WaPo Picks Up on Davis GOTV Flyer

It appears it WAS targeted to Democratic precincts and possibly to minority voters.  Shocking.

Was this intentional?  If it was does anyone expect Jeannemarie to admit it?  How did this flyer get into two of the most Democratic precincts on opposite ends of the district by accident?

Meanwhile the Fairfax Times covers the attack on Chap's family.

We are watching the Davis machine unravel in what is the biggest story of 2007.  Developing...

Comments

[Grapes]

Davis' years of maligning pro-lifers is coming back to bite him in the ass - BIG TIME.

How sweet it is.

Bye bye.

[Gnarly]

Somebody went in and attacked the family?....huh? How did I miss that?

Tom spent $400K on JMDD this month. For what? Another marginal RINO in the Virginia State Senate. Who cares? It's time for them to go. They have overstayed their welcome in Ffx County.

[I.Publius]

From the WaPo:

Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the ACLU, said deceptive electioneering practices typically involve telling voters to turn out on a date after the election, so that by the time they realize when they were supposed to vote, it's too late. That makes her wonder whether Devolites Davis's intent was to deceive voters.

"Usually, they're calling you on Monday and telling you to vote on Wednesday," she said. "They normally don't give you enough time to correct the information."

Unless, of course, you check your brain at the door, and see a conspiracy or a scandal wherever you want to see one.

[Doug]

I.pup- or your campaign is incredibly inept!

Actually I don't think they were trying to deceive, but this sure is entertaining. JMDD is actually sort of nice looking in that picture, despite the angry snarl. Course, some of us like an angry snarl.

[charles]

Ben, if you want to mislead us about what the article said, you shouldn't link it.

It does not "appear" it was "targeted". The paper never suggests that. They DO quote a PETERSEN campaign staff who suggests it, but even he couldn't bring himself to say what YOU said "most democratic precinct?":

"Petersen's campaign manager, Joe Abbey, said several campaign volunteers reported Sunday that the "Vote Today" door hanger was seen in portions of Vienna, Fairfax City and Mantua that have slightly higher concentrations of Democratic voters than other precincts in the 34th Senate District. "

SLIGHTLY higher. And remember, Jeannemarie is supposedly running to the left of Chap, so why WOULDN'T she be targetting slightly democratic areas.

This story is a crock, and the newspaper should have known. When in the HISTORY of "voter fraud" has a campaign put out flyers to trick voters to vote on another day, and PUT THEIR PICTURES ON THE FLYERS?

It's clear this flyer was meant to convince HER voters to come out. If a Chap voter got this, why would they run out to vote for JeanneMarie?

But you already know that.

[Va Blogger]

Ben, have you ever even been on a campaign before? The answer of how it ended up in two precincts not next to each other isn't that much of a mystery. One group of volunteers went to one precinct; the other group of volunteers went to the other. Targeting precincts isn't predicated on being close to one another.

You have a brilliant way of reading a story, ignoring every detail presented, and blowing the rest out of proportion. And by "brilliant", I mean "complete dipshit".

I understand that you have 1) a hard-on for the Davisi family, and 2) an over-whelming desire to "play a part" in her defeat (which you will surely take credit for her loss, despite the fact that you had absolutely nothing to do with it). But when even the ACLU comes out and says that this is bullshit, you know you're wrong.

Peterson, for his part, is being a complete fuck-up as well. For all the smarmy talk of him being a "Virginia gentleman", his blatant opportunism and intellectual dishonesty doesn't lead me to believe he'll be a particularly good state Senator.

[Darrell]

She says that the volunteers accidentally picked up the wrong hangers, but sent out staffers to pick them up once the mistake was discovered.

Now here's the next question ... why didn't the reporter press her for an apology about The Flyer?

[charles]

The Fairfax Times published a picture of Chap's wife and small child. How evil.

And Chap is holding a flyer that gives out his name and home phone number. What is he, stupid? Doesn't he know the voters of his district will call him and be angry at him if he lets them know how to reach him?

