I just received Cheryl Baswell Guthrie’s mailer attacking Wayne Parker and she didn’t just break the 11th Commandment - she tore it to shreds and danced all over it.

Guthrie’s Misleading Advertisement

Here’s a copy of her mailer. I’ll describe the document and discuss the veracity of its claims.

The front has four clips from news articles, three of which are about Jack Abramoff. The fourth is an article from 1997 about Parker’s lobbying efforts. In the snippet of the article that is included Parker states that he was “real careful” to avoid the appearance that he was using his powerful father-in-law, who chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, to further his lobbying efforts. The mailer states, “Washington D.C. Already Has Too Many Lobbyists!” in big red letters.

The flip side finishes by stating, “… Let’s Not Send Another One.” It then lists three bullet points.

The first says that he “took advantage of his father-in-law’s position” and “sold his family ties to the highest bidder.” As proof it references the aforementioned article that was printed on the front of the mailer. Maybe the full article says something else, but the portion shown in the mailer says the exact opposite of Guthrie’s claim. She used the article to claim he leveraged his father-in-law’s position, while the article states that he took care to avoid doing that. So, it’s a bogus claim.

The second bullet alleges that Parker’s lobbying efforts directed “much needed federal dollars away from North Alabama” and put “jobs and businesses here at risk.” As proof it cites a federal lobbying website (actually they type the wrong address, misspelling the URL). The problem with this claim is that all the forms that are found when searching for Wayne Parker simply list his clients, but provide no insight into what specifically he was lobbying for or - more importantly - how successful he was. So, with this as her sole source there is no way whatsoever that she could ascertain if any federal dollars were directed away from North Alabama, or jobs put at risk, etc. So, we have another bogus claim.

The third bullet point may have more validity, but may be based solely on a technicality. She says Parker claimed to have stop lobbying after 1998 during the recent WHNT candidate forum (see below), but that federal reports say otherwise. Parker’s lobbying firm, Churchill Group filed semi-annual reports from 1999 until it terminated in March of 2002. (The database only goes back to 1999) However, all the reports state that the firm received “less than $10,000″ from each of the two clients. This could indicate that Parker wasn’t actively lobbying, but maintained the accounts and his registration as a lobbyist and that he was simply filing the compulsory paperwork. It could also indicate that he performed some minimal lobbying efforts. Honestly, if his firm’s income for a six month period never exceeded $10k then he probably was doing little to no lobbying. So, this could be a mildly substantive accusation or another bogus claim.

The mailer also includes a photoshopped picture of Parker with two faces, with the caption, “THE 2 FACES OF WAYNE PARKER: Whose interest would he represent? Yours, or someone outside Alabama…” Very classy - and misleading.

The WHNT Forum: Parker Acknowledges His Lobbying Efforts

As for the WHNT forum, I re-watched the pertinent portion of the broadcast, which was the segment where the candidates ask each other questions. Guthrie asked Parker a question early in the segment that in hindsight makes me suspect that this negative attack was in her plans at that point.

Guthrie asks Parker, “What would you do to make government more transparent and limit the influence of lobbyists and special interest groups?”

Parker responded by talking about a recent meeting he had in D.C. regarding North Alabama issues. While there he met with lobbyists representing local aerospace corporations. His point was that some lobbyists represent “good things” including local interests.

In her rebuttal Guthrie smugly quipped “Just, I believe that absolutely any type of interest groups or lobbyists need to have absolute public disclosure to our community when serving congress we need to know what interests they are supporting.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but she had a smirk on her face that makes me think she was having trouble withholding her glee about how she was setting up this attack.

Later in the segment Angelo Mancuso asked Parker, “Since 1996, after you lost the last election to Bud Cramer what have you been doing to prepare for this Congressional seat?”

Parker responded, “Well, for a year and a half or so after the ‘96 election I went back and forth to Washington D.C. and I worked on a few things. I was actually a lobbyist. I lobbied for the removal of the death tax for the American Family Business Institute. I lobbied for ESOP provisions related to Sub S corporations that would allow employees to own stock in their companies. And then furthermore I lobbied so that individuals could choose their doctors without insurance companies taking that option away from them. Since 1998 I’ve been a commercial insurance agent, broker, helping companies all across North Alabama write their work comp, their general liability insurance making sure that they’re safe if they were hit with a disaster or storm or one of their employees were hurt.”

Parker volunteered the fact that he was a lobbyist and listed what he lobbied for. He did say, though, that he only lobbied until 1998. I’ve contacted his campaign to get clarification on this point. Ignoring for now the specific timeline of when Parker was actively lobbying in D.C., as I argued earlier, very few Republicans would even object to the things that Parker was lobbying for.

