In 1994 I was the Chief of Staff for then Assemblyman Wm. J. "Pete Knight. We had a total of three people on staff. Sharon Thorson and me in the Capitol and one person in the Palmdale district office.
In the early fall that year the phones just started lighting up with upset people that were convinced that the Assemblyman was a closet liberal. No mater what we told them they would scream at us that Pete Knight was this closet RINO that really was a plant. When we finally got someone sane on the phone that would talk to us we found out that the Traditional Values Coalition had sent out what seemed like umpteen million cards claiming that Pete Knight was pro-choice (and something else that I can’t remember).
Well our phones lit up. People screamed at us. No matter what we told them they did not care.
Constituents were actually calling Pete Knight’s office and telling us we were working for a closet liberal.
When I called the people in charge of the card it was too late. They were printed and out.
It appears that 59th Assembly District Republican candidate Anthony Riley is facing the same sort of problem right now. I do not envy him.
I’ve been there and it is not a good place to be…of course after this incident the only person that ever actually accused Pete Knight of being a liberal was Phil Wyman and that did not work out so well for him.