The Bush-Cheney campaign has created a hot line for victims of voter intimidation after a spate of “violence and vandalism” at campaign offices nationwide.
The hot line effectively serves as an answering machine and instructs callers to leave a message about any incidents of “intimidation or harassment” or “destruction of Bush-Cheney property.” The number is 888/303-7125.
The hot line comes on the heels of accusations by the campaign against the nation’s largest labor union, the AFL-CIO, of voter-intimidation tactics, including the storming of a state Republican Party office in Orlando, Fla.
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The AFL-CIO, which endorsed Democrat Sen. John Kerry for president, responded to the accusations by saying the campaign made “a very irresponsible connection” between acts of violence and vandalism and a series of Oct. 5 protests by the union, a spokeswoman said.
On Monday, Bush-Cheney campaign Chairman Marc Racicot wrote a letter to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, warning him: “We will hold you and your organization accountable for the actions of your members.”
The letter charged that the AFL-CIO’s Oct. 5 demonstrations were part of “a national strategy” to protest at more than a dozen Bush-Cheney and Republican Party headquarters offices around the nation.
“In many locations protesters attempted to enter, or entered, campaign or party facilities,” the letter says, adding that in Orlando, “protesters forced their way into the facility, fracturing the arm of one staffer, and vandalized the office.”
AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham said incidents of break-ins or vandalism were “completely unrelated” to the Oct. 5 demonstrations and called the Racicot letter “the height of dirty politics during an election year.”
The AFL-CIO demonstrations, she said, protested an overtime pay cut put in effect by President Bush Oct. 3 and were held in places other than Bush-Cheney offices, such as parks and federal buildings.
Mrs. Windham added that Mr. Racicot “should immediately apologize” for linking the protests to “break-ins or vandalism.”
Republican Party workers in Florida tell another story. “This was by no stretch of the imagination a peaceful demonstration,” said Rhyan Metzler, a field director for the Republican Party of Florida in Orlando. He said his wrist was sprained during an Oct. 5 rally in which about 60 union activists “raided” the office.
Kerry-Edwards campaign officials did not return phone calls for comment. The Bush-Cheney campaign, which provided a copy of its letter to the AFL-CIO, also did not return calls.
A recent search of archived news reports nationwide indicated a higher number of reports during the past few months compared with the same periods during the 2000 and 1996 campaigns.
There were reports of Bush-Cheney signs set on fire and Kerry-Edwards signs stolen in Minnesota. In Tennessee, a gunman fired several rounds into a Bush-Cheney campaign office, and in Ohio, an assailant with a baseball bat smashed a mailbox with Kerry stickers on it.
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