Letter to Republican Senate Candidate Rich Tarrant

Bernie Calls on Tarrant to Stop Negative Turn and Warns of Negative TV Ads

May 1st, 2006

From our press release today: Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in a letter sent today to the Tarrant campaign, called on Republican Senate candidate Rich Tarrant to reverse the intensifying negativity on the part of the Tarrant campaign and its surrogates. In his letter, Sanders makes four key points:

1) In 2004, Tarrant stated that he would not run against Senator Leahy because his consultants told him he could only win by running a negative campaign. Did he receive the same advice last year and take his consultants up on it?

2) Tarrant has pledged to run a positive campaign based on the issues but recently his campaign has engaged in out of bounds attacks on Sanders and his wife and other untruthful attacks.

3) Tarrant promised that he would not take help from the national Republican Party or its coordinated campaign in Vermont. However, Tarrant has refused to insist that the GOP's top operative in Vermont and the National Republican Senatorial Committee stop issuing attacks on Tarrant's behalf.

4) Sanders calls on Tarrant to not bow to pressure to turn the campaign more and more negative and to refrain from running negative advertising.

The text of the letter is below.

Dear Mr. Tarrant:

The tone of your campaign has become increasingly negative and dishonest. In my view, that is not what Vermonters want to see.

Back in February, both on television and in print, you pledged to run a positive, issue-oriented campaign. I hope you will keep your word. You have publicly commented on the fact that one of the reasons you chose not to run against Senator Patrick Leahy in 2004 was that you believed that the only way you could have defeated him was to have run "a very negative campaign." Is that the conclusion that you have reached now? Is "a very negative campaign" what Vermonters should expect from you in the next 6 months?

One of the more blatant examples of your campaign's increased negativity and dishonesty is your continued attack on my wife, Jane Sanders. As you may know, my wife has been a close advisor of mine in various capacities for 25 years. I value her counsel greatly and she has generously volunteered what little free time she now has to help me in this campaign. Yet, with full knowledge of the truth, your campaign continues to spread the lie that Jane is being paid during this campaign. She is not. Not one penny.

I have never, and will never, attack the family members of my opponent. That's not what I do. I hope that you will apologize for the dishonest statements that your campaign has made about my wife and pledge not to do it again.

Last week, in another dishonest statement, you suggested that my campaign had some responsibility for an anti-Tarrant website. That is also untrue. My campaign does not and will not run or be connected to any bogus websites. We have a website, www.bernie.org, and a blog, www.progressiveamerica.us, and those are the only Internet sites we have set up or take responsibility for. I would also point out that while there is a web domain www.berniesucks.com you have not seen us suggest that you are connected to it. It is no small irony that, in truth, the only campaign that has engaged in inappropriate web activity and refused to fire those responsible is yours. I'm sure you recall that it was one of your paid campaign staffers who, posing as a retiree, set up a bogus blog, www.vermontsenaterace.com, that claimed to be politically independent but was used as a vehicle to attack me.

Your campaign is not alone with respect to this recent increased negativity. We have also seen attacks launched on your behalf by the Republican Party's lead operative in Vermont and by the national Republican Party itself. Your campaign manager as recently as a month ago stated in a Vermont newspaper, "We have and will continue to insist that the national party not participate in our race." Has your position on receiving help from the Republican Party changed? If not, will you demand that Republican Party-funded operatives stop these dishonest and negative attacks on your behalf?

I know that there will be increasing pressure on you from your national Republican consultants to "go negative" and to adopt the Republican Party's oft-used strategy of waging wars of personal destruction. Given the stepped up negative attacks by your campaign, the Republican Party, and your surrogates, can negative television ads be far behind? Are the people of Vermont going to be seeing negative TV ads coming from your campaign month after month after month?

As you know, despite having opponents run many ugly ads run against me, I have never run a negative ad in any of my campaigns. I believe that campaigns should provide information and a positive vision to the voters, not distortions and personal attacks. At a time when our country has so many problems that need to be addressed - the decline of the middle class, the disintegration of our health care system, the war in Iraq, the mounting federal debt, the attacks on Social Security, funding education and so many more - Vermonters deserve a substantive debate about the direction of America, and not six months of mud-slinging. That is why I am writing to ask that you reverse the increased negativity that we have recently seen from your campaign and your surrogates. The people of Vermont deserve better.

Sincerely,

Bernie Sanders

http://bernie.org/?p=179