CALIFORNIA: Anti-Gay Flyer Roils Small Town City Council Campaign

James Mills reports at Frontiers:

In mid-February, some Rancho Mirage voters opened their mailboxes to find an anti-gay postcard attacking openly gay Councilmember Scott Hines with the message “Send Hines Packing Back to Palm Springs (where he belongs).” The postcards feature a shirtless picture of Hines with a caption in rainbow-colored lettering that says “No More ‘Fab’ Party Guy Scotty.” The letters of the message line up vertically to spell out “FAGS.” The mailing was sent out without a return address, so no one knows who sent it. Hines, an educational technology company CEO and former Air Force Intelligence officer, has been careful not to point any fingers, but many residents suspect the postcards came from his campaign opponents, a group Hines sometimes refers to as “The Gang of Four.”

Hines opponents, which include an openly gay man, adamantly deny having sent the flyer and suggest it may have come from a Hines supporter who wants to make them look bad. One opponent has even filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission and demanded that all candidates take a lie detector test. During Hines' last election campaign, voters got robocalls which declared that Hines would "infect" Rancho Mirage with "Palm Springs-style" values. Hit the link for more. (Tipped by JMG reader Leif)