Scott Taylor, candidate for the Republican nomination in the 85th House of Delegates District, is demanding that one of his opponents, Gary Byler, drop out of the race.
Taylor says that Byler had knowledge of an alleged scheme to attack Taylor’s reputation, and that Byler’s failure to remove or repudiate the responsible campaign staff is a direct reflection on Byler’s character.
“I just want to run my campaign,” said Taylor. “This kind of politics has no place in our country.”
Updated quote:
“The entire Byler campaign engaged in a conspiracy to force me from the race for the House of Delegates. I will not allow their serious effort to smear my name to go unanswered. Byler’s Friday press release alleging I engaged in this gross behavior – while he knows damn well that I didn’t – is despicable and shows clearly who Gary Byler really is. I call on Gary Byler to withdraw his candidacy for the sake of no longer embarrassing his family and the Republican Party. Furthermore, I call on any Republican elected official who has endorsed Gary Byler to learn about Byler’s and his campaign’s despicable and likely criminal actions, withdraw their endorsement and demand that Gary resign as Chairman of the Second Congressional District Republican Committee,” said Taylor.
The Virginia News Source posts that Byler, a longtime 2nd Congressional District Chairman, had members of his campaign team actively pitching a story that implicated Taylor’s involvement with a prostitute and drug use.
According to faked Facebook data provided Virginia News Source by 3 political operatives, 2 directly tied to Byler’s campaign, [Taylor] tired (sic) to set up a drug and sex party with a Peninsula woman, we’ll call Bambi, in the Hilton at Town Center the night of his campaign opening.
The documents of Facebook conversations exist, but are modified….
Byler told VNS Thursday he knew nothing about the campaign tactics which may constitute a federal crime. He acknowledged that two of the three individuals involved were campaign workers.
Taylor has contacted the FBI, calling the act a crime.
The data came from a third party, Peninsula political operative Kyle Adams, who admitted he brought the data to one of Byler’s campaign officials, Gerry Scimeca. Scimeca has been paid $8,000 by Byler’s campaign. Byler said he is a ‘graphic designer.’ Scimeca said he is a consultant and not a graphic designer.
Taylor said Byler lied because he had called and told him about the smear tactics about two weeks earlier.
Although the documents tied Bambi to Taylor, Bambi told VNS she’d never met Taylor. Had never seen Taylor. Had never spoken to Taylor. And had sent him only one email attempt to contact him, unrelated to the more recent actions of the Byler operatives.
The VNS story is potentially damaging to the Byler campaign, who stated that while they were aware of the documents, they were not engaged in negative campaigning.
“The documents in question were in fact made available to the Byler campaign (as well as the campaign of Democrat Bill Dale and others) by an admitted prostitute seeking cash in exchange for dirt on Taylor,” the Byler campaign wrote in a release Friday. “Byler rejected this ‘cash for trash’ offer and IMMEDIATELY turned the documents over to trusted officials within the Republican Party so they could inquire as to their validity and inform Scott Taylor of the woman’s allegations.”
The 85th District is an open seat due to the retirement of Del. Bob Tata. The primary will be held June 11. Jeremy Waters, who was interviewed by BD last week, is also seeking the nomination to campaign against Bill Dale, the Democratic nominee.
