Va. Dems sued for $1M for ad [Simmons/Hugo campaign]

Examiner ^ | 11/4/07 | Joe Rogalski

[freespirited]

A Washington lobbying shop filed a $1 million defamation suit Friday against the Democratic Party of Virginia and a legislative candidate over an ad that links the firm to the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The Livingston Group, founded by former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston, is asking a Fairfax County court to rule on the accuracy of a mail ad that Democrat Rex Simmons used to attack Del. Tim Hugo, R-Herndon. Hugo is a part-time lobbyist with the firm. The Democratic Party of Virginia paid for the ad, but Simmons’ campaign approved it.

The ad in question said, “Tim Hugo’s lobbying firm represents the ones who were responsible for torture abuses at Abu Ghraib.”

The Livingston Group said it formally represented CACI International, which provided civilian interrogators to assist military personnel at the notorious Iraqi prison. The firm said CACI hired Livingston to lobby Congress on a different issue and has not been a client since 2004, a year before Hugo joined the lobbying shop.

“The Livingston Group was extremely upset that anyone would link them to companies involved in the Abu Ghraib incident,” said Ben DiMuro, a Livingston attorney.

The Simmons campaign did notreturn phone messages seekingcomment, but Democratic Partyspokesman Danae Jones defended the ad’s accuracy. “[Hugo] works for this company, he’s a lobbyist for this firm and they represented a company that has been in trouble for Abu Ghraib,” she said.

Also on Friday, Virginia Democratic Chairman Dick Cranwell asked state and federal elections officials to investigate Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, R-Vienna. Cranwell is alleging that Davis did not fully disclose that her husband, U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, used $400,000 from his re-election treasury to pay for her campaign commercials.

Davis, who is seeking a second state Senate term, said her campaign account paid for the production and initial placement of the television ads. Her husband’s funds, she said, just paid to extend the ads’ run on network television, which does not trigger the level of disclosure Cranwell is seeking

[freespirited]

Once you read the whole story, a million bucks sounds much too cheap.

Here it is:

Attorney letter to DPVA

[freespirited]

Virginia ping

[muawiyah]

Thanks. The Dems are nuts.

[freespirited]

I would have pinged you but I can never remember how to spell your name.

[RDTF]

shouldn’t this be on the sidebar?

[dangus]

>> Also on Friday, Virginia Democratic Chairman Dick Cranwell asked state and federal elections officials to investigate Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, R-Vienna. Cranwell is alleging that Davis did not fully disclose that her husband, U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, used $400,000 from his re-election treasury to pay for her campaign commercials. <<

Wow. This is worse than it may seem. For months, Davis seemed to be gearing up for a run for the U.S. Senate to defend John Warner’s seat. He was the presumptive nominee, in spite of being a very poor fit for Virginia, because of all the cash he was raising. Then, right around the thick of campaign season, he suddenly announces he’s not running.

Now, he transfers $400,000 of his own campaign money to his wife. This means that significants amount money that were intended to help defend a Republican seat in the U.S. Senate have instead been diverted to a local Virginia race.