ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050086
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
LAST MINUTE MAILINGS by both candidates have come under fire as containing falsehoods.
The Democratic and Republican candidates in Virginia's 6th District ended their race for Congress by accusing each other's campaigns of spreading falsehoods through the mail.
On Monday, Democratic challenger Jeff Grey complained that Rep. Bob Goodlatte had distributed a flier late last week "filled with lies and misinformation" about Grey.
A spokesman for Goodlatte replied that Grey was trying to make desperate last minute attacks. "This is a factually correct piece, and we stand behind it," Tim Phillips said.
At the same time, Phillips charged that Grey had sent out a mailing last week that misrepresented Goodlatte's votes on Medicare and Social Security.
Grey said several portions of Goodlatte's mailing were flatly wrong. For example, Grey denied the mailing's assertion that he "refuses to take position on Line Item Veto."
Grey said he has repeatedly voiced his support for the line-item veto to allow the president to cut "pork-barrel" spending.
Phillips responded that Goodlatte has embraced the line-item veto in several debates as a way to cut the budget deficit, but Grey never cited the line-item veto.
"It was so obvious to us that he wouldn't address it," Phillips said.
Grey also objected to the Goodlatte mailing's assertion that Grey "strongly supports special rights for homosexuals."
Grey said he supports laws that would make it illegal to fire employees from their jobs because they are gay. "I'd hardly call that a special right," Grey said.
Goodlatte aide Phillips said that is a special right because it "elevates sexual orientation to the same level as race and gender" in job discrimination law. Race and gender deserve special protection, Phillips said, but homosexuality doesn't because it's "a lifestyle choice."
Goodlatte's campaign objected to a Democratic flier that claimed Goodlatte will support "Dole and Gingrich's plan to cut Medicare and Social Security."
Grey and other Democrats have charged that Republicans tried to cut Medicare by $270 billion - because the GOP plan would have slowed the growth of the program by that much in the coming years.
Phillips countered that "we've actually increased spending on Medicare." Under the GOP plan, he said, spending per senior would have increased from $4,800 in 1995 to $7,100 in 2002.
He acknowledged that those figures do not take inflation into account, but said it's still "flatly untrue" to call it a cut.
As for Social Security, Phillips said, "there's never been any remote question of cutting Social Security. Bob had said from the beginning that Social Security is off the table."
Neither mailing mentions the third-party candidate, Libertarian Jay Rutledge.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB