Rishell’s Campaign Lies Again
By RHarrison | 18 September 2007 | Jeanette Rishell, 50th HOD District | 29 Comments
Over the weekend, Greg and I both reported on an outrageous flier sent out by Jeanette Rishell. Among other things, the flier claimed that Jackson Miller was only pretending to care about illegal immigrants and that he had voted to raise his own pay.
She repeated these claims today in a phone message.
The message repeated all of the claims made in the mailer. “Jackson Miller lined his own pocket.” “He only pretends to care about the problem of illegal aliens.” “He voted to raise his own pay.” Over the weekend, I assumed the mailing was a mistake, the work of an over-zealous staffer. Apparently not. It is the basis of her campaign.
As has been established, Miller has never voted to raise his own pay: not while he was on the Manassas City Council and not while he was in Richmond. Moreover, he hasn’t had an opportunity to do so, as no bills to raise legislators’ pay were considered while Miller was on the Manassas City Council or in the General Assembly. The statement was the most provably blatant lie I have ever seen in politics.
Miller’s record on illegal immigration speaks for itself. He was among the first to identify the issue as a major problem and put his political career on the line trying to do something about it on the Manassas City Council. He successfully passed several major bills through the House this year to address the problem (although all were killed in the Senate.) Miller’s record on illegal immigration is at least as good as any other politician in Virginia, if not the country.
While the statement that he is “pretending” cannot be proven to be a lie like Rishell’s other statement, it is still absurd - especially coming from a person who opposed Miller’s stand on illegal immigration last year.
It appears that Rishell is going to make a habit out of making stuff up about Miller. They can’t find anything wrong with Miller or his record, so they are just going to lie and hope nobody notices. At issue here are not opinions. As a simple factual matter, Miller did not vote to raise his own pay. Rishell has now made this claim twice, with nothing to back it up either time.
I have been involved in dozens of campaigns. All involve differing opinions. Some were heated. Some were nasty. But this is stupid. Rishell is just making stuff up about a well-respected member of our community, stuff that is ridiculously easy to disprove.
Over the past two years, I have frequently defended Jeanette Rishell. I disagreed with her positions, but thought she was a decent person. I was wrong. Rishell is shredding her own reputation in a quixotic quest for public office. This is not the first example of someone trading their integrity for votes, but it is perhaps the dumbest.
What’s next? Claims that Miller is an illegal alien?
UPDATE: Here is an audio of the phone message that the Rishell campaign has been leaving on people’s answering machines in the district. This is pretty unbelievable.
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Just received a msg on my answering machine from her campaign confirming what you have stated above. Apparently they are using the phones in addition fo flyers.
I received a message today as well and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She must be REALLY desperate to stoop this low.
I just deleted the one off my machine. How did that she-clown get my phone number? Manassas Park probably sells the personal information of their few citizens that are left in order to subsidize their illegal sanctuary policies…
Rishell is simply using the “Chapman Method”…tell the same lies often enough and somebody is going to believe you.
I did a little research and you are wrong in calling Rishell a lier. On April 24, 2006 Jackson Miller voted for a Fiscal Year 2007 Operating Budget (Ordinance #O-2006-26). The budget included a pay raise of $3,300 for City Council members. If thats not voting for a pay raise then I don’t know what is. So I would hope you get your facts straight next time before you start calling someone a lier.
AWCheney: “Rishell is simply using the “Chapman Method”…tell the same lies often enough and somebody is going to believe you.”
Actually that ‘method’ goes back a ways….
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
– Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945
I received the same phone call as well. Funny how this is a race for the House of Delegates, yet she is pointing out his record not from his last year as a Delegate, but when he was a member of the City Council.
“So I would hope you get your facts straight next time before you start calling someone a lier [sic].”
Indeed. Because if she was standing, she would be considered a “stander”, not a “lier”. You can lie through your teeth, or lie down, but one who doesn’t tell the truth is a LIAR.
You guys need to get out their and volunteer for the good guy, Im sure hed love to have more volunteers to his campaign, otherwise people not active in their community will believe this woman.
While we all are entitled to our own opinion; we are
not entitled to our own set of facts.
Jackson Miller, while serving on the Manassas City Council,
DID NOT recieve a pay increase. That is a fact and one
that could be easily verified. In fact, no pay increase
was granted to the Mayor or any Councilmember
(me included) during that period.
Hope this helps to set the record straight on this issue.
Anonymous said on 18 Sep 2007 at 5:13 pm:
I did a little research and you are wrong in calling Rishell a lier. On April 24, 2006 Jackson Miller voted for a Fiscal Year 2007 Operating Budget (Ordinance #O-2006-26). The budget included a pay raise of $3,300 for City Council members. If thats not voting for a pay raise then I don’t know what is. So I would hope you get your facts straight next time before you start calling someone a lier.
>>
To expound upon Councilman Randolph’s comment, There is a $3220 increase in the General Fund for the City Council over FY 2006, but if you’ll read a bit further, page 107 of the FY 2007 Budget Report, you will find this statement under the heading City Council “Budget Highlights”:
“The operating budget reflects maintenance level funding with $2,210 add costs for internal service charges and $4,090 reduction for salary and benefits.”
So as you can quite clearly read for yourself, the vote on 24 April 2006 (and then again on the 26th) to pass Ordinance #2006-26 actually put in place a $4400 REDUCTION in the members’ pay. Unless Miller lines his pockets with lint, he could not have found anything added there from this vote.
