Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305160103
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Republican Morgan Griffith accused Democrat Howard Packett's campaign of preparing to wage a "whisper campaign" about Griffith's parents, who were divorced when the candidate was a child.
Instead, Griffith raised the issue himself in his acceptance speech, charging Packett's campaign with invading his family's privacy by "digging up" court documents that revealed the identity of "a father whom I didn't know, and who didn't pay his child support."
Packett, told of Griffith's charge by a reporter, said he hadn't authorized his staff to check into Griffith's personal background, but acknowledged his campaign workers might have done so anyway.
Packett said he considered such an investigation unnecessary because "I've known Morgan all my life" and "I don't plan any personal attacks on anybody."
But Packett said he wasn't bothered by such personal background checks, calling it routine in politics. "That's part of the S.O.P. [standard operating procedure]," he said. "I'm sure he's doing one on me."
Griffith, though, said he had forbidden his campaign staff from checking out Packett's family and personal life. Instead, he said his workers would research only Packett's public service on the Salem City Council.
In some respects, Saturday's crossfire between Griffith and Packett resembles a well-publicized incident in last year's 6th District congressional race, in which Republican Bob Goodlatte accused his rival of investigating his family and his personal life.
Griffith said he learned a few weeks ago that campaign workers for Packett were at the Salem Courthouse looking up court cases he has handled as an attorney.
But what really made him mad, he said, was when friends at the clerk's office told him the Packett workers had photocopied his marriage license. Even though marriage licenses are public documents, Griffith said he considered it "crossing the line" for a political campaign to research them.
"We can only guess what Howard Packett and his henchmen were looking for," Griffith told his party's nominating convention Saturday.
"Just what was it, Howard? Are you trying to find some dirt on my wife Mary's family? Or were you wanting to investigate my mother who raised my sister and I alone? Or, Howard, was my marriage license important because it was the easiest place you could find out my father's identity? A father whom I didn't know, and who didn't pay his child support. Howard, that is an invasion of my family's privacy and I don't appreciate it.
"This is the type of gutter tactics that keeps regular people from wanting to run for public office, and makes people hold all politicians in contempt."
Griffith also said he raised the issue Saturday because "some of the people in the Packett campaign may try to use this as part of a whisper campaign late in the campaign. I want to let them know up front, when we know about things like this, we're going to let people know. We're calling them on it."
Griffith said his parents were divorced when he was a child. "There was a custody fight, my mother won and my father basically washed his hands of my sister and I." Griffith said his father didn't pay child support "for 15 to 17 years" and his mother "being very independent, didn't pursue it."
Griffith said his father now is dead.
Packett said he was mystified why Griffith chose to raise such a personal issue. "I think he doesn't have anything else to talk about."
The seat Griffith and Packett are seeking covers Salem, most of Southwest Roanoke County and eastern Montgomery County, including parts of Christiansburg. Agee, who has represented the district for 11 years, isn't seeking re-election so he can pursue the Republican nomination for state attorney general.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB