The National Education Association (yes, that NEA) has decided that most of the reaction against the Northam LVF ad are bots — not real Virginians.
Northam Couldn’t Condemn LVF Ad (Because He Was Behind It)
Breaking news from FOX 5 in Washington about why embattled Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam could not bring himself to condemn the vile Latino Victory Fund hate ads against Republican Ed Gillespie.
According to documents aggregated by Phil Kerpen and published on Medium, it appears as if Northam is not only deeply connected to LVFPAC, but co-ordinated the advertisements to the tune of over $69,000.
“That commercial did not come from our campaign, and it’s certainly not a commercial that I would have wanted to run,” Northam said.
. . .
Virginia campaign law is very different from federal law. In federal races, outside groups conduct independent expenditures and are strictly prohibited from coordinating with official campaigns. In Virginia, independent expenditures are allowed — but so are communications that are directly coordinated with the campaign.
This did not go unnoticed by Republicans on Twitter who were very quick to point out the discrepancy.
Everything they have done in this race including the murder-truck ad was coordinated with the Northam campaign and disclosed by the Northam campaign.
Why would a campaign allow coordinated communications to go out without reviewing their content? The only reason I can think of is to preserve willful ignorance.
An all-too-clever coincidence, given that the Northam campaign itself had been echoing some of the very same themes of the LVF ad just last week in a nasty ad depicting both Trump and Gillespie alongside the Citronella Nazis who marched in Charlottesville:
The Democratic Party of Virginia did not limit this imagery to Gillespie, either. Republican Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William) found himself the target of similar LVF-themed — but mystically, never co-ordinated — ads actually claiming Lingamfelter was “running over Virginia families.”
The obverse side of the DPVA-approved advertisement even had the audacity to put Lingamfelter behind the wheel of a car in an mail slick, ill-advised since it arrived as news of the Manhattan car attack was breaking on CNN.
Compounded by Delegate Barbara Favola’s remarks calling Republicans “evil” before a throng of Northern Virginia Democrats, and it is clear that as a last-ditch campaign saving maneuver, Northam and his handlers chose to throw caution (and reason) to the wind.
Meanwhile, the McAuliffe-led Virginia Department of Elections has not issued a statement regarding whether or not it intends to follow up on what is now becoming yet another narrative-stealing scandal for an ill-led and sophomoric Northam campaign.
Latino Victory Fund Unleashes Another Hate Ad
Just days after the Latino Victory Fund let loose with a hate ad that depicted Ed Gillespie running down brown children in a Confederate flag waving pickup truck, LVFPAC is once again lashing out with another effort to depict Gillespie and Trump alongside Nazi and Confederate flags.
News of this comes as embattled Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam flip-flopped on sanctuary cities, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
[I]n an interview Wednesday with the Norfolk TV station WAVY, Northam said for the first time that, under certain circumstances, he would sign a bill similar to the one he voted against this year, a vote that spawned a wave of ominous ads from the Gillespie campaign linking Northam to the Latino gang MS-13.
“If that bill comes to by desk … I sure will. I’ve always been opposed to sanctuary cities. He knows that,” Northam said of Gillespie, whose MS-13-themed ads have been blasted by critics as racially tinged.
In short, he would have signed the bill that he voted against earlier this year.
The kicker of course is that Northam’s motivations to vote the way he did have gone woefully under reported in the media. One should take Northam at his word that he opposes sanctuary cities, but his motives for voting against the measure were entirely rooted in political opportunism, as Democratic challenger Tom Perriello was breathing down his neck and would have turned it into a campaign issue within an already divided progressive base.
With Soros-backed LVF PAC refusing to back down from its rhetoric (even after the Manhattan terrorist attacks), one really has to wonder how bad Northam’s internal polling has to be at this rate.
UPDATE: Added bonus? The LVF ad omitted the Eastern Shore. You know… where Northam comes from?
Democrats seem to have a real problem with omissions and deletions these days.
WaPo: Racist LVF Northam Ad Backfires In Private Memo
No word on whether or not Northam will either repudiate the ad or return the $16,000 in donations his campaign received from LVF PAC.
WaPo Poll Numbers Crater For Northam As Blowback From Racist Ad Continues
This comes after VPAP reports that both Northam and Gillespie are tied for cash-on-hand in the closing week of the November campaign.
