Attack Ads Are Good for You!

In praise of negative campaigning

David Mark from the November 2006 issue

(Page 3 of 4)

Similar questions were sure to emerge again during his Senate bid, which Steele made official in fall 2005, a few months after Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes announced he would retire. But Steele caught a lucky break through Democrats' clumsy attempts to dig up damaging information. In July 2005 Lauren B. Weiner, a researcher working for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), illegally obtained a copy of Steele's credit report. The Washington Post reported that "sources familiar with the episode said Steele's credit report was obtained with the use of his Social Security number, which was found on a public court document." Weiner used Steele's Social Security number to obtain his credit report from TransUnion and used DSCC Research Director Katie Barge's DSCC credit card to pay for the report. Weiner pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of computer fraud and agreed to complete 150 hours of community service. Barge resigned.

Steele then went on the offensive, saying public figures deserve some privacy. He publicly warned fellow Republican Senate candidates around the country to beware of credit hackers and threatened a civil suit against the former Democratic operatives. The Democrats' ham-handedness has largely diffused outstanding questions about Steele's finances.

That's unfortunate. Obtaining a credit report under fraudulent auspices is wrong. But voters deserve to have the fullest possible accounting of candidates' financial backgrounds, which can shed light on their financial judgment. Steele was able to play the victim while deflecting important questions related to how he might spend taxpayer dollars.

All of this is not to say that Steele's past business woes and problems paying bills render him unqualified to serve in the Senate. Such a standard would sideline many intelligent, hard-working, well-intentioned people who have weathered money problems. But voters have the right to decide such information's relevance for themselves.

A West Virginia Minefield

At the outset of the current election cycle, the race for West Virginia's 1st Congressional District didn't seem likely to yield much negative campaigning. In fact, it wasn't thought to be much of a campaign at all. The Democratic incumbent, Alan Mollohan, had a name that was political gold. His father, Robert Mollohan, had represented the district in the House from 1953 to 1957 and again from 1969 to 1983, and he had practically bequeathed the safe Democratic seat to his son upon retirement. Since then, Alan Mollohan had repeatedly won by wide margins. Moreover, as a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee, he had proved himself a master at bringing home the bacon for the economically struggling northeastern regions of the Mountain State.

Though he operated behind the scenes for much of his congressional career, Mollohan in 2005 took on a more prominent role as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, popularly known as the Ethics Committee. There he criticized Republican efforts to allow then–House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to stay in his leadership post after being indicted by a Texas grand jury on state campaign finance violation charges. He blocked the Ethics Committee from organizing and beginning its work until the rule change was reversed.

Amid the Jack Abramoff and Duke Cunningham scandals, as Democrats assailed House Republicans for a "culture of corruption," GOP allies sought to neutralize the issue and target a prominent Democrat. Mollohan soon found himself in Republican crosshairs, thanks to allegations that through his Appropriations Committee position he gave millions of dollars in earmarks to groups staffed by his friends and business partners, while his personal wealth soared.

The conservative National Legal and Policy Center filed a 500-page ethics complaint with the U.S. Justice Department in February, accusing Mollohan of misrepresenting his assets on financial disclosure forms. The document noted, among other things, that Mollohan's real estate holdings and other assets jumped in value from $562,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004. The complaint also suggested that the congressman grossly undervalued assets, giving purported valuations which were a small fraction of the assets' true value.

Media outlets began digging into Mollohan's finances. In April The Wall Street Journal reported that Mollohan and Dale R. McBridge, CEO of FMW Composite Systems, jointly purchased a 300-acre farm along West Virginia's Cheat River. Mollohan had directed a $2.1 million government contract to McBridge's company to develop lightweight payload pallets for space shuttle missions.

More revelations about Mollohan's finances soon emerged, including news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into his dealings. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pressured him to step aside from his Ethics Committee post. Republicans saw an opportunity to mount a competitive challenge for Mollohan's seat. State Del. Chris Wakim of Wheeling, previously an underdog with little backing from the national party, became a prominent GOP candidate.

Amid the well-documented allegations of using his public office for private gain, Mollohan refused to concede that any legitimate issues were being raised. Instead he tried to blame the whole episode on negative campaigning by Republican strategists. "It's payback time by Karl Rove," Mollohan told The State Journal. "They know my strength is in appropriations, my credibility is in appropriations. So that is where they are attacking my credibility. [They are] attacking everything that we've done in the region that's good and recasting it as bad."

What Mollohan failed to do was rebut the charges—other than denying generally any wrongdoing—or to concede that potential political corruption is a fair campaign issue. Even putative Democratic allies declared the business deals fair game in campaigning; the none-too-conservative editorial pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post called upon Mollohan to step down from his Ethics Committee post.

West Virginia voters will get their say on Mollohan's political fate come November. Although there has been little polling in the district, Republicans have pledged to pour resources into a race they ordinarily would have written off.

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