Storm clouds ahead: Integrity issues cut both ways around country
By Robert Schlesinger
hillnews.com
While the president's difficulties have created an environment where ethics is more important
than usual, neither party has a lock on the issue ÷ leaving the local contours of each contest to
determine which way they cut. In all sections of the country, Democratic as well as Republican
candidates have seized on the integrity issue.
For months, Lucas, a former county judge, has been hammering his Republican opponent,
state Sen. Gex "Jay" Williams, on various allegations of ethical improprieties.
That has put Lucas, seeking to replace Rep. Jim Bunning (R), who is running for the Senate, in
the practically unique position of being a Democrat who can take advantage of the scandal
environment.
"To the degree that it highlights issues of ethics and integrity it is [helpful]," Lapp said. "We
think ... the public has a right to know the background and character and things of that nature
[of every candidate] and we're willing to stand that test."
For several weeks, Republicans have touted national polls showing that issues of character,
personal integrity and ethics in government have risen to the top among voter issues.
Many candidates view the president's ethical troubles as distracting from "real" issues, but for
some would-be legislators, the questions raised by the scandals in Washington can resonate
with, and augment, issues in their own races.
"In more conservative districts, particularly in the South, the scandal surrounding the president
creates additional problems for Democrats," said D. Todd Harris, spokesman for the National
Republican Congressional Committee.
Democrats, however, will not concede the existence of an ethics gap.
"At the top of the ticket you've got [House Speaker] Newt Gingrich [R-Ga.], who is certainly
going to have a tough time talking about family values or ethics or lying without having someone
remind him that he has lied to Congress and the American people," said Olivia Morgan of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Lucas has made skillful use of the allegations against Williams, which range from falsifying his
military service records to being involved in a "shady land deal" to making illegal campaign calls
from his state office.
One Lucas radio ad features a World War II Navy frogman, Johnny Johnson, questioning
Williams' claim to have graduated from the Naval Academy.
"My buddies gave their lives keeping the promise they made to this country," Johnson says.
"That's why our veterans could never support Gex Williams."
Chris Nolan, editor of the Kentucky Gazette, a semi-weekly political newspaper, said that
Williams' campaign has let Lucas turn the ethics issue against them.
"His campaign hasn't done a very good job policing these issues," Nolan said. "They've
basically let Lucas run roughshod over them. But Gex Williams is a fighter, and he will be there
at the end."
Nolan also noted that the Kentucky Democratic Party is "really, really, really hurting" with its
own ethical difficulties.
Lucas' focus on the ethics issue could still end up burning him because of lower Democratic
turn-out.
Last week, a special grand jury investigating the 1995 election of Gov. Paul Patton(D) indicted
four people from his campaign, including his current chief of staff, for campaign finance
violations. In addition, the national AFL-CIO had to take over the Kentucky chapter, suspending
the entire staff and several board members under extremely suspect circumstances that
included a case of arson and the apparent suicide of the state AFL-CIO's bookkeeper. The local
labor effort was considered crucial to Patton's election.
"In the midst of Clinton-Lewinsky, the governor's grand jury, and the state AFL-CIO probably
involved in the biggest scandal it's had here in Kentucky, the Democrats' get-out-the-vote effort
is severely hampered," Nolan said.
Sen. Lauch Faircloth's (R-N.C.) reelection campaign has questioned the honesty of Democratic
nominee John Edwards, accusing him of distortions ranging from where he says he was born to
whom he would represent in Washington (North Carolina or Big Labor).
The Faircloth campaign has also tried to associate Edwards with the sort of legalistic
hair-splitting that has gotten Clinton in so much trouble. "North Carolina has had enough lawyer
double-talk from Washington," said Chuck Fuller, Faircloth's campaign manager.
Asked how Clinton's problems will affect the race, he replied, "John Edwards and Bill Clinton
have a lot in common: They're liberals, lawyers and they both play fast and loose with the
truth."
Some candidates face opponents with such well-known scandals that there is no need to
explicitly go negative.
The allegations against Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.), for example, have reduced the
president's problems to a back-up role instead of the lead.
"I think it's fair to say that Carol Moseley-Braun is one of the few candidates in the nation
whose personal scandals and controversies have eclipsed those of the president," said John
McGovern, campaign spokesman for state Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, Moseley-Braun's Republican
challenger.
Moseley-Braun has suffered widely reported allegations involving financial impropriety regarding
her campaign funds, her relationship to a former staffer accused of sexual harassment, and a
controversial 1996 trip to visit then-Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. Most recently, questions
have been raised about why an IRS investigation of her campaign finances was blocked by the
Justice Department in 1995.
Fitzgerald does not have to repeat them. "Our job is to educate the public about Peter
Fitzgerald and his record," McGovern said.
Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) has been at the center of her own ethical swirl of problems
recently, including allegations that she accepted $10,000 from a slush fund and that her
daughter accepted a $50,000 car from a West African businessman who Brown lobbied to keep
out of jail.
Bill Randall, her Republican opponent finds himself in a situation like that of Fitzgerald in Illinois
in terms of not having to raise it himself.
"We don't have to because the media is killing her," said Yvonne Wagner, a spokesperson for
Randall.
Randall mentions honesty and integrity in his stump speeches and ads, but does not have to
emphasize them.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman John Linder (R-Ga.) has said that
Brown's district could be targeted for ads focusing on integrity as part of their $37 million
"Operation Breakout" independent ad campaign.
The first Operation Breakout ad focused on ethics issues, assailing Nevada Democratic
candidate Shelley Berkley for comments she allegedly made suggesting that her then-boss at
a Las Vegas hotel make political contributions to judges and give jobs to their relatives to
influence them.
The allegations have eroded what was once considered one of the Democrats' best open-seat
pick-up opportunities.
Don Chairez, Berkley's Republican opponent in the race to replace Rep. John Ensign (R-Nev.),
had focused on integrity issues before they became top-tier nationally: "Fairness, not favors"
was their campaign slogan from the start, said Bob Spretnak, Chairez' campaign manager.
"We will emphasize Don's positives," Spretnak said, noting that when Chairez starts airing
television commercials, "it's going to be the positive side of the same coin as the [Operation
Breakout] ads."
Democrats are hoping Chairez' ethics advantage will be neutralized by a case filed against him
with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which a former female employee
alleged sex discrimination due to a hostile work environment. The former employee claims
Chairez called her a "[expletive] bitch" ÷ a phrase he says he used once behind closed doors
and not in her presence.
"To do some kind of moral equivalency here: somebody cursing behind a closed door to
somebody advocating political payoffs, that's just plain wrong," Spretnak said.
Character has been strangely low-key in at least one Senate race, however. After being painted
by Democrats for years as being ethically shady, Sen. Alfonse D'Amato's (R-N.Y.) past ethical
difficulties have not been brought up by his opponent, Rep. Charles Schumer (D), although the
two sides have been deeply negative on other issues.
"Somehow the hole in Al D'Amato's integrity seemed bigger in years past," said New York
Democratic consultant Peter Bynum. "I think people are tired of hearing about it. They know
what there is to know about Al D'Amato." |
