Can you believe it?
Now Rep. Richard Morgan & his campaign consultant, Paul Shumaker, are claiming in his campaign literature and on his web site that former First Lady Barbara Bush and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole are supporting.... Richard Morgan!
Here's the Morgan direct-mail advertisement which says
that Barbara Bush agrees that "Richard Morgan is the
Principled Leader We Need in Raleigh."
http://www.richardmorgancampaign.com/documents/PresidentRonaldReaganRichardMorgan.pdf
(or here)
It says:
GOP Leaders Agree -- Richard Morgan is the Principled Leader We Need in Raleigh...
"We are grateful for the strength and the inspiration Richard Morgan has been to George and me. We will always remember how he stood by us with encouragement and resolve."
- Barbara Bush, Former First Lady
I do not believe that Barbara Bush, who I think has been a loyal Republican her whole life, is really supporting Morgan over Peggy Crutchfield! My guess is that Morgan & Shumaker recycled a 10+ year old thank-you note that had nothing to do with his NC House race, and dishonestly tacked on that headline saying that she agrees that he "is the principled leader we need in Raleigh."
What chutzpah! Can you believe that Morgan actually has the gall to call himself "principled" while pulling an unprincipled stunt like that?
Nor did Morgan & Shumaker stop with misusing the name of Barbara Bush. He also compares himself with President Ronald Reagan, and another of Morgan's direct-mail advertisements drops the name North Carolina's most popular Republican, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, claiming that she "agrees" with him. But I know for a fact that Senator Dole has not sided with him in this race.
Morgan's literature doesn't use the word "endorse," but that's the implication. It claims that Elizabeth Dole agrees with him that his Republican critics ("the Raleigh elite") are wrong in their criticism of him and their support for his opponent.
Here's the Morgan direct-mail advertisement, on the Morgan
campaign's web site:
http://www.richardmorgancampaign.com/documents/RaleighElites.pdf
(or here)
It says:
"Republican leaders like Governor Jim Martin and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole agree [Morgan's critics'] efforts to impose Draconian rules on fellow party members serves no one's best interests."
(By "Draconian rules on fellow party members" he apparently means the GOP State Executive Committee's approximately 160-to-6 vote to expel Morgan for betraying the Republican Party by helping the Democrats gerrymander North Carolina to prevent Republicans from being elected, though the old N&O op-ed article that his advertisement cites was written a year earlier.)
I can forgive the bad grammar, but not the lies. If it were true -- if Sen. Dole really did support Richard Morgan and his alliance with the Democrats to block Republican legislation, raise taxes, and gerrymander the State to keep Republicans out of power -- then I would be shocked and terribly disappointed.
But I doubt that it is true. I think Richard Morgan and Paul Shumaker are trying to pull the wool over the voters' eyes.
- Dave Burton
webmaster
7-19-2004
Comments? Questions? Call me at home: 919-481-0098. -Dave