In a year that has seen about ten thousand mailing pieces (between the statewides, House of Delegate races, the special election for Fairfax County BoS Chairman and the Republican primary in S-37, I think I’ve gotten literally over a hundred mailers) I’ve seen plenty of good ones and plenty of bad ones. But none of them were as bad as the one I got yesterday from Dave Marsden. (Here’s a bigger version of the back.)
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The piece is obviously ripping off the latest world-ending blockbuster 2012 (as can be seen from the front of it.) According to Dave Marsden, the entire Commonwealth of Virginia is going to be consumed by the earth in fire and brimstone if Steve Hunt wins Ken Cuccinelli’s old seat. The piece then goes on to specify just what manner of destruction we are going to see in a Republican controlled Virginia.
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Our world class schools will be “devastated.” One of the biggest claims the Democrats love to throw around is that education suffers under Republicans. That’s really one of the dumbest lines and completely untrue. Funding for schools never declines in real terms, regardless of who is in control. And with No Child Left Behind, you saw the first education reform in decades and it was done in bipartisan fashion. Yet if Virginia Republicans (including Steve Hunt – who has served on the FCPS School Board, no less, unlike Marsden) get in control, the world goes to hell in a hand basket. Why? The mailer doesn’t expand upon this, which makes sense because they can’t. It’s a ridiculously empty accusation.
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Next, “our once-thriving small business economy: gone.” Once-thriving? Is it not thriving now? I know my small business is chugging along just fine right now although I know others aren’t doing as well. But unemployment across the state is still way below the national average. And even if the small business economy isn’t doing that well, who is to blame for that? Tim Kaine and Mark Warner – not House Republicans. Marsden himself should field some of that blame – he’s been in Richmond and Steve Hunt hasn’t.
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The next one is the most ridiculous of all of them: “A woman’s right to choose: eliminated.” Right. Because one-party rule in Richmond enables us to control the United States Supreme Court and overturn Roe v. Wade. Please. It’s one-party rule in Washington that’s making it impossible for us to even stop federal funds from being used to pay for abortions under the Senate health insurance reform bill – and yet Virginia Republicans can end the right to an abortion just by winning a special election? I know this line is meant as hyperbole, but it’s ridiculous. Even Hollywood blockbusters need to be just realistic enough for you to suspend disbelief – Star Wars did a better job of that than this mailer does. I can almost believe lightsabers and the Force – but Republicans ending abortion singlehandedly in Richmond just goes too far.
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Finally, they throw in traffic will be gridlocked. Guess what? It already is. So, at worst, we get four more years of the status quo if Republicans are elected? What have the Democrats been doing to fix traffic over the last eight years? Nothing that has helped, that’s for sure.
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This whole campaign on the Democratic side has been filled with mailers like this. And I’ve seen Marsden up on TV as well (but he didn’t bother putting the ad up on Youtube, probably because it sucks), running an ad where he claims to be a “fiscal conservative” and then slams Steve Hunt by claiming he was “thrown off the school board” when he really simply failed to win reelection. It’s too bad voters in Marsden’s district didn’t throw him out of the House of Delegates last month. Maybe we wouldn’t have to get idiotic mail like this from his carpetbagging campaign.
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Dec 29th by Brian S
