at the same briefing on how to run an unethical campaign:

In late summer, after defeating Simpson for the Republican nomination, Ahlemann distributed copies of the complaint against the motorist to about 100 people at a Republican Party meeting. The complaint contained personal information about the man, a prominent farmer, including his address, birth date and Social Security number.

"That blew my mind," Simpson said. "We give an hour-long program at senior centers and homeowner association meetings about identity theft, and one of the biggest things we talk about is securing your Social Security number."

Ahlemann said he shared a document that was available to the general public. "Anybody could pay 50 cents to the court clerk and get the same document," he said.

I have to admit that I am certainly not getting all the doses of the medicine that are being thrown out in this cycle for this seat, but what I have seen in the media and blogosphere does not even come close to the Webb/Allen race. I know passions are running high of course up your way but I just do not buy this contest is the "most vile in Virginia history". It certainly may be of the more hotly contested ones but not th worst.

someone may have just picked up the wrong box of doorhangers.  Seems like it would have been noticed when the workers started hanging them on doors, though.

But I think I actually agree with Too Conservative for the first time ever. (ugh - that pains me to say it - pains me so much)

This is an awful mistake, but likely a mistake, and it was likely committed by paid door-hangers who didn't know and didn't care about what they were hanging. Can you even imagine how hard it would be to do selective, demographic-targetted distribution of lit in a local race? Damn near impossible.

There are so many things to hang on JMDD (like her abhorrent positions people), why try to drum up a big deal over what is likely the simple combination of an honest mistake and the problem with using paid literature droppers rather than passionate volunteers....  no one caught the error!

Caveat: I don't know that JMDD's campaign uses paid anything, but I have trouble believing anyone with a clue would volunteer.  Either way - it's hard to believe that no one who cares would not notice the error and get it corrected asap.  Literature is not cheap - you save the GOTV literature for election day (or possibly late the evening before).

The fact that her people did not catch this and fix it is a much more telling problem than assuming it got done deliberately.  Anyone who was so clueless as to try to vote on the day they got this would simply go again on the real election day and would be much more likely to vote for someone else than the provider of said flier.

I don't know if she's buying help or if they're volunteers, but they're sure not doing a very good job. 

Dropping the wrong lit is really bad, but I also got a call from someone working for her who couldn't even pronounce her name correctly and seemed, um, very light hearted when I said I wouldn't be voting for JMDD and was not interested in donating. 

Sounds like paid staff to me - and not very good at that. 

Exactly HOW do you identify the homes of minority voters in the 34th District???  Would that be the public housing in Oakton or the trailer parks in Vienna?

"Never attribute to malice that which can be easily explained by incompetence."

HisRoc, people may think that you believe minorities are more likely to live in public housing or trailer parks.  Perhaps you were just being sarcastic and attributing discriminatory attitudes to those making the allegation that minorities were targeted by Jeannemarie's false doorhanger.

this:

One of Devolites's campaign mailings used a dark-looking image of Lovelace, an African American, and criticized him for negative campaigning. Cranwell said the photo evoked the Willie Horton ads for George Bush in 1988. Devolites called it "an honest picture of George." And Davis says Devolites has contributions and support from several black leaders.

This weekend, Lovelace sent jumbo postcards with a picture of Devolites and inch-high capital letters calling her backers "extremists."

Hat tip: NLS

Both whites and people of color live in my sub-division, which is very typical of the 34th District.  Walking around any sub-division in the Oakton-Fairfax City-Vienna area, I would be hard-pressed to identify which homes are occupied by minority families.  Can you please tell me how you would do it if you were hanging door hangers designed to repress minority voting???

Oh, shit.  I used the word "hanging."  I hope that you now don't accuse me of being a racist for doing that.

Lowell, it appears that I have "attacked" another poster here.  I suppose that this means that I will be banned?

They both have something in common.

They both need to be swept away.

Get out the vote.

We in Virginia do not subscribe to the nastiness of Ms Davis.

{Daughter a convicted felon}

with this flyer is that she says that election day is "today"--and not a day after the 2nd Tuesday in November. Consequently voters targeted with this flyer can still go to the polls on election day. She's kind of shooting herself in the foot. If she were smart she'd say that election day was November 11th or something.

that Republicans voted on Wednesday.  Isn't that true?  It's what I've been telling them for years.

...but I honestly think this was not malice....it really does just look like a sign that her campaign is disorganized and inefficient.

Still, I'll take it.

...her campaign is an incompetent fiasco.  Either way, not exactly a compliment.

A very wise friend said to me many times:

"Never attribute to malice that which can be easily explained by incompetence."

Not only is this usually true (simple majority of the time), but even when it is not true, it allows the malicious party an honerable exit strategy... they can claim ignorance or error and you can begin to resolve your differences.

In JMDD's case I doubt she'll ever want to resolve anything, but a lot of her former voters might appreciate a little grace, and once that has been given, they may come around to working with us to solve the district's problems together.  I remain an optimist... it is the foundation of why I got involved in politics after being somewhat apathetic many years ago.

Entitled "Premature Flier Stirs Debate on Intent," it is on B1 of Metro.  But you're not reading the print copy, are you?  Here's the link: http://www.washingto...