Now this one is interesting. Today I got a press release from State Senator Nancy Jacobs:
“Gilchrest Campaign Misleads Voters”
The Gilchrest campaign recently issued a misleading statement implying that Senator Nancy Jacobs supports Wayne Gilchrest’s re-election.
In the statement, the former title of Jeff Griffin, who at one time worked in Senator Nancy Jacobs Annapolis office, was used to imply there was a connection between Senator Jacobs and the Gilchrest campaign.
While quick to point out Griffin’s ties to Senator Jacobs, the statement failed to mention that Griffin was now a paid employee of the Gilchrest campaign.
At no time has Senator Jacobs given permission to associate or use her name in conjunction with the Gilchrest campaign.
Senator Jacobs requests the Gilchrest campaign publish a public apology for attempting to intentionally mislead the voters of the first congressional district.
Senator Jacobs released the follow statement concerning Gilchrest’s misleading campaign tactics:
“I have always considered Mr. Gilchrest a friend, and it saddens me to see my trust in him and the trust of voters betrayed for political purposes.
I resolutely stand beside and endorse my conservative colleague Andy Harris for Congress. Andy is a committed to our Republican values and will work hard for voters of the 1st Congressional District.”
Obviously, most of the Republicans in the Maryland General Assembly would stand behind their cohort in the race as Andy has seemingly worked well with them. (Both Senator Colburn and Senator Stoltzfus are among Andy’s local cadre of supporters.) It’s the second time a situation like this has occurred, the other having to do with a Gilchrest fundraiser where a couple sponsors backed away.
This race is promising to be a little dirty by GOP standards as both sides have leveled charges and countercharges against each other, some previously detailed on monoblogue.
In addition I feel the contest holds an interesting dynamic. If Gilchrest wins, the local GOP turnout may be less on Election Day 2008 as Maryland statewide will almost certainly go for the Democrat Presidential nominee. This knowledge of Maryland’s typical recent voting pattern will unfortunately give Republicans less incentive to show up at the polls. Also lower Eastern Shore GOP participation would help the early voting ballot issue that will be on the 2008 docket since Republicans tend not to favor early (and often) voting. (Oh – did I say that?)
Conversely, a Harris victory in February (or if one of the other two challengers makes it to the top) would get the conservatives in the GOP to the polls but runs a risk of Democrats who like Gilchrest’s moderate stance voting for the Democrat primary survivor and switching the seat over to a Pelosi supporter that may actually vote far left of what Eastern Shore voters would prefer. Again, I point to a statistic I cited back in July where the least loyal (or considered most “conservative”) Democrat still votes the party line 70% of the time.
Finally, it looks to me like a race on the GOP side (and possibly on the Democrat side if more people get in) that will be won by a plurality of the primary vote rather than a majority. In that case, there may be a whole lot of disappointed people on the right side of the GOP who will regret their votes for the two bottom-feeders in the primary.
“Jeff Griffin, former chief of staff to State Senator Nancy Jacobs , is serving as the campaign’s regional coordinator while County Executive David Craig ’s chief of staff Aaron Tomarchio and former central committee member Jim Close are serving on the campaign’s advisory team.”
Here’s the offending statement. Jeff Griffin is the former chief of staff to Nancy Jacobs and will be for the rest of his life. Just like Chris Meekins will always be a former legislative aide to Nancy Jacobs. And just like you are a former resident of Ohio.
It’s a fact that won’t change.
Meekins is just trying to score some sort of cheap political point with press releases like these. There’s nothing dishonest about the Gilchrest release.
Actually, I didn’t get it from the Harris campaign, I got it from Nancy Jacobs’ office – or at least that’s the stationery it was printed on as a .pdf file.
The reason this makes a difference is that few people would know who Jeff Griffin is (including me) but many more know who Nancy Jacobs is. And as I said, I found it interesting and obviously a little noteworthy.
As a personal note, for whatever reason your comment ended up in the “spam” part of my comment moderation along with the phentermine and porn site links. My guess is because of the phony e-mail address.