Still smarting from what he considered as a dirty trick orchestrated by his campaign opponents, Sen. Ben Cardin has joined two Democratic heavyweights to back legislation that would outlaw deceptive campaign practices.
Cardin, D-Md., easily defeated then-Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in last November’s election. But he became outraged when he learned that homeless men — bused in from Philadelphia — handed out flyers that showed prominent Maryland Democrats backing Steele.
“It was a blatant strategy to deceive voters and suppress minority turnout,” Cardin told The Examiner in an e-mail Thursday. “It crossed a very serious line and is not fair game in an election.”
Cardin has joined Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., as a sponsor of the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act. If the bill passes, it will become a crime to disseminate false election information.
The bill has drawn provisional support from some election-reform groups.
“When people are playing dirty tricks, it cuts at the core of our democracy,” Common Cause spokeswoman Mary Boyle said.
It’s not clear what the bill’s chances are. Maryland GOP spokeswoman Audra Miller said that her group would challenge the bill in court if it passes. She said that dirty tricks are common in both parties.
“It’s a whiny attempt that will be laughed out of any court,” she said.
Boyle said it is true that both parties use dirty tricks to suppress turnout among their opponents’ core constituencies. That’s all the more reason for the law to pass, she said.
“It’s not a tool for any one side,” Boyle said. “Certainly, it’s something we see in every election.”
Information from Capital News Service was used in this report.
Dirty election tricks in U.S. history
» 1790: Pamphleteer James Thomas Callender, acting on the orders from Thomas Jefferson, publicizes the love affair of Alexander Hamilton and a married woman. (Callender would later publicize Jefferson’s sexual relationship with slave Sally Hemings.)
» 1844: The Whigs run a phony newspaper story claiming that Democratic presidential candidate James K. Polk sold slaves to raise money for his election.
» 1968: A Democratic consultant “borrows” campaign signs from Republican Richard Nixon. The signs bear the slogan, “Nixon’s the One.” The consultant gives them to pregnant black women to wave.
