Members of a Spring Valley environmental action organization are steamed that a negative campaign mailer was sent out in the group's name to target Town Supervisor candidate Bruce Levine, who is running against current Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence in a primary to be held tomorrow.
The group, led by Mariel Farlow and Steve White want to make it clear that the "Spring Valley Concerned Citiziens Coalition" had no ties to the mailer, even though a similar name, "Concerned Citizens of Spring Valley," is on the literature. The mailer was sent to registered Democrats.
According to the Journal News:
The flier characterizes Levine as a longtime beneficiary of political patronage jobs and makes reference to well-known troubles in the village.The permit stamp on the mailing came from the Monsey Post Office. Farlow visited the office to identify the permit owner, but was told to fill out a Freedom of Information (FOIL) request. Unfortunately, the primary election will be long over before Farlow and White can identify the culprits.
Local activist group Preserve Ramapo isn't spending any time wondering. They're pointing the finger directly at Christopher St. Lawrence:
It's a surprise to no one that the St. Lawrence campaign has sent out unsigned attack literature. It doesn't take a coward long to learn that it's better to hide when you lie. In this case, though, the two cards sent out attacking Bruce Levine claimed to be sent by the Concerned Citizens of Spring Valley.
2 comments:
Are there no laws governing source disclosure in local elections? We are all familiar with the "Paid for by ..." tags in larger races, but this mailer was either sent out by St. Lawrence himself, or a "538" group - essentially a Swift Boat-style attack.
Left or right, can we not all agree that proper sourcing on all local campaign literature should be enforced? Transparency is the key to honest democracy, freedom, liberty and justice. If we let Nixonian slime tactics into our local elections, it won't be long till they are running local government.
The problem of the mailer is worse than an anonymous lie. People are already wary of the unsigned slander. This used the name of a local organization to try and get some credibility. In so doing, Concerned Citizens became the innocent bystander of this drive-by.
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