Posted on 02/05/2006 9:39:54 AM PST by NormsRevenge
NORTH COUNTY ---- For the last few months, Republican political consultants, campaign managers and others have been predicting the 50th Congressional District race to replace former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham would turn into a mudslinging free-for-all.
In the wake of Cunningham's resignation in November after pleading guilty to taking millions in bribes, the number of candidates grew to 14 as of late last week.
And the more the competition increased, the more likely it became that dirty politics would come into play, those political observers predicted.
It appears the pundits may have been right.
In recent days, two so-called hit pieces ---- campaign fliers or e-mails that portray a candidate in the worst possible light and often contain half-truths ---- have surfaced. One was an e-mail containing a memorandum that cast former Congressman and Republican candidate Brian Bilbray as a liberal with questionable ethics.
Another scathing piece attacked congressional candidate and state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, as an alleged supporter of embryonic stem cell research. Morrow vigorously denies that allegation. Many conservatives strongly oppose the scientific research, saying it supports abortion. Defenders say it holds the promise of an eventual cure to many diseases, including Alzheimer's.
Anti-abortion activist James Hartline sent the e-mail to the North County Times on Jan. 30 in which he not only excoriated Morrow but also the senator's wife, for her work as vice president and general counsel for a nonprofit organization that advocates for California's biomedical industry and embryonic stem cell research and other cutting-edge technologies and life sciences. The California Healthcare Institute's Web site is http://chi.org.
Reached by phone Friday, Hartline said that he "may have" sent the report to the North County Times and confirmed that he is the author of the piece.
The inflammatory report, titled "The secret embryonic stem cell death agenda of Senator Bill Morrow," calls its revelation of Barbara Morrow's job "one of the biggest bombshells dropped in the history of California's conservative movement."
Another Republican elected official who is not running for Congress ---- and asked not to be identified in order not to himself become a target ---- said the information on Barbara Morrow's job with the institute is anything but a bombshell.
"Mrs. Morrow is not running for Congress. Sen. Morrow is a well-established conservative with a long record to prove it," the official said. "Hysterical claims like this are far from bombshells ---- they are not even a shot fired from a BB gun."
Morrow said Thursday he is adamantly opposed to embryonic stem cell research and that the person who wrote the piece is contemptuous.
"I am a big boy and can take these hits, (but) even in politics, you don't attack the family," Morrow said. "It brought my wife to tears."
He said the e-mail made no distinction between his support for adult stem cell research ---- which uses stem cells taken from the umbilical chord after a mother gives birth ---- and his opposition to embryonic stem cell research.
Morrow said the piece was "attacking me with half-truths, which is the same as a lie."
Morrow and Bilbray are considered to be among the front-runners for the Republican nomination in the race to represent the predominantly Republican congressional district.
In late November, Cunningham resigned from office after pleading guilty in federal court to having taken more than $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering government contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to two defense contractors.
In the ensuing weeks and months, the number of Republicans who declared they were in the running to replace him spiked to 11 candidates, three of whom jumped into the race in the last few weeks.
The newcomers include former Superior Court Judge Victor Ramirez, Rancho Santa Fe resident Eric Roach and San Diego resident and teacher Jeffrey Nelson. Two Democrats are also running for that party's nomination for the congressional seat. And Carlsbad resident and Libertarian Paul King also jumped into the fray in recent weeks.
Alleged Abramoff connection An anonymous source from an operation that calls itself the "Bilbray File" recently sent an e-mail to the North County Times that included a copy of a memorandum listing information and articles published over the years on former U.S. Rep. Bilbray. The e-mail attributes the memorandum to "Concerned Republicans in California's 50th Congressional District." The organization does not show up on databases of either the California secretary of state's office or the Federal Election Commission.
The articles cover everything from Bilbray's 1996 trip to the Northern Mariana Islands and his lobbying activities, to his voting record on gun-related issues. (The organization Gun Owners of America gave him an "F" rating in 1998; see www.gunowners.org.)
There was also a reference to the support he received from a Republican group that advocates for the rights of gays and lesbians. FEC records show that Bilbray has received campaign contributions from the Log Cabin Club.
The articles and other information in the "Bilbray File" all appeared to be an effort to cast him in a negative light or to imply that he is a liberal.
