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GOP Fliers Apparently Were Part Of Strategy
Republicans bused in workers to pass out "Democratic Sample Ballots," which included Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Michael S. Steele.
(Associated Press)
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"They said we'd be passing out fliers and talking to some people," Preston said. The workers were not told, he said, that they would be helping Republicans.
Several of those who agreed to go said they considered it a chance to make some much-needed money.
"I did this because I need a winter coat," said Mike Ducannon, 25. "I didn't have anything else to do and nobody else was offering me $100."
The next morning, they gathered at North Broad and West Oxford streets in north Philadelphia. The buses pulled out at 5 a.m.
Recollections of 2002
This wasn't the first time Ehrlich and Steele had recruited poll workers this way. In 2002 -- when Ehrlich was campaigning to become Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation and Steele was his choice for lieutenant governor -- they bused in homeless people from the District to hand out literature at Prince George's precincts.
Three people were charged under a state statute that prohibited campaign workers from hiring people to work on Election Day. The statute was overturned in 2003, however, after attorneys argued that the law was an infringement on free speech, and the charges were dropped.
It also was not the first time Ehrlich and Steele had used fliers that some considered deceptive. U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D) still recalls arriving at a polling place in his Baltimore district during the 2002 governor's race and being handed a glossy flier.
"They handed me this big, beautiful piece of literature. It was better than any of the literature I have ever produced," Cummings recalled. "I said, 'Boy this is a wonderful photo.' There's my pastor, and [then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary] Mel Martinez, and [former Baltimore delegate] Tony Fulton and myself. Then I saw Ehrlich in the picture, and I saw the words and I said, 'Uh oh.' "
The words read, "Democrats for Ehrlich." Cummings was livid. He had been one of the most vocal supporters of Ehrlich's opponent, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D). He immediately went on talk radio to denounce it, recorded a message to voters and went on television.
But the incident was largely ignored, washed away by the bigger news that day: Ehrlich had won the election.
As governor, Ehrlich worked hard to foster a good-guy image -- starring in tourism ads in which he turned up unexpectedly at peoples' homes, offering to clip hedges and cut grass so they could vacation -- that masked accusations of bare-knuckle campaigning.
Asked midway through his term to address critics' accusations of dirty tricks, he brushed off the question, saying, "That's just silly stuff."
