Dirty Tricks

The campaign in the 4th state senatorial district hit the basement yesterday. Literally. Reacting to negative ads from Republican Sen. Joseph Rocks, Democrat Allyson Schwartz got off the high road and held a press conference in the basement of the Windsor Apartments, at the Parkway and 17th Street, which houses Republican City Committee headquarters. Schwartz charged that, among other dirty tricks, Rocks' forces deliberately darkened a photo of her in their advertisement to make her appear black.

Ater showing such progressive instincts when he became president of South Africa, how could such an inspiring reformer as Frederik W. de Klerk allow himself to be so corrupted by hacks? This might come as a rude shock to many, but at least one former highly situated secret service officer is sure de Klerk has been harboring dishonest intentions from the time he took office. The tipoff, according to retired Maj. Nico Basson, was the massively funded dirty tricks campaign the presumed reformer was party to in Namibia, while that former South African colony was asserting newly won independence in its first free elections ever.

Elections in Philadelphia have long been messy affairs where dead people have been known to vote, street money influences turnout, and fights erupt at polling places. But who knew dirty tricks were also being carried out by a high-level official inside the city agency in charge of conducting nonpartisan elections? Renee Tartaglione, the former chief deputy of the elections office, funneled tens of thousands of dollars from the Democratic City Committee to the wards run by her mother and then-jailed husband, while also distributing bogus sample ballots designed to mislead voters who wanted to support her husband's political enemy, State Rep. Angel Cruz (D., Phila.

The birth of our democracy took place right here in Philadelphia. That's just one reason to be especially troubled that people in our area are trying to tamper with the voting process by scaring voters away from the polls. A few weeks ago, fliers were posted on the Drexel University campus falsely warning students that undercover police officers would be waiting at voting booths on Election Day to arrest anyone with so much as an outstanding parking ticket. This deliberate misinformation appears to be part of a broader effort to intimidate voters.

In exposing electricians leader and failed legislative candidate John J. Dougherty for his union's sleazeball campaign tactics against Michael Nutter in last year's Democratic mayoral primary, the city Board of Ethics has proven its worth as a watchdog. The board's dogged pursuit of the truth behind the dirty tricks by the political committee for Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers should mean future Philadelphia elections are less likely to be tainted by Local 98's despicable scams and smear tactics.

The dirty tricks dogfight between Ross Perot and the Bush administration has overwhelmed the presidential campaign. President Bush's spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, perhaps worried people would believe Perot's latest charges, did not simply deny them yesterday but called the Texan "crazy" and "a paranoid person who has delusions. " Perot took over a campaign briefing in Dallas and angrily repeated his suspicions that the Republicans had concocted a plan to smear his daughter and sidetrack his candidacy.

During the height of the dark, old days of apartheid, when shadowy agents of the country's white government did covert battle with the forces of black liberation, Lourens du Plessis was one of the kings of "dirty tricks. " In the middle to late 1980s, working from a network of government-sponsored front companies in the eastern Cape Province, the army colonel posing as a civilian helped concoct phony coups in the so-called homelands, spread confusion and terror in black areas, and otherwise decide the fate of those deemed "enemies of the state.

Even in Philadelphia's strange history of political dirty tricks and oddities, this appears to be a first. An Internet Web page that promotes the candidacy of John White Jr. for mayor - with all the trappings of an official campaign Internet site - was in fact not created by the campaign at all. Instead, it was apparently created by someone using the fake name of "Brock Landers," which was also the name of a character in the movie homage to...

New England's defenders dance a lot with the Dolphins. Twice every regular season. Once just six days ago. So yesterday, whenever Dan Marino or his receivers stepped left, they followed. Whenever Dolphins dipped or spun, there were the Patriots, cheek-to-cheek. It was all so perfectly choreographed that when this first-round AFC playoff game ended with an easy 17-3 Patriots victory, Miami coach Jimmy Johnson accused New England of dirty dancing. The Patriots, Johnson said, knew all the audibles Marino called to try to counter their constant blitz.

Facing his first formal news conference yesterday, Ross Perot did what he does best: He took command. Perot, appearing relaxed and confident, cast aside reports that he had investigated President Bush and his sons and denounced the White House for a "dirty tricks" campaign to discredit his character. "The American people have a lot of common sense," Perot said. "They understand this was a carefully thought out and carefully executed effort to damage my candidacy. And they are very, very, very angry about it. " The timing of the news conference along with a morning appearance on NBC's Today show was designed to give Perot a national platform to jab back at critics.

WASHINGTON - Persistent reports of robocalls incorrectly telling voters that they can cast ballots over the phone and fears of aggressive challenges by monitors at polling places threaten to mar Election Day in many key states, voting-rights advocates said Monday. The fake phone calls, some of which involve live callers, continued to crop up in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, primarily among African-American voters, said Barbara Arnwine, of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The group has mounted a counteroffensive of tens of thousands of calls reminding voters they can't cast ballots over the phone.

