For the most part, I’ve enjoyed the campaign mailers this season. They are mostly informative and upbeat. I always like a family photo.
The most negative one I’ve heard about has come from George Smyrnos’ campaign in one of the judicial races. It made its way to our home this week — addressed to both of us.
The mailer has some inflammatory photos — a man in handcuffs with a banging gavel, juxtaposed with happy children running together, while a law enforcement officer watches over them.
Below the photo is the proverbial scale of justice. “George Smyrnos is the right choice for Judge,” it reads. “He’s on OUR side in the fight against crime in Nevada County.” (And his opponent, Tom Anderson, isn’t? Come on. Tell us what you’ve accomplished, George.)
The other side is more overtly negative, with a chart comparing Smyrnos to Tom Anderson under the heading “Public safety or leniency for criminals? You decide.”
It goes on to make some subjective judgments about “courtroom sentencing philosophy,” “rights of crime victims” and “petty crimes in downtown areas.”
George Smyrnos is a good person. But whoever came up with his campaign strategy should be fired and held accountable. It has been amateurish, petty and negative. George should have nixed it.
And it is one of the main reasons he’s going to lose this judge’s race on June 5. “Next case.”
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Lately I have seen endorsements from people that I know and respect appear in the media. I am not talking about a son in law from out of state or some other member of his family; I am talking about people who have lived in this community for years. I am talking about people who have actually worked with Judge Anderson. What I have not seen is one single endorsement from anyone that George Smymos has worked with. Mr. Smymos has worked in the District Attorney’s office in Sacramento for years, what do the people that he has worked with think of him? What do the judges that he has practiced before think of him. The silence is as they say–deafening.
Ummm…..I thought Mr. Smyrnos has been endorsed by the former and long time D.A. Mike Ferguson. That’s quite an endorsement. Am I wrong?
As I understand, Mr. Smyrnos also has the endorsement of all the local law enforcement (boots on the ground) organization.
Again, am I wrong?!?
Chris, if you’ll go to Anderson’s web page and look at his endorsements, you’ll find many actual law enforcement officers who personally endorse him rather than a handful of people anonymously endorsing him under the umbrella of a group. Also, who is falling behind Ferguson? Look at the list of Mr. Anderson’s colleagues who endorse him, and look carefully at their credentials and their experience.
If you check the Union you will find lots of letters of support from Criminal Defense laywers in Sac who know and respect George Smyrnos. Sacramento County Superior Judge Michael Savage said ‘ I have know George Smyrnors for many years as a colleague in the Sac County DA’s Office and as a Judicial officer. Smyrnos is a well-prepared hard working and ethical prosocutor. He has all the qualities to be an outstanding Superior Court Judge. He has my unequivocal endorsement’ . The local groups that back George Smyrnos are the hard working women at DVSAC, Family Court Reformers, Democrat Mental Health prfessionals, GVPD, Truckee PD, Former DA Ferguson as well as Large crime victims groups and the Sheriffs Association. Open your eyes and stop walking in lock step with the Democratic Party and make an informed choice. This is a non-paritsan race, right? That Tom is a nice guy does not make up for his record, his whole record not just the things he wants you to focus on. That lcal lawyers suck up the the presiding judge is to be expected given the history of reprisals at the Nevada County Court House.
John, perhaps you have only just started to look at the Judge’s election but look harder and the truth is there for you to see. Lets talk about the game the Tom Anderson paid consutant played with the Union Newspaper. They sent the Union a tip about a FPPC investigation that was started by a “voters” complaint without any details. The Union was going to run a story about an investigation of Smyrnos Saturday with little detail. Well when they were provided with the actual complaint they were able to confirm who the “voter” was by checking the name on the complaint against Tom Anderson financial disclosures. It showed the “voter” was in fact Toms paid manager. The issue in the complaint was that 3 words ( paid for by ) were left out at the printers in error. Well code 18435 was only recently amended to require those 3 words hence the FPPC said no action since who the mailer was from was very clear and all the other required information like FPPC number,phone number, mailing info was all there and there could be no question of the source of the mailer. The denial of who supports George Smyrnos to make it a partisan race came from Tom, this try at an October suprise came from Tom. For Jeff P to slam George’s efforts as negative is only to deflect the hard truths that this election has put the spotlight on. Sorry Jeff, you can not wish away Tom’s real Record that we all know about. It may work with the uninformed but we are going to make sure there is balance and truth in this election in spite of all the efforts to the contrary.
