The Truth You Won’t Hear About The Rick Boyer Stolen Sign Debacle

The Campbell County Clerk of Court race is has been a pretty nasty affair so far. The Lynchburg Ledger had a front page “news” story that was really an editorial about the evils of Rick Boyer, calling him a RINO and a bunch of other four letter words. The absurdity being that Rick is anything but a RINO. When you have Ken Cuccinelli doing fundraisers for you, it’s hard to be a RINO. RINO’s don’t like Ken Cuccinelli.

After Rick had some campaign signs stolen, the News & Advance ran a story saying Rick “CLAIMED” to have campaign signs stolen.

http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/oct/15/boyer-claims-campaign-signs-stolen-ar-566325/

Rick Boyer, candidate for clerk of court in Campbell County, says his campaign signs have been stolen along U.S. 29 and U.S. 501.

Boyer claims there have been two organized large-scale thefts this week that have cost the campaign an estimated $500.

In a news release Friday, he called on Sheriff Terry Gaddy and Commonwealth’s Attorney Neil Vener to issue a public statement condemning the thefts.

“Both the sheriff and the Commonwealth’s Attorney went to the length of sending a letter to the editor to target my campaign and declare that my election could ‘harm the operations of law enforcement and potentially affect the prosecution of criminals in our county.’” Boyer stated in the release. “I hope they will issue a public statement with at least as much emotion in decrying actual illegal activity in trying to influence the clerk’s election.”

Though Boyer won the Republican endorsement, Vener, Gaddy and other county-level republicans have endorsed interim clerk Sheila Bosiger, who also sought the party endorsement.

Well, VA6th happens to have the video that the News & Advance doesn’t.

Boyer is still waiting on Bosiger to come out with a statement condemning political sign vandalism and destruction.

Now that the truth about the signs is out in the open, lets just talk about “Vener, Gaddy and the other county-level republicans” because those are the ones creating the biggest stink about the whole thing, starting with Neil Vener.

Neil Vener

The animosity Neil Vener has towards Rick Boyer dates back to 1994 when Rick Boyer ran for GOP Chairman at the age of 19 as a conservative republican. The incumbent was a moderate and Vener supported the incumbent. He hasn’t gotten any friendlier towards Boyer since then. It’s safe to say that this is nothing more than a cheap attempt at political payback. The idea that Rick Boyer is somehow incompetent to operate the clerk’s office, as Vener and Gaddy have attempted to insinuate via their letters to the editor, is downright absurd. The man was on the Board of Supervisors and just passed the Virginia Bar. Considering that he’s the only ACTUAL lawyer running for the position and held far more responsibility on the Campbell County Board of Supervisors, asserting that he can’t run the Clerk of Court’s office is downright laughable. If any of the candidates can sort through the legalese involved in working for the Courts, its Rick Boyer. In fact, he’s the only candidate actually certified by the state to practice dealing with legalese every day as a lawyer.

Sheriff Gaddy

When Rick told Sheriff Gaddy that he was running for the seat, Gaddy began by attacking Kathy Byron and Steve Newman because they “will never raise taxes enough for me to pay my deputies.” He then admitted that it wasn’t all their fault and blamed it on the Tea Party. “They don’t dare raise taxes because of the Tea Party. If it wasn’t for the Tea Party, maybe they would.” Interesting that the Sheriff considers himself a “Republican”. Perhaps one reason why so many Republicans identify themselves more with the Tea Party and less and less with the the Republican party establishment.

Steve Shockley

Steve Shockley called Rick Boyer the week after Robert Hurt’s June primary victory to tell him that although Rick hadn’t supported Hurt during the Primary, he now had an obligation to support him as the party nominee. Rick is now of course handing out Hurt literature and putting up Robert Hurt signs, but by August 13th, Shockley was supporting Sheila Bosiger against the Republican Party nominee. Whats wrong Steve? Is what’s good for the goose not good for the gander?

Charles Falwell

Charles Falwell’s opposition for Rick Boyer goes back to Rick’s days on The Campbell County Board of Supervisors.

In 2003 the Board passed a record 15% real estate tax increase. Boyer ran on and was elected on a promise to repeal that increase. In 2004 he proposed a budget that repealed that tax and cut no essential services. That budget was voted down 5-2 with only conservative Democrat Hugh Rosser supporting Boyer. Falwell voted against the money saving budget.

In 2004, Boyer was the only supervisor to oppose Preston Bryant’s state sales tax increase. Boyer and then City Councilman Robert Garber held a press conference at Lynchburg City Hall to support Steve Newman and Kathy Byron in their opposition to that tax increase. The other supervisors and constitutional officers, with the exception of Commissioner of the Revenue Calvin Massie – a small government conservative, screamed for more tax money.

In 2006 the Board considered adopting cash proffers (roughly $1700 per unit). According to Boyer, this is a per unit charge that is essentially extorted from builders and contractors “to cover costs associated with their development.” The reality is that it is a hidden Homeowner Tax that is assessed to the builder but is simply passed on to the home buyer. The home buyer doesn’t realize that the extra building cost is coming from the government and in turn only realizes that the builders are charging more, so that the anger is directed towards the contractor, not the government.

Boyer was the only supervisor to be initially against the tax increase (6-1). He rallied builders, realtors and citizens to pack the public hearing with the final vote being 7-0 against the tax increase. With the exception of that final vote, Falwell voted for every tax increase proposed while Boyer was in office. Boyer to the contrary, voted against every tax increase that came up before him. Falwell complained that the tax increases weren’t enough.

It is under that background that Falwell told Boyer “If you would run against Kathy Byron, I’d support you. But I won’t support you against Sheila Bosiger.”

Eddie Gunter

Like Falwell, Gunter voted for every tax increase during Boyer’s term as Supervisor. Likewise, his opposition to Boyer goes back the better part of the decade. A note of interest is that like the initial opposition to the Proffers vote (6-1 against Boyer), all 6 supervisors are against him. They support Bosiger.

Liberals for Bosiger

It’s interesting to note that not only do the liberal Republicans support Sheila Bosiger against Rick Boyer, but so do Tom Perriello supporters. Bosiger campaign signs have been popping up in yards next to Perriello signs all over the county.

The effort to smear Boyer as a RINO is an epic fail. The opposition to his run for Clerk has nothing to do with his ability – because he is by far the most qualified candidate given his passage of the State Bar and his experience on the Board of Supervisors. To the contrary, it has everything to do with his conservatism and refusal to budge on matters of principle and ethics.

He is the target of personal political grudges which has been born out via media slander thinly disguised as “news” as well as the targeted destruction of his campaign signs and other unethical behavior regarding sign placement (see video).