Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Friday, October 19, 2007
By GINNY WRAY - Bulletin Staff Writer
House candidate Adam Tomer is asking incumbent Del. Danny Marshall to disavow what he says is a smear campaign against Tomer’s wife and family.
Marshall responded that he has not orchestrated any such campaign. “It’s public information that’s out there. I’m trying to stay an arms length away from it,” he said.
In a letter sent to Marshall on Thursday and released to the press, Tomer stated, “In recent weeks, there has been a coordinated whisper and smear campaign by your supporters to make issue of a lawsuit filed against my wife, Robin Tomer. (An) owner of the company that has filed the lawsuit is a contributor to your campaign and the suit was filed several days after I announced my candidacy for the 14th House of Delegates district.”
The letter asks Marshall “to join me in the pledge at the end of this letter that you will disavow efforts by your supporters and you will not engage in a smear campaign against my wife and family.”
Tomer, a Danville Democrat, said Thursday afternoon that “key supporters (of Marshall) are calling individuals, conducting a whisper and a smear campaign. I’m asking him to stop.”
He said he has heard of dozens of people who received such calls.
“It’s all right to go after each other’s record, not each other’s families,” Tomer added.
Marshall, R-Danville, said he has “not orchestrated any smear campaign or whisper campaign. I know people are talking about it because when I go to business groups or different places, there is not one that someone doesn’t ask me about it.” Sometimes, he added, those people are Tomer supporters.
Marshall said some time ago a friend sent him a letter that was mailed by Romar MedEquip to all its customers, saying its records allegedly had been e-mailed from Romar to another e-mail account. Romar was notifying customers that information such as Social Security numbers was included in those records.
About a month later he said he was told about a Web site which stated that Romar had filed a civil lawsuit against Robin Tomer in Danville, Marshall said.
“I don’t know anyone at Romar,” Marshall said. He did receive a campaign contribution in late September from someone with the company, but he said it was unsolicited.
“I have not tried to undermine his wife one bit. I think it’s extremely ironical that after he throws all this mud and fabricates issues, now he goes to the high road. When did he get religion?” Marshall asked.
He said people are talking about the suit because it is public information on the Internet and because Romar sent more than 500 letters to clients about the e-mailed records.
Marshall said he will not authorize a mailer on the subject, and he will not sign a pledge unless Tomer does the same.
“The only way I will sign it is if he signs a pledge to only talk about the truth, not to come up with things such as the Social Security ad and other half-truths or no truths at all. If he wants to take the high road, let him sign” a pledge to that effect, Marshall said.
He complained that Tomer has said Marshall wants to cut Social Security payments and voted for a pay raise for himself. In fact, Social Security is a federal matter which state legislators have nothing to do with, and the state legislators have not hiked their pay, although they did increase their per diem allowance from $125 a day to $130, said House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Fredericksburg. In 2004, legislators cut their pay, he added.
“It is a pattern; it is not only Tomer,” said Howell, who accompanied Marshall while campaigning in Martinsville on Thursday. “They are sending brochures out on complete fabrication.”
He added that he understands all Democratic mailings are approved by the House minority leader, Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Collinsville.
Howell said the mailings contain “fabrications” because the Democratic leadership has no new ideas.
“I would defy you to tell me two innovative ideas they have come up with in the last 10 years,” while Republicans have brought forward proposals on health care, increasing spending for education and a pilot program on capping university tuition increases, the environment and other areas.
“If you don’t have ideas, then you attack. It’s one thing for Danny (Marshall) and his opponent to disagree on abusive driver fees. It’s quite another to fabricate an issue that’s not there, like Social Security and the pay raise,” Howell said. |
| |
|
|
