NC GOP 'criminal coddler' mailer continues to generate controversy

Republican Jon Hardister, who is running for the NC House District 57 seat currently held by Pricey Harrison, said a voter crumpled up a copy of a negative and inaccurate mailer put out by the NC Republican Party on his driveway that attacked his opponent as a "criminal coddler."

He called me this morning to let me know how upset he was about it. (A previous call was placed last week to News & Record reporter Mark Binker.

For those who missed that story, Hardister says, "I don't know why the Republican Party would go there. I think it's distasteful. I don't think Pricey is a 'criminal coddler.' That's ridiculous." Hardister added that he thinks the state party "crossed the line" with the mailer.

Hardister said he called someone at the state party to complain about the mailer. "They told me it's going to be effective," he said. "I said, 'I don't care if it's effective or not. I don't approve of it.'"

Hardister said that US Rep. Howard Coble and Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Bill Wright also registered their disapproval, and that Wright wrote an e-mail to the state party that said, in essence, "Stay out of Guilford County."

Putting aside his personal distaste for the mailer, Hardister said he's not convinced that it will help him win his race.

Hardister said he received the mailer on Wednesday in District 57. A nearly identical mailer dropped in NC House District 59, where Democratic incumbent Maggie Jeffus is locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Theresa Yon, on Saturday.

Yon is under pressure to join Hardister in repudiating the mailer.

Harrison wrote in an e-mail sent to several people yesterday: "Jon, I continue to appreciate your disavowing the RJA mailer. I believe the piece dropped in Maggie's district as well and I hope Theresa Yon will also disavow it."

Joan Bass, who is managing Jeffus' reelection effort, posted on my Facebook page: "I would hope that Ms. Yon would repudiate the use of such ugly, untrue fliers. Whether this is something she personally approved or not, this is a nasty tactic by her party which could unduly affect the election. The Jeffus campaign has never stooped to maligning Ms. Yon or her candidacy. If Maggie wins the election..., it will be on her own merits, not because she has slug dirt and untruths about her opponent. I call on the Republican party to stick to the facts and stop this 'any tactic no matter how false or ugly to win' campaigning."

When I asked Yon on Facebook for her position on the state party's mailer targeting her opponent, the candidate responded, "By law I have no say so or even any idea what the state party does in my race. And since the state party does not send me anti-Jeffus mailings, I have not seen anything they have sent and no one else has asked me."