There You Go Again...
More dirty attacks, Confirmations of lies.It's the 11th hour and the personal, negative attacks have started again. Just like Lee Hawkins did in his race for the State Senate Lee Hawkins has chosen to attack Tom Graves. He did it before the May 11th Special General Election and now he has continued this style of campaigning during the run-off election.
Having supported Democrats including Roy Barnes for Governor, Max Cleland for US Senate, and switching parties a few years ago, it is certainly a challenge for former Democrat Lee Hawkins to try and convince people he is anything close to a conservative, much less a Republican.
Therefore, instead of having a record he is able to stand on and promote, he has resorted to false, negative, personal and overtly dramatized attacks on Tom Graves.
Lee Hawkins' strategy to win this election all along has been to tear down Tom Graves, dating all the way back to the first few months after Lee entered the race. He has been diving in the dumpsters in order to find any shred of potential negative material to launch personal attacks against Tom Graves throughout the news media and now in mailers across the district.
The first sign of this strategy appeared when Lee Hawkins sent voters a mailer where he altered official court documents, added a stamp misspelling the word "JUDGEMENT" and eliminated the official court issued cancellation.
From this point on, we knew then that this would be the direction Lee Hawkins would take his campaign.
Now, after finishing 12 points behind Tom, Lee Hawkins is at it again throwing all the mud he can in order to save his political career. This is why he is once again pushing a lawsuit story.
Lee Hawkins has said multiple times he has had no involvement whatsoever with spreading this story. This simply is not true. Lee lied.
Here are the facts:
- On May 28, 2010 Lee Hawkins repeatedly denied any involvement in the dirty campaign tactics that have been launched during the last few days. However, above documents directly contradict Hawkins misleading claims.
There is a reason all this has been stirred up. It is because Lee Hawkins has been digging in the dumpsters for months. Had we wanted to, we could have released a slew of personal attacks on our opponent. As a campaign, we made the conscious decision not to. The goal was to stay focused on the issues facing the district and the nation. Lee Hawkins refuses to discuss these issues.
In response to these personal, negative attacks, here are even more facts:
- Lee Hawkins said that Tom had a "JUDGEMENT" against him. In an attempt to dramatize this issue, Lee Hawkins altered this official court document by placing a misspelled "JUDGEMENT" stamp across it and eliminating the court's "Cancelled" stamp.
- One of Tom's companies was frivolously sued. Lee Hawkins claimed that Tom was currently being sued, but what he failed to show you was that the suit had been dismissed by the plaintiffs.
- Tom was sued on a personal guarantee on a past business venture.
- Tom's name has been included only because he was a loan guarantor in the business.
- Tom and his business partner have strong legal defenses and a counter suit against the bank for damages for the bank's breach of contract and fraud.
- On May 12th - a day after Tom finished first in the May 11th Special General Election - the bank amended the original lawsuit and claimed another false, fraudulent claim. Tom and his legal team are working to have this baseless claim dismissed.
- As of April 10, 2010 The Bartow County Bank is under consent order by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
- "I have called them about 10 times, maybe 15. I would love to make the loan current. They won't even talk to me..." said Edens, the current owner of the property. (excerpt from AJC article)
Tom's Statement:
"It has been brought to my attention that several news agencies, including WSB News in Atlanta, are researching a lawsuit filed against me earlier this year involving a personal guaranty I signed in connection with the financing of a past business venture. The litigation involves complicated issues of fact and law. I have filed my own claims against the plaintiff in this lawsuit because I suffered damages as a result of its broken promises to me. This country has a judicial system in place where business disputes like this lawsuit can be successfully and fairly resolved, and I am fully confident that a satisfactory resolution will be reached once all the facts have come to light."
"It is unfortunate that my opponent resorts to trying to tear good men down in order to advance his political career. Right before the May 11th Special Election, my opponent tried these same dirty tricks when he doctored official court documents and failed to tell voters that a frivolous lawsuit was dismissed by the plaintiffs nearly two years ago. As Ronald Reagan once said "There you go again" and he has once again resorted to these 11th hour smear tactics. Georgians are tired of this type of gutter politics and voters know his campaign smear tactics did not work then and they won't work now. Our campaign will remain focused on the issues that matter in people's lives and working to stop the liberal march of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama. I challenge my opponent to join us in this effort and drop the dirty politics."
On June 3, 2010, voters yet again received another negative, personal attack in the mail from Lee Hawkins once again talking about a lawsuit. This time, they would love for you to believe that there are ethical and integrity issues involved. False. If Tom's ethical integrity were in question, why would so many proven conservative leaders be joining his campaign?
The words "Democrat" and "9th District Congressman" should NEVER go together.
On another note, here is a positive article on the charities and good actions that came out of the property in question: READ THE ARTICLE HERE
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