Dems' flier misleads

They're sorry. It was a mistake. "Somebody screwed up."That's the gist of a conversation we had with Pasquale "Pat" Menna on Monday after some Red Bank residents received a spurious campaign flier in the mail that used this newspaper to attack a political opponent.

We're all too used to negative, mud-slinging rhetoric at election time.

This time, the attack on Republican mayoral candidate John Curley went further, attributing negative statements about Curley to The Hub's Aug. 24 issue which never appeared in this newspaper.

The statements ran without quotation marks, making it appear that they were the opinion of The Hub.

If you are one of the Red Bank residents who received this mailing from the Democrats, be advised the flier is a deception.

The flier was paid for by the Red Bank Democratic Campaign 2006 and sent to promote the candidacies of Menna and Michael DuPont and Arthur Murphy III, who are running for seats on the Borough Council.

The truth is, the statements about Curley never appeared in The Hub . Not in a letter to the editor, not as quotes in a news article.

To reinforce the misperception, a headline from The Hub appeared prominently at the top of the flier.

Menna said Monday, the statements should have been attributed to the local daily press but were mistakenly attributed to this newspaper by Russ Oster of Castle Communications, Yardley, Pa., who produced the flier. According to the Castle Communications Web site, the firm is a "national direct-mail firm serving Democrats."

On Monday, Oster owned up and said the statements critical of Curley were mistakenly attributed to The Hub but actually appeared in the local daily.

We don't know whether or not the statements in the flier appeared in another newspaper. Regardless of the source, there should have been an indication that the statements were lifted from an article and should have been attributed to the person quoted in the article or to the writer if they came from a letter to the editor.

How many people who received the flier would not be fooled into thinking that the statements were in an editorial opinion that ran in The Hub?

This newspaper does not endorse political candidates in order to remain neutral, but has been dragged into the political dirty bomb attack.

So, let's say this: the Democrats have attached their names to a dishonest, unethical mailing that misrepresents the position of this newspaper and possibly others.

That's the kind of politics voters are sick of. The endless commercials and mailings spewing innuendo, talking trash. Insulting the integrity and intelligence of voters.

If Menna, DuPont and Murphy want to run their campaign in the gutter - leave us out of it.