RIP campaign card sparks controversy

Manigault supports mailing from state GOP, but 'not behind it.'


October 16, 2007|By JAMES WENSITS Tribune Political Writer

SOUTH BEND Â? A campaign mailing from the state Republican Party to South Bend residents is generating controversy. The card pictured a tombstone surrounded by a desolate landscape. The epitaph:

"RIP. Here lies South Bend, a once vibrant city now abandoned by business, overrun by violent crime and driving people from their family homes because of high property taxes."

On the reverse side, the mailing accuses Mayor Stephen Luecke, the Democratic incumbent, of having "neglected our city and allowed it to die."

The message is destructive, Luecke says.

"It saddens me, it tears down our city. It's the worst kind of campaigning," he said. "A lot of people are very upset about it and they should be," Luecke said, noting he has heard from residents as well as a couple of business people.

Republican mayoral challenger Juan Manigault expressed support for the message, but said he had nothing to do with sending it.

He said the mailing is not negative campaigning.

"This is the truth," he said. "This is where the city is headed. This is what the city has become."

That support drew a rebuke from the mayor's campaign.

"We were very disappointed that they would attack the city that way," said Mary Downes, Luecke's campaign manager.

"For someone who wants to be mayor, to attack the city and say the city is dead isn't very mayoral," Downes commented.

The message never mentions Manigault by name. Robert Vane, spokesman for the Indiana Republican Party, said the mailing was authorized and paid for by the state party, and confirmed that it was not sent out in coordination with the Manigault campaign.

Vane said the mailing targeted South Bend voters in general and was not, as far as he knew, mailed only to Democrats.

Oddly, Luecke said he received one of the cards, while Manigault said he did not.

"It accurately portrays the feelings of people we have talked to," Vane said. "We don't think the city Mayor Luecke is describing is the city we hear about on a daily basis."

Instead, Vane said, South Bend has problems "and Manigault is talking about them."

South Bend resident Fern Hamlin, who said she is a Democrat, was particularly incensed by the message on one side of the card which said "Vote against Mayor Steve Luecke on November 6th."

"I thought, 'you can't get much more negative then to say vote against someone,'æ" Hamlin said, complaining that the card never said which candidate voters should support.

"Presumably, they'd be happy if you wrote in the Libertarian or the Communist candidate," Hamlin said. "They don't care who you vote for as long as you vote against Steve Luecke."

"To say South Bend is going downhill, I personally don't think it is," said Jason Koski, a South Side resident who received the mailing.

Koski said he believes that some parts of the city are going down hill, but not all.

The mailing left him with mixed feelings, said Koski, who declined to say which candidate he supports because, "I don't give my opinions out."

John Monk, another South Side resident, said he had neither a positive nor a negative reaction to the mailing, which he labeled as a political advertisement. "I took it for what it was," Monk said.

"I know South Bend is not in good shape," Monk added. "We've lost a lot of manufacturing. We've lost WSBT, they wouldn't stay here."

At the same time, Monk said, "I don't like the way people are treating the city."

Reiterating his campaign message, Manigault maintained that almost half of South Bend's households earn less than $30,000, the city has 3,400 abandoned homes, crime is increasing, companies are leaving the city and 56 percent of students in South Bend schools qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch.

"This is a wake-up call," Manigault said of the card's message. "I'm not interested in seeing South Bend become another Gary."

Luecke called the mailing "a slap in the face to all the good neighborhoods, the good people and the good businesses of South Bend."

The mayor said the message is "certainly not the perception I have of our community," and shows "a considerable difference in vision" between the two candidates.

Staff writer James Wensits:
(574) 235-6353

South Bend Tribune Articles