"This is a calculated dirty-tricks campaign against me," Bilbray said last week.
Bilbray, who served in Congress from 1996 to 2000, said he believes the anonymous e-mail was sent to the newspaper by a Republican, not a Democrat.
"The one way to attack without being blamed for it is to do it anonymously through the Internet. I am used to the Democratic machine doing so, but it's sad to see Republicans doing the same stuff," he said.
The Mariana Islands connection One of the articles mentioned in the "Bilbray File" was a 1998 New York Times story that talked about a possible connection between Bilbray and former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff recently pleaded guilty to fraud, corruption and tax-evasion charges.
In his pleas, Abramoff admitted to taking millions of dollars in kickbacks and failing to pay millions in taxes on his ill-gotten gains connected with his lobbying activities for several American Indian tribes. In addition to Abramoff's role with the tribes, in the mid- to late 1990s, he also worked as a lobbyist for the government of the U.S. protectorate of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, as it fought to prevent U.S. legislation from being passed that would have removed the islands' exemption from having to pay U.S.-level minimum wages.
The New York Times article said that the government of the Mariana Islands had invited "nearly all members of Congress and their aides" to visit the islands and paid for the trips of those who accepted the invitation. The article also said that Abramoff "arranged" for the trips. The same article said those guests included Bilbray and his wife. An April 29, 2005, story by The Associated Press reported that Abramoff later reimbursed the Mariana Islands' government for many of the trips to the islands by members of Congress.
Asked about the reports, Bilbray said last week that he and his wife made the trip to the Marianas in late December 1996. However, he stressed that the government of the Northern Mariana Islands paid for the trip, not Abramoff. Bilbray said he did not know whether Abramoff was involved in that invitation nor whether the lobbyist repaid the government for the trips.
The trip had nothing to do with the legislation to increase the minimum wage that Abramoff was trying to get defeated in Congress, Bilbray said.
He received the invitation from the governor of the islands, because the islands were struggling to come to grips with foreign guest workers who were giving birth to children while staying there and then claiming birthright citizenship for their children, Bilbray said. Before he went on the trip, he also requested that the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct give its approval for the trip, he said.
In a Dec. 13, 1996, letter to Bilbray, the committee approved his request ---- with qualifications.
"Assuming the Committee's understanding regarding payment of the costs of the trip is correct, you may participate in the trip under this provision," the letter stated.
Bilbray said he doesn't remember ever having met Abramoff. However, "I assume I have run into him, but I never received any contributions from him," Bilbray said, adding that none of his staff members at the time remembered having met Abramoff.
More dirt expected In a Wednesday phone interview, longtime North County Republican campaign consultant Jack Orr said that in the coming weeks, he expects to see an increase in the number of negative mailers and e-mails about candidates. And Bilbray won't be the only one targeted, Orr added.
As a campaign consultant, Orr said that he has been through decades of election cycles, and over and over again he has seen hit pieces such as the ones targeting Bilbray and Morrow. When there is an election such as the current one for the 50th District with multiple candidates, the number and intensity of those negative mailers and e-mails tends to go up proportionally, Orr added.
In one state Assembly race a few years ago, a single candidate put out 21 such pieces on a competitor, he said.
"I expect to see that in this race, and I would be shocked and amazed if it didn't happen," Orr said.
He said he also received a copy of the "Bilbray File."
"I guarantee you (his opponents) will use it in campaign literature," Orr said.
It will make little difference that Bilbray may have had no real connection to Abramoff, Orr said.
"The hit piece will show a picture of Abramoff ... and will say Bilbray was seduced by lobbyists or something like that," Orr said.
Orr said he is not working for any of the candidates in the 50th District race.
Tricks of the trade Orr said it's the nature of politics to "demonize your opponent." Almost all candidates have what is known as an "opposition research" team that is tasked with digging up information that will cast their opponents in a negative light.
The staffers are akin to private detectives and will look at everything from divorce and bankruptcy filings to records of any criminal convictions such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They also carefully examine other candidates' voting records, looking for anything that can be exploited, he said.
Candidates' biographical descriptions often turn up nuggets of negative information.
"You go through their bio with a fine-tooth comb, because candidates have a proclivity for overstating their qualifications, especially their education and their war records," Orr said.
