Is a state Senate candidate soft on child molesters?
Or, perhaps, does a state Representative hopeful discriminate against gays?
Did a presidential nominee even exaggerate his service in Vietnam to glorify his commitment to his country?
Voters around MetroWest are asking themselves some of these questions but not because of the work of a candidate's campaign. Instead, the most critical questions or the dirtiest mudslinging is being done by others.
You can call them hired guns, political henchmen or simply the movers and shakers behind the campaign scenes but they are shaping the course of the '04 campaigns as candidates try to stay above the fray. After all, candidates for the most part can fall back on the excuse, "I didn't do it."
Locally, mailings accusing candidates of behavior or decisions meant to shock voters are making the rounds. Does this detract from the real issues and the race or does it enhance the fire exchanged between candidates and sharpen debates?
"That mail piece hit hard," said Republican Jim Coffey about a flier sent by the state Republican Party that accuses Democrat Karen Spilka of casting a vote in the Legislature that makes it easier for sex offenders to work in schools.
"Vote NO on Karen Spilka. She won't protect our children at school," reads the postcard-sized mailing.
Spilka, running against Coffey for the seat being vacated by state Sen. David Magnani, D-Framingham, has called the mailing a "disgusting distortion" of the truth. The district includes Framingham, Ashland, Natick, Medway, Franklin, Holliston and Hopkinton. The mailing went to 30,000 voters in those towns.
The mailing, which asks, "Who's Working in Our Children's Schools?" and includes a photograph of a crying child, criticizes Spilka for voting against a Republican-sponsored amendment to a municipal relief package approved by the House last year. The Senate did not adopt the plan and it did not appear in a compromise bill later approved.
Spilka defended her vote by saying Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) checks are already done on any school employee.
At a candidate forum Thursday night at Framingham State College, Spilka reminded the audience and Coffey that no Republican state senators voted to add the plan.
And though Coffey has deflected criticism of the negativity by saying the mailing wasn't from his campaign, he admits to being the genesis for the idea and content.
During an editorial board meeting with the Daily News this week, Coffey said he stumbled across Spilka's vote while in the library perusing legislative voting records and passed the information on to the state GOP.
"We brought that to the attention of the Mass. GOP," Coffey said. "But we didn't fund it or participate in the editorial process."
Tim O'Brien, executive director of the Mass. GOP said candidates knew there were mailings aimed at Democratic opponents going out but the mailings were not shown to Republicans candidates beforehand.
Some might say it gives a candidate the ability to distance him or herself from negative campaigning while still benefiting from the mailings' content.
"This is a message that they are aware of," said O'Brien of the mailings. "This is something that Jim supported and is not running away from."
The mud comes from both sides of the political party fence.
During the Democratic primary for the Seventh Middlesex District between Ginger Esty and write-in candidate and eventual winner Tom Sannicandro, the pro-same-sex marriage group MassEquality, sent mailings to residents that read, "Ginger Esty would divide our community."
Esty does not favor allowing same sex-marriage and Sannicandro supports it.
The mailing also pointed out that Esty as a selectman voted against a proclamation stating Framingham would stand "against bigotry, prejudice, intimidation, and hatred of any kind."
What that mailing failed to clarify was that the vote on the proclamation was in con of the ongoing debate about illegal immigrants in Framingham, not same-sex marriage. Esty said she voted against the proclamation because other board members refused to add in a disclaimer making the proclamation apply to only "law-abiding" residents.
Sannicandro, who said he was not made aware of the mailing until he received one himself, apologized to Esty. Sannicandro's Republican opponent Mary Z. Connaughton has said she fears MassEquality will target her with a similar mailing before the Nov. 2 election.
Sannicandro for one, doesn't like the mailings even if it does point out a difference between two candidates.
"It's not my style at all and I was a little embarrassed by it," Sannicandro said. "I called MassEquality and complained about it. I told them I didn't want any negative campaign documents sent."
Esty said being the target of negative campaigning is part of the reason she is not doing much to support Sannicandro's bid for office even though they are members of the same political party.
"I would prefer statements come from a candidate," she said. "That particular postcard...it was so bogus but you pray that people know you better but it did have some effect obviously."
Esty said as a candidate she would want to know what was being mailed on her behalf, as would Sannicandro, but when candidates enter a larger political stage outside groups or the will of the party get inserted into the mix.
It goes beyond backyard politicking.
On the national scene, President George W. Bush distanced himself from the actions of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth after they smeared John Kerry's Vietnam War service. But the attempt to discredit Kerry's war record while the Kerry campaign questioned Bush's Vietnam-era military service in the Air National Guard garnered plenty of media attention.
"If people are talking about swift boat ads you are not talking about President Bush's war on terrorism," said Framingham Republican Town Committee Chairman Ed McGrath. "It's taking everyone off message."
McGrath, who is Connaughton's campaign manager and is also the Republican State Committeeman for the Second Middlesex and Norfolk district, said he's concerned that flyers not coming from a candidate confuse voters.
"I am concerned that when someone sees a flyer like (the Mass GOP mailing) they get turned off and the next flyer that comes in the door won't be taken seriously," he said.
McGrath, like Sannicandro and Esty, said he thinks it is detrimental to a campaign for a candidate to have to respond to material that did not originate from the campaign.
There's a reason for that beyond the ability to deny and distance oneself from harsh criticism.
"Many times they don't want the candidates to know (about mailings or ads) because it puts the candidate in a position to say 'Don't do that'." McGrath said.
But wouldn't controlling or restricting the content or origin of political flyers violate free speech? You bet, said O'Brien.
"What's the alternative?" O'Brien said. "A democracy works because people raise money who get together and share a common belief in some issues and support a candidate they believe will further their issue.
"I don't know how you have a healthy democracy limiting what people can say...this is what two party government is supposed to be about," he said.
And while some of the attack campaigns are branded as overly strident there are some done with a wink and nod - consider the Billionaires for Bush folly and more locally, Framingham critic Harold Wolfe.
Wolfe, who operates a website called www.abetterframingham.org, frequently skewers town and state politicians with a very severe conservative knife.
His most recent creation is www.stopblumer.org, a website that criticizes positions and actions taken by incumbent state Rep. Deborah Blumer, D-Framingham. The website features Blumer's picture complete with glowing and blinking eyes.
Wolfe said the glowing eyes addition was inspired by a sci-fi character who is evil.
Wolfe's stopblumer.org site never mentions Nick Sanchez, Blumer's Republican opponent who he supports.
"Nick Sanchez has his own site," said Wolfe when asked why he doesn't include Sanchez in the anti-Blumer material. "I told him about it after it was up."
Wolfe's other website, abetterframingham.org, rates candidates with a series of cartoon smiley faces.
So is Wolfe's site simply a way to attack a legislator he does not like rather than an attempt to partake in the political process? Even Wolfe questioned whether his attack website, stopblumer.org, would increase votes to Sanchez or take votes away.
"It's about as equally effective," he said.