When you’re dealing with such small potatoes as Chapman and Rishell, the “Chapman Method” should be fine.
“So I would hope you get your facts straight next time before you start calling someone a lier.”
As my brilliant child who CAN actually do research has pointed out Anonymous (5:13 PM), you might want to recant your statement.
BTW, my previous comment (8:11) was meant for es_la_ley.
City of Manassas Fiscal Year 2007 Annual Operating Budget
(July 1, 2006 - June 30,2007) Book. ( Anyone is welcome
to review this document at the Clerk’s office at city hall).
Page 107 - City Council budget - please read the full page.
The City Council line actually went down $1,880 while
our yearly external audit cost went up $5,220 - thus,
the increase of $3,320.
The yearly external audit is of all city records and is done
for and paid for by the governing body.
Hope this helps.
Mr. Randolph,
Thank you for clearing up the issue. I believe the fact you are a sitting Councilman who was serving at the time in question is better then any political campaign literature.
For those of you who don’t know, Steve Randolph has served on the Manassas City Council for several years. He is also the only non-Republican member of the council. He is an Independent.
If anyone would know what happened at the City Council meeting, it would be Steve. You can see the numbers for yourself at http://www.manassascity.org/documents/Finance/Budget/07ADBudget.pdf
Is it possible that Rishell’s campaign simply misread the Manassas City budget? That would make this whole incident just slightly less funny then Chapman forgetting to file his nomination papers.
The bottom line is still this - neither the Manassas City Council nor the Virginia General Assembly received a raise while Miller was a member. So reguardless of why, Rishell’s mailer and phone calls are dishonest.
“Is it possible that Rishell’s campaign simply misread the Manassas City budget?”
Perhaps, RH, but that still would not explain the blatant lies regarding Jackson Miller’s record on the illegal alien issue. Given that, I rather doubt that any other “mistakes” might be an accident.
I would also like to know what votes in Richmond that Miller made that personally lined his pockets???
That claim seems to be even more bizarre than him voting for his own payraise. I would think if a freshman delegate tried to get away with that the media would have devoured him alive. You would also have to think that other challengers across the state would be using the same attack against other delegates. This is the only race that I have heard this claim this year.
Does anyone have any idea what votes she is talking about where he was “enriched” by the votes he made?
I wish I could put a photo copy of the flyer on BVBL but since I can’t I will quote you some of the statements. Yes, we got the negative campaign flyer in the mail.
On the front it says: “Three Card Jackson Miller” with pictures of playing cards. On the first card it says: “Voted to Increase His Own Pay” On card number 2 it says: “Voted for Development Projects to Benefit Himself” On card number 3 it says: “Skipped or Was Late For 25% of All Manassas Council Meetings in 2006″. Also in very small letters on the lower left of the corner it says “Paid for and authorized by Friends of Jeanette Rishell.”
On the back it says: “Jackson Miller is Dealing Us a Bad Hand”,
“Miller has promised to fix the problem of illegal immigration, but he seems to be more interested in filling his own pockets.”
It continues with “It’s sad but true, Delegate Jackson Miller is better at serving himself than serving his district. When he’s down in Richmond, he votes to line his own pockets with pay raises but does nothing to help his constituents get ahead.”
“From supporting development projects that benefit him to skipping meetings, Miller is long on talk but short on results.”
“Now, he’s doing a lot of talking about illegal immigration, but he’s still just stacking the deck for himself.”
“It’s the same old Jackson Miller game, but we’re not playing along anymore.”
“Jackson Miller: When He’s down in Richmond, He’s dealing you a Bad Hand.”
It also has pictures of poker chips with a picture of Jackson Miller on the Joker card. Well, I went long on this but I decided you need to get the whole message.
I guess Rishell has to resort to negative campaigning early on in this race. She doesn’t have anything to offer. Maybe people will find out that she was/is involved with Unity in the Community.
She lives in Manassas Park. Has she done anything to help combat illegal aliens in Manassas Park? I’m sure those of you who live there can answer that question.
Those phone calls only make people mad. They will hurt her more than they help her. I’ll bet people got them at dinner time. They need to include these types of calls in the “do not call” register. Make it illegal to do.
I should like to point out folks…although my son doesn’t follow the blogs, he has a GREAT DEAL more sense than the imposter!
And he also knows that I’m his Mom. Hehehe…jerk.
For the benefit of anyone who did not see the comment that prompted mine (thanks for deleting Greg), someone came on here claiming to be my son…and very obviously was not.
Does anyone know who paid for the call as required by law to disclose at the end of the message? Was it Rischell’s campaign or Democatic Party f Virginia? If it was DPVA then we need to have a press conference here in Richmond fast. Someone let me know…or one of these calls on tape is even better.
Audio link has been added at the bottom of the post.
The file is at http://www.bvbl.net/audio/Rishellmudsling18Sep07.wav
Just got more Jeanette Junk Mail. I’ve taken it to Greg. Hopefully, we will see it soon. We all know he’s a busy man.
Here’s one line I do remember exactly.
“With Jackson Miller in Richmond, we get one bad trick after another.” Top read “Jackson Miller is a shell of a delegate.”
Support and vote for Jackson.
The mail pieces have the disclaimer, “Paid for and authorized by Friends of Jeanette Rishell.”
Janet’s flyer is trash. There is not substance in it. Just weak attempts at telling people what they want to hear without believing in it. It is so clear when you read the document. Garbage in Garbage out…