Divorce records are often a mother lode.
"Wives, in filing their statements against you for divorce, can say some very nasty things, and those kinds of things are sometimes used," he said.
While digging up the information doesn't necessarily mean it will be used in a negative campaign, staff members with several candidates acknowledged they conduct "opposition research."
Morrow's campaign manager, Joe Justin, said his team researches opponents' backgrounds.
"We vet ourselves, too," he said, referring to the practice of researching one's own candidate to uncover anything that the opposition might use against him or her.
The communications manager for Democratic candidate Francine Busby said that her campaign also does opposition research.
"We certainly want to make sure that we have a complete profile, so we know who our opponents are," said Brennan Bilberry. "But, what we are specifically researching, I can't go over."
A consultant for candidate Bilbray said Friday that because of "limited resources," the campaign is using volunteers who are "focusing just on public voting records" of opponents.
Republican candidate and businessman Alan Uke's campaign is also reviewing public records, but extending its search beyond voting records and including court records and newspaper articles.
"We won't do anything on the personal side, won't include race, religion or sex," said Uke's campaign manager, Bryan Lanza.
Asked whether his campaign is conducting opposition research, Republican candidate Howard Kaloogian answered with an emphatic "no."
"I am not spending my time doing that, nor are my consultants or my campaign manager," he said. "I have kept my team very focused in getting my voters to the polls."
Before beginning work for a candidate, campaign consultants must learn of every skeleton that may be lurking in a candidate's past. If not, they may very well live to regret it when an opponent digs up the information, Orr said.
"When I and my partner sit down with a client, our first statement is, 'Is there anything in your background you would not like to have public? Tell us now because it will certainly be discovered.' "
On two occasions, he has had a fellow campaign consultant tell him he should get his candidate out of the race because of information they had dug up that would ruin any hope of getting elected, Orr said.
With the advent of the Internet, the ability of a campaign consultant to uncover damaging records on another candidate has expanded tenfold, he said.
In decades past, the usual pattern was for campaigns to wait until two or three days before the election to distribute mudslinging fliers. However, the growing trend of more and more people casting absentee ballots has forced campaigns to get out the bad news on their opponents much sooner, he said. For the April 11 special election, Orr said he expects to see a flood of hit pieces reach voters in early to mid-March.
Often, however, these so-called opposition research teams don't turn up anything really damaging about a competing candidate's past, Orr said. But that's not a problem, he added.
"What you do is take something fairly innocuous and turn it into something astounding," he said.
Go Howard!
http://www.kaloogianforcongress.com/
So nice that they give Howard a mention... in paragraph 58!
What's up with that?
Democrats face a daunting obstacle when running for public office. They cannot admit that they are selling socialism. They must convince every voter that they are a f"moderate." They must pretend to be in favor of the very sustem they want to tear down. The Democrat party is the mirror-image of the Socialist Labor party in England.
Democrat candidates cannot run on a platform of what they will do if they win office. They cannot say, "vote for me and I will triple your taxes, increase spending, fight against constitutional rule of law, reduce your freedoms and liberty, knuckle under to every tin-horn dictator on earth, and grow government to ten times its size."
Unable to sun as a "liberal" and unable to out-conservative conservtives, they must turn to character assassination and mudslinging, they have nothing else.
Democrats face a daunting obstacle when running for public office. They cannot admit that they are selling socialism. They must convince every voter that they are a f"moderate." They must pretend to be in favor of the very sustem they want to tear down. The Democrat party is the mirror-image of the Socialist Labor party in England.
Democrat candidates cannot run on a platform of what they will do if they win office. They cannot say, "vote for me and I will triple your taxes, increase spending, fight against constitutional rule of law, reduce your freedoms and liberty, knuckle under to every tin-horn dictator on earth, and grow government to ten times its size."
Unable to sun as a "liberal" and unable to out-conservative conservtives, they must turn to character assassination and mudslinging, they have nothing else.
I missed it.. Thanks! dang eyes.
Nothing like pre-positioning 2 moderates as the front runners.. how Ca GOPesque , eh? but being as it is a primary, Go Howard! We'll see who actually shows up and votes.
