Anderson, Nichols continue to duke it out in ads

Mailergate continues.

Campaign advertising remains the dominant issue in the race for the 51st District House of Delegates seat, and now it's GOP challenger Rich Anderson who is upset with a television commercial by his opponent, Del. Paul F. Nichols.

The controversy started Oct. 9, when Anderson sent a campaign mailer to about 15,000 homes in northeastern Prince William County.

The flier announced that Nichols was arrested in 2006 in North Carolina.

The Democrat was on a golf trip to the Outer Banks with friends when one of their cars was pulled over on the suspicion that the driver was drunk.

The driver passed field sobriety tests, though, and wasn't charged.

But Nichols, who was a passenger in a car following behind, jumped out to see what was happening. It was a natural thing for a lawyer to do, his supporters have said.

But then the Lake Ridge lawmaker was arrested on charges including assault of a police officer.

Nichols and his backers claim the legislator was the victim in the incident, not the aggressor. He said the officer threw him to the ground, bloodying his nose.

He also notes that a judge later dismissed all charges.

The resolution of the case notwithstanding, Anderson says voters need to know that Nichols was arrested, and he's sent out another mailer about the incident.

Nichols says the campaign literature is misleading, and he's also upset that both mailers use an image of his arrest record, which includes personal information, including his Social Security number.

He had the entire matter expunged from the public record recently, and it's his belief that Anderson broke the law by disseminating the document after it was expunged.

So the Nichols campaign has been running a TV commercial blasting Anderson, and showing the 30-year Air Force veteran behind cartoonish bars that slam shut to the sound of actual jail doors closing.

Not surprisingly, Anderson didn't like that. His campaign manager, Reece Collins, said this week that the campaign didn't do anything wrong because the arrest information was distributed without anyone knowing the record had been expunged.

"Although my opponent may wish that I was in jail, the fact remains that only one candidate in this race has ever been arrested," Anderson said this week.

But Nichols responded by saying he's looking at the situation not only as a politician but as a general-practice lawyer of 31 years.

The first mailer was one thing, he said this week. But Nichols said he told Anderson face to face that the record had been expunged before the second flier was sent out.

"There's no defense, in my opinion, whatsoever for his actions," Nichols said after a campaign event Wednesday at the River Run Senior Apartments in Woodbridge.

Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert has asked that a special prosecutor look into the matter because he's a fellow Democrat and Nichols supporter.

But the prosecutor handling the case, at the Chesterfield County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office near Richmond, couldn't be reached to comment.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.