Ugly incident at the LWV candidates forum

In election season, there's always complaints about dirty campaign tactics, like missing lawn signs or rumor spreading. We've already seen some questionable behavior from the Democratic Club of Claremont in this election.

But the flier fiasco at the League of Women Voters Candidates Forum on Thursday night just might take the cake on dirty campaign tactics. For those who haven't seen Saturday's paper, here's a basic rundown of what happened.

Candidate Robin Haulman's husband, Alexander Sweida, grabbed a stack of candidate Jay Pocock's campaign fliers during the forum and stuffed them in his jacket pocket. After the event ended, Sweida was talking to Betty Crocker, who works on Opanyi Nasiali's campaign, when the fliers fell out of his jacket and scattered across the floor. Sweida picked them up and walked away, later dumping them in the trash.

Sweida told me the fliers unfairly attacked his wife since it states "Haulman and Lyons support tax increases. [DO YOU?]" According to Sweida, Haulman supports putting the question of a utility tax increase, a recommendation of the Economic Sustainability Committee, before the voters.

Further defending his actions, Sweida said he was just following the League of Women Voter's policy on negative campaign material. He asked Ellen Taylor, president of Claremont's chapter of the League, if he could remove the fliers. Taylor told him to go ahead, even though she didn't inspect the material beforehand to see if it actually contained "negative" information.

This incident is troubling from many perspectives. With his actions, Sweida has certainly embarrassed his wife and may have cost her the election. Dirty tactics like this just don't sit well with voters.

Taylor defended her decision by saying the League is anti-biased in local elections. However by approving this behavior, she showed a clear bias against Pocock. And that reflects poorly on the entire organization.

And what do other League officials think about what happened?

"It would be better to actually look at the material before making a decision on what to do with it," said Jack Mills, Vice President of the League.

I asked Mills if he was aware of any League policy about negative campaign material. He said he wasn't aware of one, although he's only been on the board for one year.

"The only policies I know of are in the members handbook and on the website," Mills said. "I'm pretty sure the handbook doesn't have a policy on negative campaign material."