Jim Bowden has the details.
Bowden wonders whether Kyle Adams, who is helping with grassroots organization for the Chris Stuart campaign, and is the chairman of the For Freedom Conservative Network PAC, had anything to do with recent negative mail pieces authorized and paid for by FFCN PAC against Stuart opponents Chad Green and Gordon Helsel.
Bowden questions the propriety and asks the Commonwealth’s Attorney for York and Poquoson to investigate.
Update – Chad Green responds to the Stuart Attacks:
Saturday was a sad day for Virginia voters.
The special election to fill the seat of Delegate Tom Gear has been marred by dishonest, misleading, and dirty attacks by Chris Stuart on both Chad Green and Gordon Helsel. Although it is common for desperate politicians to do desperate things, the events of today go beyond the realm of decency and honesty into filth and lies.
This is the second time this week that the Stuart campaign has been publicly exposed for dishonesty. At the Tuscany Forum debate, Delegate Gear himself expressed shock that a mass “robo-call” by Stuart called Gear “a dear friend,” although the two hardly know each other.
At two debates, Chad Green proudly repeated the Tea Party motto that he would “party in Richmond like it’s 1773,” referring to the year of the Boston Tea Party. In an attack mail piece, the Stuart campaign edited the quote to change the meaning and deliberately misquoted Green’s remark that he would “party in Richmond…”
Stuart sent out an equally appalling attack ad on Gordon Helsel, which demeaned an honorable military career including service to our country on the battlefield and an exemplary record of service as Mayor of Poquoson. A picture of a pair of handcuffs was associated with the character and public service of Helsel.
The Stuart campaign has today followed its dishonesty with even more lies. After being confronted with the deceptions, Stuart responded that there was not enough time to publicly denounce the ads, but went to his Facebook page to deny any connection to the mailings and the FFCN group, which authorized the attack mailings. This was also untrue, as the head of FFCN, Kyle P Adams, is actually a campaign staffer for Stuart and has been paraded by Stuart as a supporter on another mailer.
Delegate Glenn Oder (R) Newport News, today issued the following statement:
“I find the recent campaign ads portraying handcuffs and attacking
lawyers for serving in the General Assembly reprehensible in the
Republican primary for the 91st district. Taking quotes out of context
misrepresents the intention of the statement and is a campaign
practice that has no place in honestly run campaigns. The individuals
responsible for these flyer’s should immediately apologize and I hope
they would withdraw themselves from the campaign.”This sad day is but one more piece in the Stuart pattern of deception. This pattern began in the first days of the campaign, when Stuart shook hands with Green in the presence of a witness, looked him in the eye, and promised that there would be no negative campaigning. In the Tuscany debate, when asked whether he actually lived in the district and where he spent his nights, Stuart actually claimed that he did not remember where he had spent two of the last three nights. 180 days ago, Chris Stuart swore an oath to serve the people of Hampton as a member of it’s City Council for a term of 4 years, but didn’t mention that he had already purchased the website name for” Chris Stuart for Mayor”, “Chris Stuart for Congress”, and “Chris Stuart for Delegate” before his council term ever began.
The Green campaign challenges Stuart to “man up,” to both his involvement in the misleading campaign, and the fact that he does not actually live in the 91st District. Changing an address on paper does not constitute an “abode” as required by the Code of Virginia.
The Green campaign would like to thank the people of the 91st District who have called to alert us of this problem and who have signed up today as volunteers. Chad Green would also like to thank the Republican Party officials who have called to offer support, strategic advice, and other forms of assistance.
Most importantly we appreciate the honest campaigns by the other candidates, and wish them a clean and competitive campaign.