Calling this the bout he has wanted for years, Chad Dawson said he understands his first responsibility when he fights Bernard Hopkins on Oct. 15 in Los Angeles for Hopkins' WBC world light-heavyweight championship belt. "You've got to be a master boxer," Dawson said Wednesday. "On Oct. 15, that's what I'm going to do - be a master boxer. " The result, he said, will be clear-cut. "Bernard can't touch me. He won't touch me, and I'm going to prove that," Dawson said, adding later on a conference call: "There's no way Bernard Hopkins is going to beat me. There's no way. " He did throw in one little caveat, about the judges.

SHOCKING! Electoral fraud in Philadelphia! These of electoral shenanigans have been going on for decades, but the recent dirty tricks removed any doubt that the City Commissioners' office lacks any shred of integrity. Philadelphia's corrupt election system is designed to keep an immoral gang in power forever. Naturally, neither Mayor Nutter, Party chief Bob Brady or D.A. Seth Williams have any comment, tacitly supporting the morally bankrupt Democratic machine. The City Commissioners' office ought to be independently run by civil servants, not ward heelers.

Elections in Philadelphia have long been messy affairs where dead people have been known to vote, street money influences turnout, and fights erupt at polling places. But who knew dirty tricks were also being carried out by a high-level official inside the city agency in charge of conducting nonpartisan elections? Renee Tartaglione, the former chief deputy of the elections office, funneled tens of thousands of dollars from the Democratic City Committee to the wards run by her mother and then-jailed husband, while also distributing bogus sample ballots designed to mislead voters who wanted to support her husband's political enemy, State Rep. Angel Cruz (D., Phila.

State Rep. Curt Schroder of Chester County wasn't worried about the Republican primary in spring 2006. He was running unopposed. All he needed to do was get enough voters to sign his nominating petitions. But in February - around the time his petitions were due - Schroder's constituents began receiving peculiar telephone calls. The calls were automated. A voice told voters not to sign the petitions because Schroder "opposed property-tax reform," the legislator said Friday.

The birth of our democracy took place right here in Philadelphia. That's just one reason to be especially troubled that people in our area are trying to tamper with the voting process by scaring voters away from the polls. A few weeks ago, fliers were posted on the Drexel University campus falsely warning students that undercover police officers would be waiting at voting booths on Election Day to arrest anyone with so much as an outstanding parking ticket. This deliberate misinformation appears to be part of a broader effort to intimidate voters.

In exposing electricians leader and failed legislative candidate John J. Dougherty for his union's sleazeball campaign tactics against Michael Nutter in last year's Democratic mayoral primary, the city Board of Ethics has proven its worth as a watchdog. The board's dogged pursuit of the truth behind the dirty tricks by the political committee for Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers should mean future Philadelphia elections are less likely to be tainted by Local 98's despicable scams and smear tactics.

Useless talk As we approach the day that could define this country's future, it becomes increasingly more frustrating. The "fluff" just continues to come from each side. The latest example of useless talk is the bailout amendment to increase the FDIC insurance protection from $100,000 to $250,000. Introduced by the liberal Sen. Christopher Dodd, it is just another waste of words and paper. Let's say I had more than $100,000 to put in the bank (yeah, right), am I too stupid not to know that all I have to do is put it in different banks?

A Republican who lost a primary bid for the state House has filed a lawsuit against Rep. John M. Perzel (R., Phila.), alleging the onetime speaker was behind a slanderous dirty-tricks campaign. Lowell R. Gates, a tax lawyer from Mechanicsburg, alleged in the suit filed Tuesday in Cumberland County Court that Perzel orchestrated a series of anonymous robo-calls to voters in the 88th House District. Among other things, the recorded phone messages said that Gates had committed crimes and that Gov. Rendell and State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo, both Philadelphia Democrats, had given money to his campaign, none of which was true.

BY ENDORSING the three overarching principles of the Committee of Seventy's Ethics Agenda, the city's mayoral candidates are talking the talk. Now they need to walk the walk. Ethics means more than awarding contracts on merit, avoiding conflicts of interest and increasing public access to the governmental process. It also means conducting ethical campaigns. That's never been easy in the rough-and-tumble of Philadelphia politics. It's harder than ever with the explosion of "new media": the Internet with its e-mail blasts and blogs, precision-targeted phone campaigns and micro-marketed cable TV ads. Just as Philadelphians can no longer tolerate the atmosphere of corruption that has so tarnished our city's image, we no longer will stand for campaigning that hurts our community and makes it difficult to work together after the election.