becky lost the primary to Linda Smyth. Is this true, Becky? I remember hearing that there was such a coffee, but I was not there so I can't confirm. Please advise.
Point 2: By Charlie Hall's own words, he met with Tom Davis to find out who the republican candidate will be. I just can't figure out why anyone running in the Democratic primary would even ask such a question, let alone meet with Tom Davis to ask such a question. It certainly is strange to me.
On the other hand, I do agree with the many posters on this blog that no Democrat (either Linda or Charlie) gains any points with most people by accusing the other of being a republican. It's probably way too late to say this but, to me, the accusations are somewhat silly whether they come from the Smyth or the Hall camp. A pox on all the allegations by either side.
Given Gerry's stranglehold on the Fairfax Democrtic party I thought it made sense for Charlie to run as an Independent, just to give voters a choice. As a lifelong Democrat, he didn't feel he could do that. Fine. I don't really understand why it is such a big deal that he met with a popular local politician to get more information about the landscape. And if Becky did hold a fundraiser that gave the public a real choice, good for her.
Is all the hype about party labels useful in these local races? If we are ready to bash people just for meeting with someone on the "other side" things in this country are going to get a whole sh**load worse before thet get any better.
2. I can't catch everybody but I did catch you. Stop posting comments as two different users. Pick one account and stick to it. If you don't I'm going to ban all your accounts.
I don't know who you are but here is my short reply:
1) You admit that both Smyth and Hall supporters have accused the other candidate of being a republican. So, as I said before in my prior e-mail, a pox on both of them.
Moreover, I strongly suspect that both candidates are well aware of what their supporters are doing, so both sides should be chastised. Is Charlie Hall any less implicated when he knows what his supporters are doing and let's them continue to make charges of republicanism? I would say only marginally so.
2) As to your assertion that I am "DemHokie," you are dead wrong. Simply stated, I am not now and never have been "DemHokie".
If you have access to the accounts for this website (and I don't know whether you do or not), read them carefully and you will see that I am not "DemHokie". I know "DemHokie" but he and I are two different people. [By the way, I also know a number of other people who post on this website, including Becky Cate. So you shouldn't make too much of the fact that I know people who post here. I will agree or disagree with those persons as I feel is appropriate.]
In short, I am an "OaktonResident" and am not a "Hokie" (not to imply that I have anything against "Hokies"). Further, contrary to your claim, I have not posted on this website under any other name than "OaktonResident."
If you do have access to the my e-mail address and the e-mail address of "DemHokie", I suspect that you will be smart enough to figure out that we are very different people. [Hint: Try Martindale-Hubbell to verify that we are different.]
Therefore, please retract the inaccurate statement that I am "DemHokie". I look forward to your retraction.
As for the Hall/Smyth issue, I do stand by what I said.
It sounds like both of us agree that this whole Republican finger pointing is very bad, but we disagree on how much the respective candidates are to blame.
As for bloggers on both sides, I think we're seeing the swiftboat effect. Dems learned in 2004 that you can never sit quietly when the other side is smearing your candidate. So the real question is "who started it"? I don't know for sure, but given that one candidate is officially using this as an attack and the other is about as far as he can get, I have a prime suspect.
But where it really matters is in Smyth's position. Based on her own mailer, this attack is part of the official Smyth campaign strategy. That went way too far.
The Democratic party needs to build trust with the voters of Virginia through honesty and good leadership. So Linda comes along and pushes what any knowledgeable person knows is a flat out lie in an attempt to get re-elected. Do you really want to give the Republicans (the real ones) a freebie like that? They'll tear our integrity to pieces if a Democrat can obviously lie their way into office.
He's one of us. A normal person who wants his tax dollars spent on things that benefit him and his neighbors: mass transit, roads, schools etc. We have to get control of growth management. We have to demand accountability.
The handwriting is on the wall, but we have to get out this weekend and pluck all our fruit.
Lets kick it!
"Providence District Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth has pledged not to place any campaign signs in public rights of way and instead will only allow signs in the yards of individuals who support her re-election." Source: Lindasymth.com
She now has signs up and down Virginia Center Blvd by the Vienna Metro. The red signs sure make her look like a Republican to me.
If you live in Providence, PLEASE take the time to vote for Charlie Hall. Regardless of where you live, PLEASE take some time between now and the election next Tuesday to volunteer to help the grassroots Hall campaign effort.
Contact Charlie's campaign here.
The future of our neighborhoods and quality of life is not a partisan issue. Too bad Linda Smyth has been wasting her time (which was too limited for a second debate for her constitutents) and energy on political mud-slinging rather than doing the real work for her constituents.
Charlie Hall is our man!!