Fliers are indeed political 'junk mail'

With the Postal Service losing bil­lions of dollars, I guess they are happy for the campaign season with the steady stream of junk mail payments from political campaigns looking to influ­ence voters with pithy but questionable fliers. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it. When fliers selectively quote from news articles to smear the character of candidates with unsupported charges, it harms our politi­cal process.

Babur Lateef is the Demo­crat candidate for the chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors. As far as I can tell he a good eye doc­tor, a businessman who em­ploys people in our county and contributes positively to our community. I think he would be a bad chairperson; his platform consists of ideas that would hurt our county, and things that a county chair has no control over. But I hate to see a man’s reputa­tion smeared without facts.

A disclaimer — I once made a small donation to the Corey Stewart campaign, and I intend to vote for Stewart to remain chair of the supervi­sors. Under Corey’s steward­ship, the county has suc­cessfully weathered difficult economic times. He has been instrumental in curbing ex­cessive growth and protect­ing our natural resources. He has kept our property taxes low and our finances sound, while still providing neces­sary government services. He struck an excellent balance on the county’s illegal im­migrant problem.

The board’s ability to rein in spending meant they had (our) money to help the re­cent flood victims, while also replenishing the county’s transportation fund and maintaining the rainy-day fund. We have kept our AAA bond rating while the fed­eral government lost theirs.

Resident surveys show great satisfaction with the county.

Our unemployment rate is among the best in Virginia, almost 4 points below the na­tional average. We are in the top 10 wealthiest counties in America. Under Stewart’s leadership, the county has attracted major business development. CNN recently ranked Prince William 13th in the nation for job growth.

With Corey Stewart’s ac­complishments as chairman, there is no reason to consider a change in leadership. You could fill a half-dozen flierswith accomplishments and accolades, without every mentioning his two oppo­nents, Lateef and indepen­dent John Gray. But negative fliers are apparently easier.

I’ve received fliers like this from both political parties.

This year, I have chosen to write about one from the 11th congressional district Republican Committee. This flier says Babur Lateef “lost” his 1.2 million dollar home to a foreclosure — but it was bought for half-price by his sister-in-law, who now rents it to Lateef. He and his wife are both successful doctors, and he owns business and rental property.

These are all facts, and since Lateef has made fore­closure issues a subject of his campaign, it is not unrea­sonable to point them out.

The flier calls this a scandal, since the losers here were the banks that loaned him the money.

But the flier then gets into questionable territory.

You know it is “question­able,” because the flier has question marks scattered all over it. The flier “asks” if PWC Attorney Paul Ebert is investigating Lateef for bank fraud. This rumor comes from the Internet blog “VirginiaVirtucon.” Because Paul Ebert (a Democrat) regularly launches frivo­lous investigations during political campaigns against Republican candidates (only to have them dropped when the elections are over), the question isn’t a bad one. But Ebert has provided no evi­dence of any investigation.

The flier selectively quotes two “news” sources to imply an investigation has been announced. A quote from this newspaper says the blog asked Ebert to confirmthe report, but the flier highlights the charge itself, not the en­tire question. Then the flier quotes from the “Potomac Local” highlighting the words “Dr. Babur Lateef, is being investigated” — but this was just a repeat of the rumor from VirginiaVirtucon, which has not revealed any source for the charge.

The flier concludes with an excerpt from the “LakeRidge-Occoquan Patch,” quoting John Gray saying the foreclo­sure was “not very ethical.”

The flier highlights Gray as a 30-year CPA (giving him an air of authority), but doesn’t mention that Gray is Lateef’s opponent, making his opin­ion biased.

So in the end, there is a kernel of truth, an Internet­based blog rumor presented as fact, and quotes from an opposition candidate. All of which serves to attack the character of a guy who, for all I know, is a good man, a fine doctor, and someone who just wanted to make a differ­ence by running for office.

Charles Reichley