Guthrie and MadCo GOP Chairman Trade Barbs

Shortly after Guthrie went negative against Parker John Noel, chairman of the Madison County Republican Party, issued a press release condemning her “false and misleading advertisements.” Noel’s strongly worded PR claimed that all five other Republicans running for the nomination joined him in making the demand that she suspend the ads. However, I’ve heard from Ray McKee’s campaign that he did not join Noel in the press conference and that they “take offense that [his] name was used” in the press release. Further muddying the waters, Guthrie is fighting back against Noel by saying that his daughter is working for Parker’s campaign. While Parker’s campaign has no salaried workers, his FEC filings do show that an expenditure for air travel for a Tiffany Noel of Arlington, VA. I’m also waiting for Parker’s campaign to return my call to clarify this point. (See below for update)

Guthrie has also accused John Noel (and his daughter) of actively working for Parker’s campaign. I’m not sure if there are any restrictions on party officials supporting candidates during primaries - I know that the officials I’ve spoken with refuse to take sides during primaries. If such restrictions exist, then did Noel overstep his bounds as a county chairman?

I did speak with Noel early in the campaign, asking him who he thought would win the nomination. He diplomatically replied, “The one with the most votes.” Further questions of increasing specificity yielded no responses that could be interpreted as favoring any one candidate. Noel did support Parker in his earlier efforts to win the 5th District seat. He gave Parker a total of $750 in 1995 and 1996, but he has not contributed to him during this race.

Guthrie’s Attack Dog

Guthrie has hired Tyler Harber of Wilson Research Strategies as a spokesman for her campaign and has retained the services of WRS for “consulting and research” since 16 April. Some research into Harber’s background reveals numerous allegations of wrongdoing and taking liberties with the facts. Harber worked for Knox County in Tennessee until being forced to resign in 2005. Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale’s chief of staff Mike Arms released a pretty concise statement to show that Tyler Harber is a known liar [wording taken directly from knoxnews.com]. In addition to a list of alleged lies it also quotes a law enforcement officer as saying “it’s obvious that he’s been proved a liar several times in this investigation.”

There is also a letter from a former candidate in Knox County, Billy Stokes, who previously used Harber’s services. Stokes wrote that, “By the middle of 2004, [Harber's] ego had grown disproportionately with relation to his ability to produce. His wheels seemed to come off.” He also claims that Harber “lied” to him “repeatedly.”

Some allegations against Harber go beyond mere lying - including theft of both documents from political opponents and personal emails from a local Republican party leader.

If you have some time to kill there is also this 408 page document aptly titled “Tyler Harber Investigation” by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

And there is also this email - purportedly sent from Harber’s previous boss at Public Opinion Strategies - in which Harber is cited for greatly stretching the truth with regard to his claims about his political work.

Did any of the allegations against Harber make it to the criminal level? I didn’t see any indication of that. It seems like there was an awful lot of bickering amongst the officials in Knox County about the investigation. But there is a hell of a lot of smoke surrounding Mr. Harber.

Guthrie and Integrity

I have personally been very disappointed with Guthrie and her campaign. There was a time during this primary season when I contemplated casting my vote for her. I can assure you that time has passed.

Frequent themes of Guthrie’s campaign - words the candidate has uttered herself - include honesty and integrity. Unfortunately those are two characteristics that have been sorely lacking in her campaign.

It all started with her inflated claims about her fundraising. She issued press releases proclaiming “fundraising” of $100k and then $200k. The obvious intent was to tell voters that she had substantial support and was a viable candidate. That impression was decimated when her FEC pre-primary filing was released showing contributions from individuals totaling just over $60k, although she gave about a quater million dollars from her own pocket. Realizing her press releases did not mesh with reality, she pulled them from her campaign website. Her subsequent attempts to explain the misleading press releases have been absolutely absurd. She claims that the pres releases represented commitments. But those commitments are not reflected in her FEC filings. There is no way to prove she was telling the truth. Furthermore, I would assert that virtually any viable Republican who secured the GOP nomination for an open congressional seat in a district that Bush won would have no problem securing well over $200k in commitments for contributions in the general election - so even if her commitment claim is accurate (which I seriously doubt) it is still meaningless.

The press releases don’t just illustrate a lack of candor - they demonstrate a willful attempt to deceive.  Maybe a lawyer would parse the words in her press releases and ascertain that she did not explicitly lie.  However, any reasonable person who read her statements would walk away thinking that she was raising money from individuals other than herself.  That is hardly something that a person who cherishes honesty and integrity would do.

I could accept her decision to attack Wayne Parker with factually based negative ads, but what she has released are so factually deficient that one has to wonder how poorly she must be faring in her own polls to make such a desperate move.

Despite her frequent proclamations to be a moral, Christian leader I have come to realize that Cheryl Baswell Guthrie lacks the integrity to earn my vote to represent the 5th District. I can only hope that her sad campaign strategy stems from bad advice from unscrupulous consultants, but ultimately the candidate has to do the right thing.

Republicans can only hope that her efforts to buy the GOP nomination are unsuccessful. It would be most unfortunate to see her lose to Parker Griffith again in a blowout.

Update (6/2/08):  From the Parker campaign:

John Noel is not working on our campaign, however he has given us $250.00. His daughter, Tiffany, is a volunteer on our campaign. She has helped us out on the weekends. She lives in Washington, but comes home quite frequently and when she is home, she helps us.

The Noel contribution must have come recently because it still does not show up on any of Parker’s FEC reports.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 10:58 pm and is filed under AL-05 Congressional Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.