The puzzling things around Leighton Lord's AG campaign

Leighton Lord’s campaign for Attorney General has a boatload of money to spend. That is evidenced by the mail he has sent out already, his tv ads already aired, and his slick website. However, there are some puzzling things around the Lord campaign.

First, it is puzzling why the Lord campaign greatly distorts Lord’s resume. There is no need to. Lord is the managing partner of a big law firm with proven experience running a group of lawyers. Yet, the Lord campaign seems bent on stretching things a bit. On his website, Lord’s “early law enforcement career” is touted. That law enforcement career is based on Lord’s service as Counsel to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. While that was important work, it was not law enforcement work. Lord was not out arresting or prosecuting the bad guys. Indeed, calling Lord’s time working for the Senate as law enforcement is like saying that someone who was counsel to the Agriculture Committee was a farmer.

The second puzzling aspect about the Lord campaign is an “attack” radio ad aired against Lord by The America Future Fund. The ad, aired in the upstate, complains about upstate tax dollars going to the Boeing plant to be built in the Charleston area. The ad suggests that people go to a website, www.BoeingBailout.com. The website claims to be against the Boeing project because it involves tax payer money. Fair enough. But, the news articles referenced are not really hard hitting, and the reference to Leighton Lord links to his resume on his law firm’s website, which is positive. If people were looking for something that was hard hitting and damaging to Lord, the Boeing Bailout site is not it.

Further, the America Future Fund is a group that plays loose with the rules to assist conservative candidates. They are to the Right what Move On is to the Left. Lord would typically be someone such a group would support. Such groups have always lined up behind the efforts of Mark Sanford, and Mark Sanford was a proponent of the Boeing deal.

Such got the staff of VUI scratching our heads. We were so puzzled we turned to an old pro in South Carolina politics and asked him his thoughts. That old pro would not, to our chagrin, let us use his name, but what he said made us think. Here are his remarks.

“Brian, what you see here is some smart politics. That Bonnie Blue guy and the Sanford people are sharp, and they are with Lord. Look at it. Lord can cry foul over a negative ad. But, the negative ad really helps where the votes are, along the coast. An attack ad against a man for getting jobs to South Carolina in this economy? Please. This is an old set up. He is hoping Wilson’s son and that other fellow take the bait. Lord would love to be portrayed as the man who got the Boeing jobs to the Low County. And for the ad to be ran by a group that would normally support Lord, well that tells you right there what those fellows are up to. It’s sneaky as Hell, but it’s smart.”

Some words to think on. Frankly VUI does not know what to think. We offer no opinion on the matter. Maybe the Sanford styled groups are eating their own. Check out the ad below and look at the website, consider the stretches about the law enforcement experience and make your own judgments.