Ellen,
May I humbly suggest that The Union no longer carries the clout it once did. Elections are won (and lost) in the social media. The Union has given you a false sense of security. Nowadays “uninformed” is in the eyes of the beholder. Just watch the returns and you’ll see. Good luck! Heck I never vote until Election Day.
HI Jeff, While I understand your bias against the current Union and the fact that you want to promote your efforts the truth is the turth. Why don’t you print the content ot those letters or list the names? Facebook? Really? Lot’s of vapid people float in facebook. Kissing up to the Presiding Judge like all the lawyers who sent money to him is expected. I pay attention to the Daisy Switser’s, Niko Johnson’s, Emily Gallup’s of the world that work in the trenches day in and day out. Do not forget the James Scurlock’s, Michael Morre’s and the Michael Paul’s of the world. Why not call Michael Morre’s sister and ask if she Supports the Family Court Reformers? Please open your minds to so many thruths.
Ellen,
Good luck with the race.
Hi wanted to say Thank You for your best wishes. I find it ironic that your email had a solicitation for WordPress as a great host and your host. Do you know who owns WordPress? Why don’t my posts attach to the one I reply to. On my computer they are in a line?
Doesn’t Matt Mullenweg still own WordPress?
Did that mailer include the required disclaimer: “This ad paid for by________” ? The fair political practice commission requires it, and his others did not have it. It’s the law!
Speaking of disclosures… do we know who put of the “So Nate…” signs? There are a lot of them and they are pretty slimy and cowardly, and to add to it, I haven’t seen a disclosure on any of them. Of course, I haven’t seen disclosure on a lot of the other signs either, but at least the “vote for Nate” etc signs are unambiguous.
I’m not sure the signs have to have a disclosure. I’ve never seen one, but I know for a fact that the mailers do. Haven’t seen the SO NATE signs.
Jeff had a photo of one of the signs… purposely done in the same color and check-mark and style as Nate’s. They say “SO Nate… Aren’t 2 terms enough?” with a big check mark like Nate’s.
Not only are they childish and cowardly, they are pointless. Whoever put them up: good show, you are improving your own image by leaps and bounds. Well, all campaign signs for anyone anywhere are arguably childish and pointless, but these ones are just a little more clearly so.
Signs require disclosure.
So as a citizen, I can remove illegal signs and turn them into the sheriff with a location found at for each one? Even if it involves a slight 1 minute trespass?
A call to the Nevada County Elections office or visit https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:8YEnWIRjW_EJ:www.mynevadacounty.com/nc/elections/docs/2012%2520Elections/June%25205%25202012/June%25205%25202012%2520Primary%2520Election%2520Candidate%2520Handbook.pdf+Nevada+County+Sign+rules+political+campaigns&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiZrRzO0HPiV7Mq4hwL53KktsljhsUJPA_TF7HrHAkla7y49y3JTafqibCOstI0FdFuLXU5isqAlHJc52q892MkJzBgxAu_PL7UiGQaZFwqr8ZXKRZsRXIeKbSK6yFmetEemRhu&sig=AHIEtbT2K9ybMdzlByYK3J7PF9TlVTsqjA
The fact is that judges have little discretion themselves when it comes to sentencing. They have to follow requirements written for them to follow.
Chris: Once again, I have not seen one single endorsement of any individual (Judge, District Attorney, Defense Attorney–or otherwise) who has worked with Mr. Smymos in Sacramento and is prepared to say that he is fair, honest and has a judicial temperament. Without such endorsements how can anyone support his candidacy?
