Just a few quick facts to clear up any confusion about the Tim Hugo ad situation.1. The TV ad, apparently run on Comcast cable by the Tim Hugo for Delegate campaign, attacked Democratic candidate Rex Simmons, taking quotes from a user diary written by "Pitin" on Raising Kaine on June 13.
2. "Pitin" has been identified (by himself and others) as Nate de la Piedra, executive director of Next Generation Democrats. De la Piedra has worked for several Democratic candidates, including Andrew Hurst for Congress 2006 and Morris Meyer for Delegate 2007.
3. The diary, "Vote for Rex Simmons in November," was deleted (and retracted) by de la Piedra soon after it was posted. The full text of the diary is included on the "flip."
4. Raising Kaine has complained that Hugo's ad cited this entire blog (www.raisingkaine.com) as the source of quotes attacking Rex Simmons. Again, the quotes come from a person (Nate de la Piedra) who used the public forum capabilities of this SoapBlox community blog to post a "user diary."
5. De la Piedra is not a member or officer of the Raising Kaine PAC, a "front pager" at the Raising Kaine blog, or a member of Raising Kaine management in any way, shape, or form. He is simply a user, like any other user, who comes on Raising Kaine and leaves comments or user diaries.
6. It is Raising Kaine's general policy not to delete user diaries unless they are profane, obscene, or highly offensive in some way. This is a judgment call, not a hard science, but we generally attempt to err on the side of NOT deleting diaries and NOT banning people.
7. To (hopefully) avoid confusion and misattribution in the future, we have added a disclaimer at the top of the blog: "Raising Kaine is a community forum to discuss political issues of interest to Virginians. The opinions expressed by users of this website do not necessarily reflect the views of Raising Kaine management or the Raising Kaine PAC."
8. Raising Kaine is asking that Tim Hugo pull his ad or correct it so as not to give the misleading impression that the quotes by Nate de la Piedra come from Raising Kaine as a PAC or a blog as a whole.
9. The Washington Post ran a front-page article this past weekend on the controversy. Among others, it quoted University of Alabama political science professor Karen S. Johnson-Cartee, that "Hugo's ad 'means we have sunk to a new low.'"
10. Raising Kaine STRONGLY endorses Rex Simmons for Delegate over Tim Hugo in the 40th district. This unethical, misleading ad by Hugo is yet another reason for voters in Clifton, Centreville, and Fairfax Station to vote for a change on November 6.
Vote for Rex Simmons in November
by: pitin
Wed Jun 13, 2007 at 14:02:58 PM EDTMany of you know that I was a supporter and volunteer for Morris Meyer. Morris was defeated last night by Rex Simmons in the most cowardly campaign I have seen since W (Karl Rove) won South Carolina in 2000 by telling voters that McCain had an illegitimate black daughter (McCain happened to have in fact adopted an orphan from Bangladesh).
My message to Democrats who live and vote in the 40th House of Delegates district is vote for Rex Simmons but do no more. Rex alienated a large number of Democrats by proposing a ?clean campaign pledge?, posting it on his website, then sending out a hit piece comparing his life long Democratic opponent to George W Bush with only a few days left in the campaign knowing that Morris wouldn?t have time to respond. We also had a significant number of voters ask us why Morris wasn?t pro-choice when in fact he is 100% pro-choice. This leads me to believe that Rex was spreading lies about Morris and his stance on issues.
Rex has no integrity, is not a ?good Democrat? and will lose the general election against Tim Hugo. If you are a Democrat in or around the 40th I STRONGLY urge you to not contribute your time or money to Rex, as it can be used to make a difference in a number of key races this year, and be used to support fantastic Democratic nominees. I encourage you to donate to or volunteer for Democratic campaigns that will make a positive impact on our long-term prospects here in Fairfax Counties, campaigns such as Janet Oleszek or Chap Peterson. There are also great candidates for the Board of Supervisors like Mike McClanahan (Springfield) and John Foust (Dranesville) and so many others.
pitin :: Vote for Rex Simmons in November
Rex has been lying to voters the entire campaign. We have heard for months now that Rex?s line at the door was ?Morris and I are the same on the issues, but he is from Texas and I have lived here for 30 years?. First of all, Morris is from Ohio and he moved here to marry Terri his beautiful and smart wife who is a third generation Northern Virginian. On the issues there were a tremendous amount of differences including but not limited to; Rex has ALWAYS supported the aerial option for rail to Dulles and Rex?s support of off-shore drilling on Virginia?s coastline. Seems to me like he has been breaking his ?clean campaign? pledge all along.From the onset there was one difference in the two campaigns, Morris ran a race that would benefit Democrats (registering new voters and bringing them into our Party) and Rex ran a race that would benefit Rex.
I only hope that no looks at this race as a rationalization and "proof" that these campaign tactics are "good tactics" and uses them in future primary campaigns. The only thing Rex's campaign accomplished with his "winning hit piece" was "salting the earth" in the 40th for the nominee regardless of who would have won.
Again, to Democrats in the 40th I call for you to vote for Rex Simmons, but do no more and instead contribute your valuable time and hard earned money to candidates who care about the future of our party, not just their employment status in government.
-Nate
PS: I should mention that Frank Blechman (who consulted the Rex Campaign) and Rex's Field Director Garth (sorry can't remember last name) should be exonerated from any attacks on their character for working on this campaign as they both lobbied Rex against sending out this piece. However, his Campaign Manager Missy Luft lobbied for this piece and should be held accountable for her actions.
Both Missy and Rex need to either apologize or explain why they felt it was appropriate to compare a Democrat to President Bush.
JS, I'm not upset. I think Lowell's false outrage is rather funny.
Raising Kaine strongly endorses Rex Simmons for the 40th House of Delegates seat. Go Rex!!!
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To my bemusement one Democratic stalwart at least seemed inclined to be mad at RK simply for allowing Pitkin to express himself on RK. I had two thoughts after listening: 1) their quarrel should be with Pitkin and not the platform on which he placed his comments (however ill-or-well-considered); and 2) if they feel so strongly about what blogs "should" and "should not" do they need to set up their own blog; picking on RK indicates the establishment has not yet come to terms with the Internet, and is uneasy with blogs because they are beyond the control of The Establishment. (Good!)
As blogdom matures editorial standards and the ethics questions will be resolved, but they are still in flux. In my opinion.
Your point #2 is untrue, Nate has said numerous times that he was a volunteer and a supporter of Morris's but not staff.
Look at the finance reports here.
The attempt by some to tie Nate's personal choices to Morris campaign are misleading and inappropriate. Morris has gone door knocking, put out signs, and just this past weekend held a joint fund raiser for the three Senate races and Margi, and will continue to help out all the democratic campaigns that ask him if able.
So I repeat the quotes in the Hugo ad did not come from, nor our they supported by Morris's campaign or its staff.
Hugo's ad said the quote came from RaisingKaine. Not true. It came from a diary that was posted on Raising Kaine, but not one that was written by RK "management."
Those are the important facts. Was Nate writing for himself or for someone else? Doesn't matter! Unless he was writing for RaisingKaine.com, the source citation in Hugo's ad is misleading (and worse, from what Hugo said in the Post story, intentionally misleading).
So let's forget about Nate and return our focus on Hugo.