Blog: Upper Prov Election Turns Nasty and Unprofessional

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The election environment in Upper Providence Township took an unusually negative turn this past week.  

There were rude and juvenile comments in a neighboring blog, more mudslinging by citizens and candidates, and now an anonymous nasty robocall is making its way through the voter's ranks. A few weeks back, I figured the only controversy (or waste of your franchise rights depending on your point of view) was going to be the incumbent Supervisor's long rumored write-in campaign. 

During the pre-campaign debate, Lisa Mossie called George Faris out, figuratively of course, for the very negative tone of his mailers slamming her as a "Tea Party Radical," among other things. Although both candidates seemed to agree that national politics has little to do with Township business, George said he stands by his mailers and the words in them.  

None the less, I was a little surprised to get another of George's hit pieces in the mail a few days later. Big letters in red, more inciting labels and a theme obviously designed to create fear in the reader's mind ... or perhaps just to energize the Democrat base. I think I lost it when he accused Lisa of being a radio talk show host. That's pretty serious stuff, folks, darn near fighting words!  

Personally, none of the negative ads motivate me at all, except in a way the author probably doesn't intend. The more negative the ad, the less I'm willing to support the candidate. The irony of George's attack mailer was that it said on the back that "The Board of Supervisors is no place for national politics," the point both seemed to agree on at the debate. I guess there are exceptions for civility, consistency and integrity during elections.

To be fair, I was also disappointed when local Republicans countered with a negative mailer about George's lack of community involvement, and I told them so.

At the debate, George explained his perspective on community commitment. It was not different from Lisa's, he just hasn't been her as long as she has. Otherwise, they both claim passion and commitment for the job.

To get in the gutter with your opponent only puts you in their gutter with them, it doesn't differentiate you.

What really irritates me, though, is the robocall that landed in my voice mail today. Unless the first few seconds got dropped, the caller is anonymous, a woman's voice, who starts slamming Lisa again for her "radical views" and on and on and on. There's no attribution so I don't know if George stands by this method and message, too. A little checking finds this guidance from the FCC:

The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) regulates automated calls. While political calls are exempt from FTC regulations, all calls, irrespective of whether they are political in nature, must do two things to be considered legal. The federal law requires all telephone calls using pre-recorded messages to identify who is initiating the calls and include a telephone number or address whereby the initiator can be reached. The TCPA prohibits all prerecorded calls to cell phones, except those made with express consent or emergency purposes. (I added the emphasis in bold)

If that's the law of the land, the call is illegal, don't you think? If so, and if George didn't do it, he should be figuring out who did, tell them to knock it off, make a clear public statement disavowing it, and hold them accountable. If he authorized it, then I'm going to hold him accountable for it and start a letter, email and call campaign to the FCC and the state Attorney General. I hope the local Republicans don't pull any of this crap because if they do, I'll go after them, too.

Click on the embedded video to hear the message. It came through a commercial VOIP service, Starnet, owned by PAETEC, and won't be hard to track down. 

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