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June 15, 2004
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Falmouth Republican Tim Duncan Stands Up To Intimidation Attempts
Plymouth Democrat Therese Murray's seventh term reelection bid has fallen on rough times. Earlier this month Murray came under scrutiny for a violation of Massachusetts campaign finance law when it was learned that she accepted excessive contributions from special interests. Apparently since her promotion to Chairwoman of Senate Ways and Means, more special interest groups want her attention, if not friendship. She now has great influence over the state budget process and subsequent distribution of our tax money.
On the heels of this disclosure, Murray had two campaign kick-off events to rally her troops. Unfortunately, the rhetoric used during the events by both Murray and her featured guest, Democrat U.S. Representative Bill Delahunt, may have been taken too literally by some of her supporters. Murray reportedly stated that Duncan was "going to learn the hard way you can't buy a Senate seat on Cape Cod" while Delahunt urged her supporters to make sure that it got "really hot" for Duncan.
A few days later Murray's and Delahunt's words were put into physical action against her opponent, Falmouth Republican Tim Duncan, and his family. On May 20, Duncan had his official State Senate campaign kick-off and what should have been a fun evening for him and his family turned into an evening of terror, courtesy of Murray's supporters.
When Duncan, along with his wife, 15 year old daughter and 9 year old son attempted to drive into Southers Marsh Golf Club in Plymouth, site of his kick-off event, they were initially "greeted" by a 100+ Murray supporters carrying her campaign signs. It has been reported that the mob blocked the entrance to the club, proceeded to surround Duncan's car and then actually physically rocked the car while spitting on the windshield and shouting profanities. Duncan stated that "several in the crowd had copies of a Building Permit I had filed for remodeling my house in Falmouth in 2002. The building permit had our home address and people pressed the paper against the glass in front of my wife and children and shouted 'We know where you live.' After a minute or so, I inched the car forward and the crowd began to part to let us through. At the last moment, someone kicked the side of the car and hit the side mirror knocking it in." One can only guess what feelings of confusion and fear were going through the minds of his wife and children while being attacked.
Unfortunately the story doesn't end with this incident. The real story is in the refusal of Murray to apologize for the intimidation the Duncan family suffered at the hands of her supporters and with the local newspapers refusal to print any part of the story for days. To make matters worse, our only Cape-wide daily insisted on bombarding the public with a front page story alleging that Duncan didn't really live on Cape Cod because his home was being renovated. This claim of non-residency is a standard political play by Democrats to rid themselves of anyone who would dare run for office against them. Despite the efforts of Phil Johnston, Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman's attempts to divert the golf club incident by stating that Duncan must "address the nagging questions surrounding his residency," neither he nor his party attempted to legally challenge Duncan in court - they couldn't, they'd lose.
But unfortunately the editorial staff of the Cape Cod Times decided to carry the Democrats' water and champion their claim of Duncan's alleged non-residency status. They decided that the story of Murray's supporters attacking Duncan was not as news worthy as their specious question on where Duncan called home. They had exactly the same information the Democratic leadership had, yet the Dems decided not to challenge Duncan. The Times however, chose to question Duncan's truthfulness in an editorial. It is no wonder that in a recent Pew Poll the public's perception of press objectivity and balance is so low.
So it took talk radio to break open this news event, first with the Pat Whitley show on WRKO and then with the Ed and Don Show on WXTK.
Duncan was invited by Whitley to tell the public what happened. The call-in segments ranged from citizens who were outraged that such political intimidation would take place to those who stated that they were part of the "protesters" and that Duncan was "lying" or "over exaggerating what really happened." One caller, "Scott" proudly proclaimed that he was part of what happened and stated that he didn't understand what all the controversy was about, after all "no one got hurt." We'll take issue here with Scott, if nothing else, our democratic process was hurt badly by his actions.
It was clearly a case of he said/she said - up until Whitley published photos, along with a video and audio segment of the event, on WRKO's Web site. Those images, also provided to the Cape Cod Times days before, clearly proved what Murray's crowd attempted to do - - intimidate a candidate for public office.
One week after the event the Cape Cod Times had a large headline that read "Murray apologizes for protesters" - but one would be hard put to actually find a Murray apology in the story. The statement handed down through her campaign manager and reported by the Times read that Murray "stated that if any of her supporters offended her opponent or his family in any way, she offers her apologies."
"IF"? Where is there room for "if" when you see the photos and video and hear the audio?
"Offended"? How does a physical attack on a candidate and his family get down-graded to offending them?
In a direct reference to her supporters, Murray stated that "if they are going to carry my signs, that's not the kind of activity I want." So is her message to her supporters that they can keep up their intimidation but just make sure they leave her campaign signs out of sight?
Murray's alleged apology was reluctantly given and came about only because there was documented proof and eye-witnesses who were finally contacted for their statements, including a radio reporter from WATD who stated he personally heard the protesters swearing and saw them block the driveway. Confirmation of what happened also came from what should be considered by Murray as an unimpeachable source, Democratic operative and Plymouth office holder, Loring Tripp.
Murray should issue an apology, without an ill-advised "if" and clearly promise that her people will end their intimidation, whether they are holding her signs or not. Tim Duncan, his wife, his children, and the voters of Massachusetts are owed that.
Info@PlymouthCountyGOP.com