It surfaced cuz he's asking for "resident college tuition" for his daughter - who's ineligible by living out of state w/ him.
Truly pathetic behavior by a professional politician.
GO HOWARD !
San Diego Union Tribune, Jan 12, 2006
Bilbray may be the strongest candidate, but he is also the most vulnerable to negative attack.Immigration? News reports at the time indicate that the lobbying was not about immigration, but about regulating sweatshops in the Mariana Islands. The lobbying efforts were successful... the rules were never enacted.If I were a political consultant for one of the candidates – Morrow, let's say, or former Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, businessmen Alan Uke and Ken King (the latter was widely rumored to be dropping out but saying otherwise), former Del Mar Mayor Richard Earnest or even Democrat Francine Busby – I'd be scouring Washington archives for a palling-around photograph of Bilbray and, say, corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Or how about a warm Kodak moment with Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor who allegedly bribed former Rep. Randall Harold Cunningham?
You know the old saying: A picture is worth a thousands slurs.
As it is, the Internet is already abuzz with reports that Abramoff arranged for Bilbray to take a trip to the Mariana Islands. (Bilbray says it was a legitimate trip to discuss naturalization issues that dovetailed with his legislative work on immigration.)
Bilbray swore during the press conference that he had no memorable contact with the radioactive Abramoff.
"I assume I've run into him during the process," Bilbray said. "He was all over the Hill. But when I see him on TV, it's not someone I recognize."
The San Diego area has some of the nastiest politics I have ever seen, the worst of it always coming from the so-called Christian right. Those people will stop at nothing, from mailed hitpieces to smear flyers placed on windshields at churches. I had a friend who got smeared while running for a local school board. I worked for a candidate that ran against Duke Cunningham in his first primary, and his decades-old bankruptcy was uncovered in a mail hit piece. Brian Bilbray should have expected this sort of thing. BTW, Bilbray is a good guy, although I would not call hm the sharpest knife in the block. I would prefer Kaloogian, but I'll bet that his supporters are behind some of the trash-throwing, even if he retains "plausible deniability" himself. Whoever has the least amount of mud thrown at him is usually the one throwing it at everyone else.
In the real world, one would tag Bilbray as liberal. His record shows he's for gun-control, abortion, more gay rights, federal funding of stem cell research, and a ganGREEN environmentalist. His family are all staunch democrats, including his cousin James Bilbray, a former congressman from Nevada.
Maybe the whole article was planted by Kaloogian or his supporters to get some "MSM" play for their smears of Bilbray. Don't think your guy is pure as the driven snow here.
Oh, so Bilbray is a liberal because his cousin is a Democrat Congressman? Give me a break. Show me some liberal votes he made when he was in Congress before or on the county board of supervisors.
I honestly don't care what the source of information is; I care only about its accuracy. I want to know the most I can about all candidates running for office... and if they're dirty, I certainly wouldn't want them as a Congressional representative.
Notwithstanding the muckraking, I don't understand why, on a conservative forum, folks come out so strongly in favor of a guy who is in opposition to conservatism in so many ways, and opposes much of the Republican platform as well. Bilbray's lifetime ACU rating was 71 (68 in his final year). The ganGREEN envirowackos at the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) gave him an 85 rating National Environmental Scorecard. He certainly is not the *best* choice, IMO.
The "F" rating from GOA is enough for me. The rest is just icing on the cake...
"This is a calculated dirty-tricks campaign against me," Bilbray said last week.
It sounds more like "full disclosure", Brian. But, I can certainly see why you object to it...
We need this squish like a hole in the head.
No. Your selective reading missed this part:
His record in Congress shows he's for gun-control, abortion, more gay rights, federal funding of stem cell research, and a ganGREEN environmentalist.His record speaks for itself.
Bilbray's lifetime ACU rating was 71 (68 in his final year). The ganGREEN envirowackos at the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) gave him an 85 rating National Environmental Scorecard.
Show me some liberal votes he made when he was in Congress before or on the county board of supervisors.
His more current record showed me enough.
A big clue is in the name of the subscription. The tag line confirms the preference for expediency before principle.
*BUMP for Kaloogian*
Morrow is a go along to get along nothing and Bilbray is a sleasy lib.!
Go Howard, that's where my money went.
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