Kilgore camp fined $100 for fliers

RICHMOND (AP) — The State Board of Elections fined Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore’s campaign $100 yesterday for mailing a deceptive flier to Virginia voters.

The action came a day before the election and three days after the board dealt the same punishment to Democrat Timothy M. Kaine’s campaign for the same violation — failing to adequately disclose who paid for the mailers.

Board Secretary Jean Jensen complained that the board “is being used for political gain.” She noted that Charles Spies, a lawyer for the Republican Governors Association, blasted the Kaine flier as “dishonest and deceptive” during Friday’s board meeting.

“My anger is based on the fact that by amazing coincidence, during the time Mr. Spies was addressing the board regarding dishonesty and deception, the mailer before us was being delivered to the mailboxes of Virginia voters,” Miss Jensen said.

The cover of the flier sponsored by Virginians for Jerry Kilgore features the red and blue Democratic donkey emblem over the headline, “2005 Official Democrat and Progressive Voter Guide.”

Inside is a seven-point comparison of Mr. Kaine to independent candidate H. Russell Potts Jr., who is deemed “the only candidate who will stand up for progressive principles.”

The Kaine flier that prompted the earlier complaint prominently displays the Republican Party elephant logo and the words “For Virginia Republicans.”

Inside, it repeats an anti-tax group’s attack on Mr. Kilgore for failing to sign its no-tax-increase pledge or back the group’s agenda.

However, the board has no authority to sanction the campaigns for questionable content or misusing logos on fliers. In both cases, the fines were for failing to conspicuously disclose the identity of the sponsors of the mailers as required by Virginia’s “Stand By Your Ad” law.

On both mailings, the sponsors were named only in tiny, hard-to-read type resembling a photo credit alongside a picture.

In addition to levying the maximum fines allowed, the board referred both complaints to the Richmond commonwealth’s attorney to determine whether the campaigns willfully violated campaign laws.