George Soros Pours Hate Into Virginia Politics
Embattled Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam is coming under heavy criticism thanks to a Soros-backed outsider group that is borrowing his imagery and labeling Republican Ed Gillespie as a racist.
The outside group — Latino Victory Fund PAC — donated $16,000 to Northam’s campaign after a fundraiser earlier this year.
The Latino Victory Fund PAC is run by a firm by the name of Perkins Cole, according to FEC sources.
If the name sounds familiar, it is because Perkins Cole has come under recent scrutiny this week for being the law firm who hired Fusion GPS to compile the Trump dossier:
Elias hired the company, Fusion GPS, to assist in the law firm’s representation of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, report the New York Times and the Washington Post, which was first with the story. The Clinton campaign and the DNC helped pay for the opposition research, the stories report.
The law firm’s involvement became public in a letter filed in court that was written by Perkins Coie managing partner Matthew Gehringer. The letter said Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS in April 2016. Before that, Fusion GPS had been conducting research for one or more clients during the Republican primary.
Needless to say, the Latino Victory Fund PAC has some dubious ties of its own to outside money — 99% of which comes from non-Virginian sources.
Sources speaking on background with TRS are stating that Northam’s internals took a plunge for the worse over the last few weeks, signalling an intent by Northam handlers that the campaign needed to “let it all go” and throw the punches hard, high, and to the right.
Calls for Northam to refund the $16,000 have thus far gone unheeded.
UPDATE: Justin Higgins has had enough.
Remso Republic Podcast: Delegate Tim Hugo Discusses Policy vs Rhetoric
This current election in Virginia may seem boring compared to 2016, but that isn’t stopping …
Bluefield Daily Telegraph Endorses Ed Gillespie
Strong endorsement from the coalfields as the Bluefield Daily Telegraph endorses Republican Ed Gillespie over …
Northam Politicizes Charlottesville In Desperate Last Minute Gamble
These are the tactics one might expect from Steve Bannon. Not from those who claim to honor the Virginia Way.
Northam’s Restoration of Rights To Violent Felons Had One Major Problem…
“I’ve worked very closely with Governor McAuliffe. It’s one of our greatest feats.”
— Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam
Re: McAuliffe’s automatic restoration of rights for felons
IBEW Virginia Governor’s Debate, 25 May 2017
You will want to sit down for this one.
I consider myself a rather jaded observer of Virginia politics. Rarely if ever have I winced at an ad that actually struck me as an “oh my God” moment.
Obviously, Gillespie could have narrowed this down to a 30 second hit piece. Instead, Gillespie did something truly rare (and monetarily expensive) in Virginia politics, taking a full minute of valuable air time to explain the McAuliffe-Northam “restoration of rights” policy — and who fell through the cracks.
The results are shocking. Rarely have I been so moved by an advertisement; rarely after I dug into the facts surrounding the case have I been more angered.
When the policy was first instituted, McAuliffe decided that an independent review of each felon was too slow a process. So rather than auditing each felon and restoring rights on the basis of merit, McAuliffe decided upon a policy of mass release — doing by autopen what a Virginia governor ought to do by consultation and careful advisement.
Who slipped through the cracks?
Meet John Bowen, a sex offender who had his voting rights restored by McAuliffe and Northam just two months after he was convicted for 15 years in prison for possessing one of the largest child pornography collections in Virginia history — literally 1.7 million instances.
Forty three prosecutors begged Ralph Northam and Terry McAuliffe to reverse this policy according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. In the article itself, prosecutors from both sides of the aisle begged McAuliffe to reconsider and implement a more stringent and considerate process. The response?
“The administration of doing the right thing can be difficult at times, but that should be no excuse for marginalizing hundreds of thousands of Virginians,” Coy said.
Do you want John Bowen serving on a jury? Neither do I.
The problem is that Bowen is not an isolated case. There are dozens of Bowens who have had their rights restored, all of whom now have the ability to vote, sit on jury trials, possess firearms, and participate in the very same society they victimized.
Gillespie’s approach is no effort to demonize felons, which is the remarkable part of this advertisement. Again, Gillespie could very well have simply run the first half of this ad and hammered McAuliffe and Northam for their risky and rushed policies.
Instead, Gillespie took a very different tack — rather than victimize the group, Gillespie merely insists that there is a right way and a wrong way to process the restoration of rights for convicted felons. The vast majority? No problem… but for people like John Bowen?
That troubles me greatly.