Powerline is reporting that the Tom Daschle campaign is flat-out lying to voters saying that “John Thune is attacking” Daschle’s wife:
The Daschle campaign, desperate at finding itself behind in the polls, has resorted to an especially low form of “push polling.” Our correspondent reports:
am here in Brookings, South Dakota [and] just thought I’d pass on the following information if you haven’t seen or heard it.
The Daschle campaign is having people claiming to be pastors and ministers calling local South Dakotans asking them whether the fact the “John Thune is attacking Linda Daschle” bothers them or makes them uncomfortable. When one constituent peppered the “pastor” with questions about his hometown, where he lived – it was apparent this “pastor” was not from South Dakota at all.I called the Daschle campaign in Brookings posing as a sympathetic constituent, and they CONFIRMED to me that these calls are being made.
Needless to say, Thune isn’t attacking Linda Daschle. But for Tom Daschle, this is what his long career in the Senate has come down to–hoping to eke out a victory through whining, false claims, and fraud.
I’m not making a lot of predictions this year, but I’m going out on a limb on this one–Thune will win.
If true, this is devastating. The campaign admitted to Powerline’s respondent that it was doing this dirty trick. Again, if true, a free press is needed to expose this fraud to the voters.
UPDATE: A reader (Daniel Wolf) sent this email, which (if true) directly supports the Daschle campaigns statements about the Thune campaign (though not the claim that the Daschle caller was a fellow South Dakotan):
My great aunt in Yankton, S.D. has received two phone calls claiming that Linda Daschle was an abortionist. The Daschle campaign is completely correct on this.
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