My letter to the editor concerning yesterday's editorial was published in the Aiken Standard today. Thanks to Jeff Wallace for his timely action.
"Who was hurt by election calls?"
"With reference to the editorial concerning election law violations I agree completely that "it is time that laws dealing with election mischief are dealt with as felonies." However, I most emphatically disagree with your statement that the "intended result of the election-eve deception was not realized." Except for Ginny Allen and her-up- till-now undisclosed co-conspirators none of us can know for sure what the intended result was. It should be quite clear to the objective observer that the only person hurt by this reprehensible ploy was Scott Singer. Certainly there was no chance it would in any way affect the outcome of the Whinghter-Ryberg race since the polls showed Ryberg with more than 70 percent of the voters backing him. Ginny Allen, as an astute political operative, certainly knew that a last-minute attempt to hurt Senator Ryberg would be a waste of time and money.
The facts are that Senator Ryberg, upon learning about the fraudulent calls, immediately issued an angry statement denying any responsibility for them and denied supporting any candidate. Senator Ryberg also requested SLED to investigate. As a consequence of this angry statement many voters may have assumed that Scott Singer had sponsored the calls. To correct this misapprehension Senator Ryberg issued another statement on June 12, wherein he "declared his belief that the other candidate for office mentioned in the illegal call, County Councilman Scott Singer, was not involved in the phone call." For some reason this statement was never published in the Aiken Standard. Meanwhile critics used this spurious charge to cut into Singer's well deserved good reputation and high favorability ratings.
I for one am glad SLED has investigated and is continuing to investigate this matter. Let us wait until all the facts are in before we rush to judgment as to the effectiveness of the calls."
I'm glad your letter was published so promptly, Dick. It is apparent to most observers, I think, that Ginny made these robo calls in order to hurt Scott Singer. Given the seriousness of what she's done, I do hope the punishment is severe.
ReplyDeleteI think you are giving Ms. Allen enormous credit for political savvy and strategy. After all, she was working for Sen. Ryberg's opponent. These calls were made at the very last minute on election eve. The call advised voters that they had the opportunity to send Scott Singer to the Legislature to vote in line with a popular inccumbent, virtually sure to be reelected, Senator Ryberg. Although rebuttal robo calls were sent out by Senator Ryberg and Mr. Singer, I know people who received the initial call but not the subsequent rebuttal calls. There may have been some damage done to Scott Singer, but I suspect equal harm was done to Tom Young. And who knows how many people decided not to vote for anyone because of the annoying phone calls!ause
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