I’m in the middle of a deadline, and the phone rang. I hurriedly picked it up, and lo and behold, it was a “robo” call from former DA Mike Ferguson, asking me to join him in voting for George Smyrnos.
I just got a Robo call for George Smyrnos too from Ferguson. He called it an “important public safety message”! It is, but it is the opposite of what he thinks.
Our judicial system is adversarial. The district attorney takes one side and a defense attorney takes the other and a judge decides. In this process there is the best assurance that all facts will be known for the judge to make a fair decision. Not the best but far better than the worst.
George Smyrnos is running for judge as a practicing DA touting the endorsement of another DA. His election would effectively eliminate the fair role of a judge and be a horrible mistake.This is the real “important public safety” issue.
George Smyrnos running for judge is like the fox applying for a job to guard the hen house.
Yes, he did say that: “An important public safety message.” Surprising that a former DA would say that. Po-dunk.
Regarding the “So Nate…” signs – I sent emails a couple of day ago to both of Beason’s opponents asking quite simply if their campaign is responsible for these signs. Got a long answer before the day was out from Al Bulf, essentially “no, and he’d never do such a thing”. Still haven’t heard a word from Sue McGuire – btw, I did go to her campaign website to send the email.
Sharon McKibbin Heinz
I understand that a local contractor and builder paid for those signs. It should be easy to track that down and make a complaint to the FPPC.
For me the telling point is the complete lack of response from Sue McGuire. This is someone who thinks she should be representing me at the local political level, and she won’t answer a simple yes/no question via her own chosen communication path – her campaign website email?
This race has taken another very negative turn:
http://yubanet.com/regional/FPPC-Says-Smyrnos-Campaign-Violated-Rules-but-Declines-to-Fine.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YubanetRegional+%28YubaNet.com+-+Sierra+Nevada+News%29#.T8pCVBzDYeV
We received this mailer at home too. It should be noted that there are some typos in the “personal message” too, mistaking “its” for “it’s.” Twice in fact.
And then this “gem”:
http://barrypruett.blogspot.com/2012/06/open-letter-to-tom-anderson.html
Just wanted to comment that I found Ellen Owen’s allegation very interesting: “They sent the Union a tip about a FPPC investigation that was started by a “voters” complaint without any details. The Union was going to run a story about an investigation of Smyrnos Saturday with little detail.” I get a lot of “tips” from a lot of people, and recently have gotten some from both sides of this race. I was working on a story most of the week, with multiple calls to the FPPC, and would never have run a story “with little detail.”
HI Liz, I hear what you are saying and I am not saying you would knowingly publish half the story. The facts as I understand them is that on Friday at 4:29 The Union posted a promo for your article that was set to be in the weekend edition. That was spotted by a Smyrnos supporter who knew the back story. They contacted a Smyrnos staffer to see if they were aware of the article and that caused George Smyrnos to call you late Friday afternoon. Untill George Smyrnos called, you did not know that the ‘voter’ was a staff member on the payroll of Tom Anderson. It is my understanding that Mr Smyrnos provided you with the actual complaint and pointed you to the financial disclosure to confirm the ‘voter’ was indeed a paid staffer for Anderson. You had an article ready to go in The Union that would not have had the most improtant details. It is not your fault that you were feed partial information. You have to admit that the story without those key facts would have been much different than your final version. Anderson’s people knew the FPPC manual had not been updated at the time the mailer was printed and the complaint was a shabby tactic. I commend you for your continued hard work to keep our community informed.
Sorry for the errors I was in a hurry between calling my fellow Labor Union members for George Smyrnos for Superior Court Judge. You should know we have a lot of Labor Union members who are working hard for George Smyrnos For Superior Court Judge. It is not a Political Party issue.
I appreciate your comment, Ellen, but again — I did not have a story “ready to go,” especially since I had not talked to George yet.