VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Tonight, we profile the main campaign commercials on air at this moment in a hotly-contested political race in Hampton Roads.
A rematch is set this fall between former Congressman Scott Taylor (R) and the person who unseated him in 2018, Congresswoman Elaine Luria (D), in the fight for the 2nd Congressional District seat.
The commercial begins: “I’m Elaine Luria,” and then she tells you she authorized what you are about to see, which is a 30-second commercial on an issue that probably cost Taylor his seat in 2018, and made her the newly elected Congresswoman.
For Luria, it’s the campaign issue that keeps on giving: Criminal infractions related to staffers of Taylor’s campaign 2018.
It is true, since the 2018 campaign, two of Taylor’s former campaign workers pleaded guilty to amended charges related to the forging of signatures to get Shaun Brown on the ballot to take away democratic votes from Luria. Brown and Luria are both democrats. Another former staffer has been recently indicted.
One forged signature was of a man who died, Richard Cake, whose widow is in the Luria ad.
“The last place I thought I would see his signature was forged on election forms two months after his death.”
The commercial continues: “Scott Taylor knew about this signature effort, and a judge called it ‘out and out fraud.’”
Truth tracker: That is true in part.
Taylor did know staffers were gathering signatures, which is not a crime, but Taylor claims he did not know about the forging of signatures — which is the fraud and the crime the commercial refers to.
It is also true that more than two years later, Taylor himself has not been charged. The special prosecutor says Taylor is still under investigation.
“This out-of-town prosecutor is interfering with an election, and not upholding his duty for truth and justice,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who is Republican, blames the special prosecutor, who is the City of Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell and also a Democrat.
Caldwell has handed over prosecuting duties to his assistant John Beamer who is handling the case, and who Taylor charges is being unfair and playing partisan politics.
Taylor’s attorney Diane Toscano said she believes that’s true.
“Mr. Beamer told me in September there is zero direct evidence against Scott, and he is not the subject of any grand jury indictment.“
We called Beamer to respond to this, and asked if it were true. And if it is true, we asked Beamer whether he feels a legal, if not a moral, responsibility to clear Taylor’s name immediately with the approaching election less than 30 days away.
“I understand what their concern is, but we have no further comment,” Beamer sent in a response to WAVY News 10.
Beamer referred us back to a February news release that states.
“There does not appear to have been a directive or an expectation that these petitions would be circulated in violation of Virginia law,” the release said.
That goes straight to Taylor’s point: He did not direct or expect anyone to forge signatures. When we pointed that out, Beamer again said, “No comment.”
Taylor pointed out to us that he didn’t know what was wrong until news aired about it.
“It was you and WAVY-TV that explained to me something really was wrong. I did not know that in the beginning, but you explained what the problem was.”
But the Luria ad gets worse for Taylor.
“The phone rang, and it was Scott Taylor. Frantic. He was threatening legal action against me for pointing out the signature fraud,” says Lindsey Nathaniel, who recognized a neighbor’s name on the petition that had moved away two years previous. Nathaniel is a member of the Virginia Beach Democratic party. Contrary to other reports, she is not a political operative and did not know Luria before this incident.
We asked Taylor if he did that. He answered, “that is absolutely nonsense.”
Nathaniel continued in the commercial: “Then he said he had someone drive by my house, is that supposed to scare me?”
Scott responded: “I am not going to dignify that ridiculous charge.”
Late Monday afternoon, Nathaniel returned our call and we asked her about Scott’s denial. She said,
“What he said is false. I have provided call logs to the state police when they requested them for the investigation. Those logs show the times he actually made two calls to me, and I have screen shots of the test messages he sent me following those phone calls.”
We told Luria that Taylor says that part of her political ad is not true.
She responded: “He says a lot of things aren’t true, like he’s not under investigation and the special prosecutor says he is.”
As mentioned in the campaign ad, it is also true that Luria tweeted about Taylor.
“We can agree on one point… You are two steps closer to going to jail for election fraud.”
The two staffers who pleaded guilty were given non-jail sentences and a fine.
We asked Luria has Scott been charged with anything?
Luria’s response: “No, but the special prosecutor has been very explicit.”
Taylor jumped on that response when we read it back to him.
“I am not even a suspect in anything. It is incredible, and it is injustice, and a complete lie to have her tweeting those things publicly.”
It is true: Luria is running ads on a campaign issue that worked once for her to win the election.
“She is trying to run the same race she did two years ago? Why?” Taylor asked.
We responded: “Because it worked.”
After pondering the political truth of that answer Taylor answered: “Well, it’s not going to work this time.”
The answer to that will be revealed beginning on Election Day, Nov. 3.
BELOW: Watch another Truth Tracker looking into claims in a Scott Taylor campaign ad about Elaine Luria’s legislative record.
