Gruppo mailer is called unfair -- An ad on welfare is attacked by

area NAACP official Esther Lee.

Date: October 27, 1998

A Len Gruppo campaign mailer that shows a line of people - mostly

black - waiting outside a welfare office has come under fire by a

local NAACP leader.

"This is an unfair picture," said Esther Lee, vice president of the

Bethlehem chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People and chairwoman of the United Northampton County Council

of Republican Women.

Of the 11 people in the picture, only two appear to be white, and the

rest appear to be black.

"He need not use black folks in a welfare ad," Lee said, "because the

proportions that appear in the ad are not the proportion that appears

on welfare rolls."

"I don't think our people would be amused if they got this in the

mail," she said. "Election Day will tell the tale."

Lee said she still supports Gruppo, a Republican, in his campaign

against Democrat Lisa Boscola for the 18th Senate District. But Lee

said she will call him to complain about the ad.

"I want him to win, but I want him to win the fair way," she said.

Gruppo is a 20-year member of the state House.

Boscola, who also is in the state House, said she also objects to the

picture in the ad.

"I can't believe he used this photo," she said. "I think it's kind of

racist. Not everyone on welfare is black."

"What do they want us to do? Use fake people?" said Gruppo's campaign
director, Suzanne O'Berry.

Boscola will present the ad today, along with numerous other Gruppo

ads, to the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, she said. Boscola

said she will ask the league to declare Gruppo in violation of his

pledge to conduct a fair and honest campaign.

One section in the league's eight-part pledge, signed by both

candidates, reads "I pledge to condemn any appeals to prejudice."

Boscola accused Gruppo of lying and conducting a "sleazy" negative

campaign that distorts her record. In a letter to Gruppo last week,

she called for him to apologize for his campaign tactics.

"I've never seen such a sleazy campaign," Boscola said. "It's all

about distortions of my record."

"Every single piece he's mailed out is a lie. It's just distortions of

the truth or straight out lies a lot of the time....The way he's

conducting his campaign, this man should not be our next state

senator.

"It's an indication of his character," she said. "He ought to be

embarrassed that he's running this campaign, and I feel embarrassed

for him."

Boscola also complained that Gruppo's campaign is "stalking" her with

video cameras and tape recorders to record everything she says in

public.

Boscola blamed Gruppo's campaign tactics in part on political

consultant Tom Severson of Precision Marketing Inc. in Palmer

Township. O'Berry confirmed that Precision Marketing is working for

Gruppo, but would not confirm if Severson is personally involved.

"He is the ultimate sleazebag political consultant," Boscola said. She

said Severson recently admitted to her "that they will do anything to

win this race - lie, whatever. Because winning is all that matters."

Severson did not return phone calls Monday.

"Tom Severson would never say that," O'Berry said. That's Lisa's

immaturity coming through."

O'Berry denied that Gruppo is running a negative campaign, and said

Boscola started with negative ads first by airing radio ads in which

people hissed and booed at Gruppo's name.

"We didn't run our first negative ad until two weeks after she ran her

negative ad," she said.

"It would never have gotten to this point if she didn't launch the

first missile, and we had to respond ....We would have loved to run

this campaign on the issues."

O'Berry said she believes Boscola's radio ad violated the League of

Women Voters pledge. She said she complained to the league but was

told it no longer investigates whether a candidate broke the pledge.

O'Berry said other evidence that Boscola is running a negative

campaign includes an ad titled "Wish you were here," which criticizes

Gruppo's expenses while on an official trip to New Orleans; and an ad

about Gruppo's legislative expenses that says "Where's the money,

Lenny."

Boscola objected to the substance of the ad with the welfare photo,

titled "Here's why we can't trust what Lisa Boscola says."

The red, white and black mailer features a large, grainy,

black-and-white picture of Boscola - a picture Boscola called "lousy."

Boscola said the ad distorts her voting record and uses her words out

of context. The ad quotes a Boscola radio ad that says, "Lisa Boscola

isn't a politician," and then quotes Boscola saying "What can I say?

I'm a politician."

Boscola said her quote was recorded by Gruppo's campaign at a

candidates forum where she joked with the audience and said, "What can

I say? I'm a politician. I talk a lot."

O'Berry said "that's not a negative ad. It tells the truth. It's Lisa

Boscola's own votes, her own words. If it's offensive that's Lisa

Boscola."

On the other side of the mailer, below the welfare photograph, the ad

reads "Boscola says she's for welfare reform. But she cast a vote to

keep giving able-bodied 18- to 25-year-olds a welfare check."

Boscola responded that "this is absolutely incorrect, because I voted

to stop able-bodied people from getting a welfare check. It's a lie.

He is totally lying here."

"Everyone in Harrisburg knows that I cast the deciding vote on the

bill."

Next to the welfare photograph is a picture of a pornography shop

covered with neon signs that read "XXX Rated" and "Adult video

booths."

Below the picture reads, "Boscola says she's tough on crime. But she

voted against tougher penalties for pornographers who sell smut to

children."

Boscola responded that "I'm for tougher penalties for pornographers,

but using a state-wide standard. Nobody in their right mind is against

tougher penalties for pornographers."

Boscola said she voted against the bill referenced in the ad because

it would rely on local standards to determine what's obscene, rather

than state standards.

"It should be statewide standards," Boscola said, "so a local

community can't lower their standard."

The ad also reads "Boscola voted against making it tougher for

murderers to be paroled."

Boscola said she voted against the measure referenced by the ad

because it was a political vote that would have changed the state's

constitution.

"I'm very protective of our constitution, especially when it's

political," she said of the measure which would have made it a

unanimous decision of a parole board to grant parole. "It was clearly

a political vote, but it was dangerous."