"Hey, everybody! Listen to Me!!!! My Address and Phone Number are RIGHT HERE ON THIS FLYER!!! Please don't Get this Flyer and Use this Phone Number to Call Me!!! I don't want people to know my Phone Number, which is printed On this Flyer!! Could you focus that TV camera in on this part here that is circled that has my phone number on it, so the viewers can SEE it! I can't believe my opponent printed this Flyer with my phone number and family information!! Look, zoom in closer, right down here, see, there's my wife's name, can you read it now, I'll tilt it so the glare isn't so bad."

Charles:

Please keep on posting. Your comments show what an idiot you are -- and continue to drive votes to the "D" column.

"Devolites Davis has outraised and outspent Petersen, ..."

If Petersen would just sleep with Tom Davis, maybe he could raise more money too!

[Sam]

I don't know... these last two JMDD stories seem like quite a stretch of the imagination. I'm more inclined to generally believe incompetence.... That being said, I'm sorry R's the Chap's personal information story is outrageous, and the more you deny it, the more ignorant you show yourselves to be, and the more likely you are to just be ignored...

That being said, I think the sudden rapid increase in incompetence on the JMDD campaign implies to me a level of doing as much as they possibly can as fast as they possibly can. In other words, this all reeks of desperation. I'm guessing JMDD's internals are looking pretty bad right now.

[Carrington]

I'm with Ben on the family attacks and with the naysayers (including the ACLU) on the door hangers.

If you were actually trying to deceive voters--you'd do better than this. No fire on the second one--just misguided volunteers.

[Bruce]

Mantua is a low income Democratic precnct?

The post even quotes the ACLU as saying the way it was done makes her "wonder whether Devolites Davis's intent was to deceive" because it happened too far before an election, someone who showed up on Sunday would still have time to vote, and they were only left at GOP doorways.

Seems like a nonstory here except someone screwed up and left the election day materials out where volunteers could get them.

["We had door hangers for this weekend and door hangers for Nov. 6," Devolites Davis said. "The volunteers accidentally picked up the wrong ones. Once we discovered it, the campaign sent people out to take them all off and replace them."]

JMDD expanation: "MY VOLUNTEERS ARE DIPSHITS AND HAVE NO IDEA WHEN ELECTION DAY IS!"

[Sam]

I DO admit there may be a story behind why JMDD's volunteers care so little about her campaign they were paying no attention to what they were putting up....

I know when I volunteered on campaigns in high school, I ALWAYS read the door hangers I was putting up before I put them up. Not to check for mistakes, just cause I CARED and what INTERESTED about what they said.

The fact that JMDD's volunteers don't speaks volumes about her, I believe, and we should probably be talking about that instead of this stupid "was it intentional or not?" argument... I think it's pretty clear this was unintentional.

[Va Blogger]

For every high schooler that cares about the issues and is in tune, there are 10 who don't realize that there's an election in 2007.

Come to think of it, that pretty much applies to non-high schoolers as well.

[Sam]

Yes... but if you don't know there's an election in 2007, you're probably not working on an election 2007 campaign.... Otherwise you'd at least know there's an election in 2007... Unless you're a zombie....

Anon 9:26am

JMDD expanation: "MY VOLUNTEERS ARE DIPSHITS AND HAVE NO IDEA WHEN ELECTION DAY IS!"

Or what month the election is for that matter. Seriously, is it only the extra-dumb dummies that support JMDD?

[Doug]

Hey- it's after 11, where's today's scandal?

[Not Wayne Rooney]

I am sure all of the people who live in the 34th District and spent part of their morning stuck in traffic really give a shit about this story.

[Sam]

NWR,

Valid point, but those people know JMDD's blowing smoke when she says she's improved traffic and will be voting against her anyways...

[Phil Chroniger]

"Hey- it's after 11, where's today's scandal?"

My question is...where's the HOD predictions that were supposed to be up yesterday?

Ditto that... lets see the HOD preview already Ben.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Sure.