Sign-stealing claim investigated (excerpt)

Ruben campaign provides no evidence that lawn signs were taken from her neighborhood

First things first, because you should know the source of this post. I'm a journalist; I edit and publish a newsletter, Endangered Species & Wetlands Report (www.eswr.com) It's a for-profit operation.

I've lived in Takoma Park, on Poplar Avenue in the Circle Woods neighborhood (explaining the blog's URL). Hondo Homers is to old Senator Frank Howard, who hit a lot of homers at RFK. Also, because that's the first thing that came to me.

I support Jamie Raskin; I even have one of his signs in my front yard. But more than almost anything else, I hate sloppy journalism (I've occasionally been a perpetrator myself throughout 20-plus years of it), and politicians', shall we say, misstatements.

On Aug. 14, Paul Chrostowski, Takoma Park resident and staunch supporter of incumbent Sen. Ida Ruben, posted the paragraph below on "Gil's" blog. It didn't appear until sometime after that date, perhaps as much as 10 days after. The Voice had a technical problem and the comments were lost for a while in computer limbo, and then retrieved.

"Jamie Raskin has run one of the most negative campaigns in Maryland history. He has called Senator Ruben a 'conservative right winger' a 'supporter of Bush's war' and a 'corrupt back room politician.' At the candidates forum, his supporters called Senator Ruben an 'old hag.' The Raskin campaign has twice stolen hundreds of lawn signs from Senator Ruben's neighborhood. When are people going to wake up to what this campaign is all about?"

When I saw that, I thought, wow, can all that be true? But no sources were cited for the quotes or the lawn-sign claim. And "Gil" simply accepted the comment at face value, saying (on the main page of the blog, http://www.takoma.com/granola/):

"This IS depressing, Dear Readers! Usually yard sign hooliganism happens in the campaign’s last week - most often in the last few days. This must be an indication of the high emotions the Raskin - Rueben [she's still not a sandwich, Gil] race is generating. Gilbert hates this “Feud-al Phase" and is disgusted that it has started so early. Forget about issues, from now on it will be all about allegations of dirty tactics, outrageous acts, and fighting words that serve only to crank up the ire of already-committed voters. Bleh!"

Whatever. In the original posting and still, no sources have been cited for the incendiary charges.

I sent a comment in to "Gil" on the 24th or 25th of August, soon after I read the Chrostowski comment on "Granola Park." I don't recall exactly when -- I used the comment form on the site and have no record of it (it hasn't been posted). In it, I asked for substantiation of the charges made by Chrostowski.

Fri., Aug. 25: After I sent the comment, I spoke on the phone with Takoma Voice publisher and editor Eric Bond, urging him to tell/implore "Gil" to vet comments before they're posted. Later in the day, after noticing that "Gil" had not posted my entreaty, I decided to go ahead and check into the whole mess myself.

I called Raskin's campaign headquarters. Luckily, he was right there and willing to talk. His initial reaction was to say he had not uttered the quotes attributed to him, but he wanted to go back and look at the record before completely disavowing them. He couldn't very well speak to the veracity of the alleged quote from a supporter(s), because, well, he's not alleged to have said it. (As you'll see below, however, Chrostowski says the quotes aren't public record.)

On the more serious charge of the lawn signs, however -- remember, Chrostowski said unequivocally, "The Raskin campaign has twice stolen hundreds of lawn signs from Senator Ruben's neighborhood" -- he responded directly and forcefully:

"The claim that our campaign has stolen any of Ida Ruben's signs, much less hundreds, is a baldfaced lie. It is pure fiction and fantasy--I challenge anybody to come up with a shred of evidence for that.

"This is reflective of the desperation tactics of a losing campaign," he added.

During my fact-gathering foray, I have made no secret of the fact that I'm supporting Raskin, which is not uncommon in Takoma Park. But I wanted to find the source of the quotes and see if there was anything to the sign-boosting charge -- certainly the most explosive of the allegations, especially since it it alleged to have happened (twice!) in Ruben's own neighborhood.

In a voice mail to me, Chrostowski backed down, saying he had "no direct evidence that this is the Raskin campaign doing this." But, he added, it certainly wasn't the Ruben campaign, and "it wasn't public officials trying to clean litter off front yards."

But the MoCo Police's Hillandale station said they have no record of a complaint of yard sign theft from Ruben's address. (They said they could not check unless they had an address, so I provided Ruben's and only Ruben's. I suppose it's possible that others complained, but neither Chrostowski nor Olivetti has provided any names of aggrieved neighbors.)

Chrostowski said some residents had sent letters to the Post and the Gazette but they had not been printed. Let's see them.

I talked to Olivetti after getting Chrostowski's voice mail, but before I had been able to speak with Chrostowski directly. When I asked Olivetti for Chrostowski's phone number, he said he didn't have it, even though Chrostowski and his wife were scheduled to co-host a fundraiser for Ruben in Takoma Park the very next day. When I asked about the lawn signs allegation, Olivetti said I should ask the man who made the comments.

Olivetti didn't say much in our brief conversation, but his demeanor (even over the phone) called to mind the Martin Short character on Saturday Night Live -- the bespectacled guy in the black suit, his cigarette butt getting longer and longer, sweating profusely under the hot lights as he says to the camera, "I didn't say that. You said that. Why would I say that?"

Except Olivetti didn't even go that far -- he simply pawned the whole thing off on Chrostowski.

"You're not going to get me to comment about something someone else wrote," he said. "The gentleman doesn't work from me. I'm got going to get involved." He added, "He's not connected with the campaign."

Under some rather skeptical questioning, Olivetti sputtered, "This is campaign headquarters and we're running a political campaign!" And Chrostowski, he said, was not "connected" with it

For his part, Chrostowski said he is not "associated" with the Ruben campaign. Yet he and his wife, Lorraine Pearsall, co-hosted a get-together/fundraiser on Sat., Aug. 26, in Takoma Park at the home of Susan Gilbert and Ronald Schechter. (See http://www.senatoridaruben.com for the invite: "Please Join Senator Ruben For a Midsummer's Night Jazz Featuring Marcus Johnson, Jazz Pianist." Suggested donation is $25-$40.)

The R.S.V.P. phone number is Ruben headquarters.

[By the way, Chrostowski, though not "associated" with the campaign, said the lawn signs had been put up "at the great expense of the Ruben campaign."]

But here's the kicker, folks (I buried the lede): When I asked Chrostowski for the source of the sign-stealing allegation, he said it was the Ruben campaign. With no prompting from me, he said it was Phil Olivetti -- the same guy who had already tried to wipe his hands of the matter.

By the time Chrostowski dropped that bombshell at about 6:45 p.m., giving me a sorely needed shot of adrenaline, I had already had my SNL moment with Olivetti, who had refused to answer any questions, which included whether Ruben had ever reported the thefts to police.

I spoke to the police, waiting on hold for a good five minutes until I was told by an officer -- I have her name, but I prefer to keep it out for now -- that there had been no phone calls from that address in the last six months. So the police have no record of a complaint from the senator about the theft of lawn signs. If there is one, I wasn't able to get hold of it.

I have sent a follow-up email to voteruben@aol.com -- It says, "Chrostowski says you [Olivetti] told him about the signs."

In the body of the email, I said," Please, can you comment?

"Thanks

"Steve Davies"

Monday morning (Aug. 28) update: No response yet from Olivetti or Ruben.