Going Negative In York County.

The House District 29 race in York, Chester, and Cherokee Counties is quickly going negative.

The first attack comes from incumbent Democrat Representative Dennis Moss who defeated this year’s rematch challenger Republican Danny Stacy by 63 votes two years ago.

The ad appeared in a York County publication and posts two letters to editors of area newspapers.

One letter comes from Martha Elmore of Gaffney who urges voters to research their candidates before casting their votes alleging that, “We have candidates seeking office who are dishonest, untrustworthy and immoral.”

Ms. Elmore makes vague accusations of immoral behavior and “unsavory business practices that have lead (sic) to numerous lawsuits.”

The second letter, from Mr. Dean McKinney of Gaffney, states, “In recent primaries, Chester and York Counties voted a republican candidate in, that has never come close to winning in Cherokee County, where he lives.”

Representative Moss adds a call to action, “Please be advised only two people are seeking to represent you in District 29 in the State House. We encourage you, the voters, to check out the validity of these letters with your neighbors. If it contains facts, then we believe you only have one choice…”

We discounted the writing style and grammatical errors in the letters and print advertisement which alone could indicate that all three pieces were written by the same person, but dedicated to truth, we took a portion of Representative Moss’ advice.

We went beyond asking neighbors, though. We researched verifiable facts and first person accounts.

First, we looked at Ms. Elmore’s charge of immorality, and under the knowledge that, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” we learned that according to Mrs. Stacy, she and her husband have been married for nearly 42 years. While that may not disprove infidelity, a 42 year marriage indicates that Mrs. Stacy thinks enough of her husband to remain with him for over four decades

We also took Mrs. Stacy’s response to charges questioning her husband’s business practices.

According to Mrs. Stacy, “He ran his own business for 35 years. Financially, there were good times and bad, but he never failed to meet a payroll or provide for our family. He provided jobs for hundreds of people through the years and made a great impact on the area’s economy.”

Next we examined Mr. McKinney’s claim that Mr. Stacy has never received electoral support in his home county of Cherokee. Mr. Stacy has previous experience in public office where he served four years on the Cherokee County School Board.

With respect to the 2006 general election, of the 15 total House district 29 precincts in Cherokee County, including “Absentee” ballots, Mr. Stacy won nearly 50% of the precincts in the county. Examining the fact that more than 240 votes were determined to be fraudulent in that election, there is a distinct possibility that election fraud was more extensive and that Mr. Stacy’s totals could have been closer with additional Moss votes being discarded in the counting process.

These facts seem to negate the claims made by Representative Moss’ campaign and those who signed their names to the letters to the editor.

We hope that as this race continues to unfold, Mr. Stacy will answer Representative Moss’ charges so the voters of House District 29 will have a clearer picture of the candidates seeking their votes.

The original contest in 2006 was decided by 63 votes with Dennis Moss garnering 4610 and Danny Stacy earning 4547.

That’s the truth.