To the Editor:
This fall's contest for the open seat in the House of Delegates 41st District pits two radically different candidates against one another, so I suppose it was inevitable that the campaign rhetoric would get heated. But is it really too much to expect that it wouldn't degenerate to the point of libel and outright lies? I made up my mind long ago to support Dave Marsden (D), so I have largely discounted the avalanche of mailings that fill my box these days. However, Michael Golden (R) delivered such an outrageous so-called "education" flier last Friday (Sept. 30), that I feel compelled to speak up about the distortions and untruths that I know that it contained.
The front side of this flier touted the candidate's positions on public education in Virginia and expressed his qualifications on this issue, to wit: his father's career as a public school teacher and his own experience as a "former teacher." This is not the first time that Mr. Golden has billed himself as a former teacher. Given the context of the flier (public education) and his description of himself in it, I naturally assumed that Mr. Golden had experience as a public school teacher. This was the clear implication of the campaign literature, and it was the conclusion drawn not only by myself but by every one of my neighbors and friends who received this mailing.
Yet when I called the Golden campaign to check into their candidate's teaching credentials, it turns out that Mr. Golden has never been a public school teacher, in Virginia or anywhere else. His experience consists primarily of leading a legal research and writing course for first year law students at Georgetown. Now, my father worked for years as a deputy sheriff, and I helped pay my way through college by working nights as a security guard. But it would still be dishonest of me to go around telling people that I was a former law enforcement officer. Perhaps Mr. Golden thinks his deceptive literature is acceptable because he never actually said he was a former public school teacher, but lying by misdirection and implication is still lying. Surely, this country has enough ethically challenged politicians who defend their misdeeds by citing technicalities.
Worse yet, the reverse side of Mr. Golden's mailing consisted entirely of an attack on Dave Marsden. In three hysterical paragraphs, Mr. Golden accuses his opponent of waging a dirty campaign and attacking the Golden family. That would be despicable if it were true. Unfortunately for Mr. Golden, I happen to have read the Marsden campaign flier which he cites as evidence of this supposed "attack." There is not one word in it that any sane, literate person could interpret as an attack on anyone's family. In fact, the flier contained only one opinion and two facts about Mr. Golden. The opinion: Michael Golden is too extreme for Fairfax County Public Schools. The two facts to support this opinion: Mr. Golden is on the record as stating that, had he won the election in 2003, he would have voted against the 2004 budget compromise that provided tens of millions of dollars to our schools. Mr. Golden is also on the record as stating that, given the opportunity, he would vote to repeal that budget.
I notice that nowhere in his subsequent literature or statements has Mr. Golden refuted the accuracy of those two facts. If he truly considers the statement of his own positions to be an attack on his family and a questioning of his commitment to our schools, perhaps it's time for Mr. Golden to reevaluate his ideas. But I don't think the candidate believes any such thing. I think he's realized that his lack of experience and extreme agenda are failing to resonate with voters in the 41st District. Instead of running on the strength of his ideas and convictions, he's relying on a barrage of distorted attacks that really only reflect badly on his own character. There is indeed a dirty, dishonest campaign being run in the 41st District by a political wanna-be who will say or do anything to get elected. And Michael Golden is the man running it.
Catherine Chase
Springfield