The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant said Friday he knows who ordered the controversial Election Day fliers that pictured Will Sessoms and Barack Obama and has turned the information over to a special prosecutor.
Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney Earle Mobley will investigate and determine whether to bring charges, Bryant said.
The fliers, showing Sessoms and Obama side by side, were distributed by Sessoms campaign workers on election day, mostly to African American voters. The fliers did not disclose who authorized them, as required by law.
Sessoms ran for mayor and won. He said before the election that he supported John McCain for president, not Obama. After the election, Mayor Meyera Oberndorf filed a complaint about the fliers.
Sessoms has said he did not know about the fliers and pulled them when he found out that his workers were giving them out. A consultant to Sessoms, Bruce Williams, said he gave the fliers to poll workers without consulting the campaign. Williams has said he doesn't know who paid for or produced the fliers.
Bryant said his office has interviewed the people involved in "the ordering and production of the flier," though he wouldn't reveal names. The Portsmouth prosecutor will decide whether the attribution statement was mistakenly left off the flier or whether it was willful.
"I believe we've gotten to a point where some decisions need to be made," Bryant said.
If the disclosure statement was left out by mistake or negligence, it is a civil violation with a fine up to $2,500. A criminal violation could mean up to a year in jail as well.
Bryant said he asked for a special prosecutor because his office receives more than half its budget from the City Council and he wanted to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.
Sessoms said he hasn't been questioned by Bryant's office about the fliers.
"I welcome talking to anybody," Sessoms said.
Bryant noted that nothing about his request for a special prosecutor "should be taken to imply one way or another that Mayor-elect Sessoms has been determined to be personally responsible."
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
These partisan comments . . .
All clearly show their party and mostly all lack "oomph." I am missing a few people on this board--where did Ira, and Twomiler, and TR, and Tim, and Al Markowitz and a few others go? Those folks may have been on another side from me politically, but they backed their comments with logic, not shrill partisan posturing and emotional outbursts.
RE: Difference between this flier and one about voting days...
Anyone in this country that doesn't what day they are supposed to vote, really ought to have their voter registration revoked. And, then encouraged to seek some serious professional help.
"I'd like to see how this
"I'd like to see how this one will be treated with respect to how the other flier was (the one indicating that dems voted on one day and reps on another...). As reported by the VP, that culprit went unpunished. Are the authorities going to treat this case the same way? I'd like to see how they differentiate the two..."
If it turns out that the flier was distributed as an attempt to warn people that a fraudualent flier was out there (as apparently was the case with the different voting day flier) and indavertantly taken seriously by a mysterious someone than I would expect it to be treated in the same manner. If however, as seems to be the case, this flier was distributed as an unattributed campaign flier which also happens to the fraudualant I would expect it to be treated differently. This is not rocket science. This is shoddy politics.
Difference between this flier and the one about voting days...
I'd like to see how this one will be treated with respect to how the other flier was (the one indicating that dems voted on one day and reps on another...). As reported by the VP, that culprit went unpunished. Are the authorities going to treat this case the same way? I'd like to see how they differentiate the two...
Charges for what?
There's nothing to charge. If misdirecting ignorant people was a crime then every politicians would be in prison right now. Really we need to not run or Mayor or other city elections at the same time as the Presidential election because of the partisan-stupid level it creates.
Why not a Federal investigation?
The Feds should be investigating this, not locals. After all, this flyer is probably why Barack won. Isn't this "influencing a Federal election"?
Just another bitter American
Shady
The Will Sessoms posters are shady but the fact that people need to be educated is the bottom line. If Myera is saying that black voters were tricked by this poster, than they were equally tricked by her. If she had been in all the neighborhoods of VB campaigning and putting out her message then she would not have lost. Instead on election night she was hanging out at the Jewish Mother looking like a complete fool when she was asking reporters why there were still so many precincts out. She is kind of like the boss of the city, so shouldn't she have known? Out of touch, out of office.
My Oh My!
Seems like Roger and Myera are really upset about the election loss.
marym63204
It jumped out at you? But, no one else... So, whose mind is thinking on racial lines? Looks like yours is. As well as the person who distirbuted it to African-American voters. Which is another reason why I personally believe it was in fact a Democrat campaigner. Either because they had a problem with Oberndorf, or because they were trying to create this very issue against her opponet and it didn't work exactly according to plan.
re: urbanbackwater
You mention the Hudson-Bergen light rail line. The problem with it is that for a Minimal Operating Segment (MOS) they chose the center of what's suppose to eventually be a much longer line. The hitch is that that center segment goes from nowhere to nowhere.