Over at Not Larry Sabato, Ben Tribbett posted a letter that Del. Tim Hugo wrote to Gov. Tim Kaine. The letter states that he believes the Governor should “direct the Democratic Party of Virginia to issue a retraction and an apology to [Tim] and [his] family” as a result of his opponent, Rex Simmons, accusing Tim of helping “to bring ‘us the horrors of Abu Ghraib’ Iraqi prison torture” and other controversial aspects of Simmons campaign.
While I agree that the ads crossed the line, I don’t believe Gov. Kaine should have the Democratic Party apologize. I do believe, however, that Rex Simmons and his campaign should be the ones to apologize because it was Rex’s campaign that completely crossed the line. As Hugo points out in his letter to Gov. Kaine, this is because politics can be a ” rough-and-tumble, full contact sport” but that doesn’t give the Simmons’ campaign the excuse to launch a negative campaign that goes well beyond stretching the truth.
In addition to Rex’s campaign crossing the line of decency and ignoring important facts, I believe it is important to note that Hugo is an extremely pleasant man to interact with and doesn’t deserve to be baselessly attacked like he’s been. This has become evident, for example, as he has always been extremely polite to me even though he knows that I’m a blogger who would like to see a Democrat take over his seat in the House of Delegates. Furthermore, many other Democrats have related similar experiences to me while discussing Hugo.
Finally, Rex has a significant amount of experience and I believe he would have had a chance of defeating Hugo if he simply ran on his record. Rex’s campaign, however, has decided to launch negative attacks ever since the last stages of the Democratic Primary. This is extremely unfortunate because many people believe he would have made an excellent addition to the House of Delegates. Now, its highly unlikely he will be elected and he should issue an apology.
Filed under: 2007 Elections, House of Delegates, Politics, Rex Simmons, Tim Hugo, Virginia, Virginia Politics
I’m glad to see that there are actually some bloggers that are willing to realize when a member of their own party did something wrong. However wrong this may be though, I don’t know if Hugo really should be writing the letter because he’s also put out some rather harsh negative ads.
You know the funny thing is that Ben had endorsed Rex during the primary and now he’s calling him out for doing all this negative campaigning. That really goes to show that people who might have supported him are now fed up with the way Rex’s running his campaign.
Hugo has got to be crazy if he really thinks the Governor is going to issue an apology. Kaine had nothing to do with this. You can’t blame every Democrat for the poor actions of Rex Simmons just like you can’t blame every Republican for the actions of people like Larry Craig.
Oh come on. People use negative campaigns all the time. I don’t know why you’re making a big deal out of this.
The question is: Are Rex’s lies and scare tactics (making people think that Virginia will endorse torture if Hugo is reelected) enough to make you actually not vote for him>
Why are the Democrats so surprised that Rex is running a dirty campaign. He is the guy that signed a clean campaign pledge during the Democratic Primary and then broke that pledge just days before the primary so that his opponent didn’t have any time to respond.
You better watch out. Next thing you know Hugo will be using your post in an attack ad against Rex simmons. He’s already done something similar.
I heard that some of Rex’s closest advisors actually recommended avoiding the negative campaigning, but Missy Luft ending up winning
Hugo shouldn’t be asking for an apology because he has also taken part in some negative campaigning, but I think he’s brilliant to write the letter to Kaine because it draws attention to how Rex has run one of the most negative campaigns I have ever seen.
Bryan mentions how Tim “is an extremely pleasant man to interact with” and I have to agree. When you also consider that this is a PART TIME position they are running for, I think it’s crucial for people to remember that many members of the GA are just everyday folks who happen to have a high profile part time job.
Oh the only reason you wrote this post is because you’re mad Rex won the primary. Get over yourself. You should be ashamed of yourself for not being more mature while running a site. Your attacks here don’t do any good for the Democratic Party you say you believe in so much.
I think it’s important to note that Bryan did call out Hugo when Hugo ran a negative television commercial, he published a summary of an interview he did with Rex, and has done a few posts that say good things about Rex. I think that should go to show that Bryan has given both sides a fair treatment here.
If Rex was talking about the issues instead of launching negative attacks then Bryan probably wouldn’t be forced to agree with Hugo on this issue. Heck, Hugo wouldn’t have even brought it up.
Negative campaigning is what ruins politics for a lot of people and no matter how legitimate Rex’s argument might be, voters are going to remember that the majority of the time they’ve been contacted by his campaign (which is only through mailers or tv commercials for many people) he was avoiding the issues and launching personal attacks.
I wish Rex had spent the money he put into these ads into hiring some people to go out canvassing. We all know he has hardly any volunteers.
Let’s not forget that Hugo’s pattern of association with Capital Hill scandals, beginning with his former boss, Chairman Bud Shuster (for whom Hugo was a chief of staff), being reproached by the House Ethics Committee in 2000; followed by Hugo placing a former Shuster chief of staff, Ann Eppard, on the “Leadership Council” of his lobbying firm–the same Ann Eppard who pleaded guilty in 1999 to accepting illegal compensation from a transportation lobbyist; and then Hugo joined in 2005 the Livingston Group lobbying firm, headed by disgraced former congressman Bob Livingston, who had resigned from Congress in his own, personal scandal. Seems to me that it is Hugo who needs a lesson in ethics.