Ad depicting Conway in ski mask denounced

• A campaign flier depicting Del. Conway in a ski mask is attracting criticism on the Lower Shore.
• The critics include Conway's opponent, Delmar Mayor Carl Anderton.
• The flier's author was apparently unaware of the Shore's political traditions, an expert says.

Politics happens.

But rarely does it express itself on the Eastern Shore as fiercely or negatively as it does in other places, political experts say. Manners still matter.

So when a photo of Delegate Norman Conway, D-38B, was digitally altered to show him wearing a ski mask of the sort favored by certain bank robbers, even his opponent called it "shameful."

Carl Anderton, a Republican and the mayor of Delmar, Maryland, sought to distance himself as far as possible Monday from the mailer, which was produced by the Maryland Republican Party. It began showing up in mailboxes across the Wicomico County-centered district during the weekend.

Anderton said he had no knowledge of the flier's existence until someone texted him about during the weekend, and he had no hand in its creation.

"I have no need to do anything remotely close to that. My campaign is jobs, getting our economic picture straight and can we please stop voting for so many tax hikes when we can barely survive as it is," he said.

As for the state party's mailer, he added: "That's big-city politics."

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It is only a matter of weeks before the Nov. 4 election decides who will represent the Lower Shore in the state House and Senate and several other important state and local offices.

The primaries are in the past, and the political fire is no longer friendly. But candidates of both parties would do well to mind certain boundaries with their audience, said Salisbury University political science professor Adam Hoffman.

"It is quite rare in these local state races" for campaign materials to get as negative as the recent anti-Conway one, Hoffman said.

Such negative ads are often the work of "campaigns that perceive that they are in trouble" and feel they need to pull off a "Hail Mary move" to discourage people from voting for the opponent.

But there's a big risk: "If it's too negative and perceived by voters are distasteful, it could easily backfire," Hoffman said.

The headline on the two-sided, one-page ad declares: "Maryland Families Can't Trust Norm Conway ... He's Not on Our Side." In addition to the ski mask image, there's a picture on the other side in which a shadow of jail bars is cast across a waving Conway.

The mailer cites several of Conway's House votes since 2009 as evidence that the longtime Shore representative is soft on crime.

Conway denounced the mailer as a "dirty trick" and said its "statements don't necessarily jibe with the synopsis of the bills."

It questions Conway's support of:

• Expanding a needle exchange program in Baltimore that aims to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS among heroin users.

• Prohibiting the death penalty in cases in which state prosecutors' cases rely solely on evidence provided by eyewitnesses. The mailer claims the change "effectively repeal(ed) the death penalty." Maryland lawmakers did vote to repeal the death penalty in 2013; the mailer doesn't mention that Conway voted against the repeal.

• In the words of the mailer, "giv(ing) criminals a college education — paid for by victims — and allow them to use that education to reduce their sentences."

The education program was already in place before Conway and other lawmakers acted in 2012. The new law allowed certain inmates for the first time to reduce their sentences by up to 60 days for completing a high school diploma or equivalency degree, a two- or four-year college degree or other types of certifications.

State budget scorers estimated it would save about $435,000 in incarceration costs per year. Critics contended the bill stood to inappropriately cut prison time for rapists and other violent offenders.

• Allowing repeat drug offenders to serve probation before judgment and reducing the penalty to a citation for those charged with indecent exposure and other minor crimes.

Joe Cluster, executive director of the Maryland Republican Party and the mailer's author, said its presentation may be flawed, but its message isn't.

"Did I go a little overboard on pictures? Maybe," Cluster said. "It's a little shocking but so are his votes. We have a heroin epidemic in Baltimore city, and he keeps supplying them with free needles, and I don't think the people of the Shore would agree with that."

The Conway-Anderton race isn't the only one on the Shore with a personal twist. Delegate Mike McDermott, R-38B-Worcester, has taken to calling his state Senate opponent, incumbent Sen. Jim Mathias, D-38-Worcester, "Liberal Jim."

Campaign signs direct voters to www.LiberalJim.com, which redirects them to a more than 2,800-word, anti-Mathias essay on McDermott's official campaign site.

Talking about an opponent's record isn't negative-campaigning, McDermott said.

"I think there needs to be a distinction drawn between campaigning that is negative and somehow that pointing out the record of your opponent is negative," he added.

Mathias said his record of opposing gun restrictions, same-sex marriage and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants suggests he is anything but a dyed-in-the-wool liberal.

jcox6@dmg.gannett.com

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