Time to throw out the first attack mailer of the season

So we got a weird little piece of mail Saturday. Addressed to both of us, in a plain envelope with no return address was a one-page letter that attacked Carl Whitmarsh, best know for his prodigious Democratic email list, and consultant Marc Campos. Using questionable grammar and a lot of underlining, it basically accused Carl and Marc of being in cahoots, specifically that Marc bankrolls Carl's email operations, while Carl plugs Marc's clients to his list. I don't have a scanner, so I can't show you the letter just yet, but I can tell you it contained the following closing, reprinted exactly as it appears:

Paid political news brought to you by Don Carpenter & M. Rodriguez - Owners Investigations Inc. Houston, Texas -- Marc & Carl your gig is up, the truth is out now.

If this really was a paid piece, I have a feeling it didn't exactly fulfill state disclosure requirements, but never mind that for now. It was also as plain as can be - nothing but black type, all one font, on ordinary white paper. Printing an email looks fancier than this. If someone was paid to produce this, he or she didn't waste any effort on production values, that's for sure. Whatever the case, the letter promises more to come, for which I can hardly wait. Crankery is usually entertaining, and that's what this looks like. I seriously doubt they can back up their claims.

I don't know who these guys are - Google searches on "Investigations Inc Houston" and on "Don Carpenter investigations Houston" yielded nothing useful - and I don't know what their beef is or what interest they may have in the District H race. I assume this has something to do with that since the one clue as to their motivation comes from the following paragraph, again reprinted exactly as it appears:

Marc bashes good Democrats (via Carl's list) like Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee & Senator Mario Gallegos just to name a couple of recent ones via Carl's list. Why? Marc did this cause the Senator kicked Marc's & Carl's client Yolanda's arse before. They want a client candidate to run at Sheila & Mario in order for them to make some $.

You know about the Jackson Lee kerfuffle. The other reference is to this Daily Commentary entry from March 12.

The proponents of bi-annual Lone Star State legislative sessions usually don't have to go far for ammo. Check out what an astute legislative observer sent Commentary yesterday:

"Wanted you to know, because someone may ask, Mario (Gallegos) filed legislation (SB 1895) today that would require any member of HISD or HCC board to resign if they were to become a candidate for a municipal, state or federal office.

He did it last session, and it's clearly a personal attack bill, but of course it's not going anywhere. Just a heads up should someone get a hold of it."

This bill is clearly aimed at HCC Trustee Yolanda Navarro Flores who is running in the H-Town City Council District H Special Election that is scheduled for May 9. I don't know why anyone up in the legislature would want to weigh in on a local council race. This isn't exactly a major public policy crisis that needs addressing. If Gallegos was to ever have a hearing on the bill, I sure would love to see the witness list and their talking points. There are quite a few of Gallegos' constituents that are supporting Yolanda. I wonder what they think. All this bill does is energize Yolanda's family, friends, and supporters. It sounds like Gallegos has a case of the insecurities if you ask me. Commentary would have a little respect for this if Gallegos had included H-Town city officials. Of course, that would have meant calling out the Mayor. This is clearly one of the silliest bills of this session.

He doesn't mention it here (though I believe he has done so in previous Commentaries), but Campos is Yolanda Navarro Flores' campaign consultant for the District H race. That entry drew a long response, which Carl duly forwarded to his list, from Lillian Villarreal, who is Sen. Gallegos' sister and who said Campos took advantage of the fact that Carl forwards his commentaries to distribute a "political piece" that touted his paid client. Campos responded to that here.

Anyway. I can only presume this has something to do with that. Assuming there is a coherent motive behind all that, that is - as I said, this looks like the work of a crank who is just trying to stir up trouble. Whether there will be more than this, or whether the identity and motivations of the senders comes out, I don't know either. Heck, I don't even know how widespread this was - the last time there was this kind of mail related to a District H race, back in the 2003 election, other people who'd gotten the mail emailed me to inquire about it. So far, I've heard from one other recipient, so at least I know they didn't just send it to me. I'll try to find a scanner this week so I can post the whole thing for your perusal. In the meantime, if anyone else got this, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

One last thing: The reason I'm blogging about this is that I dislike anonymous attack pieces, and I think it's best to shine light on them. This one had names attached to it, but so far those names don't tell me anything, so it may as well have been anonymous. I also don't care for the way this piece went about making its charges but merely teasing about proof. If you're going to accuse someone of something, show me the evidence. Don't just claim you've got it then say you'll get back to me. Put up or shut up, and give the people you're accusing a chance to respond. In the meantime, I say it's the senders who look bad. If and when I get more on this, I'll let you know and we'll go from there.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 23, 2009 to Election 2009