Senator Whipple's Richmond Report

The Republican Party of Virginia this week agreed to pay Democratic plaintiffs the extraordinary sum of $750,000 in the case of Saslaw et al. v. Matricardi et al.

After two and one half years the Republican party finally acknowledged its wrongdoing and criminal behavior in listening to and taping a Democratic caucus conference call with our attorneys for the redistricting suit that was active at the time.

The fact that the call was not just any housekeeping or even political strategy call but an attorney-client privileged call made their actions more egregious. Any citizen, or elected official, should be able to consult his attorney in complete privacy.

In this case the Executive Director of the RPV, with the full knowledge of the Chairman of the Party and others in the party office, secretly listened to the conversation, recorded it, took notes, and then distributed them to party officials and to the office of the Attorney General, who was representing the other side in the redistricting lawsuit.

Furthermore, a second conference call three days later was also listened to. This criminal behavior resulted in three convictions: a felony conviction of the executive director, Ed Matricardi, and misdemeanor convictions of the chair of the Republican party, Gary Thomson, and of Claudia Tucker, chief of staff to Vance Wilkins, Republican Speaker of the House, who later resigned in disgrace after paying a large settlement in a sexual harassment case.

Recent depositions taken under oath as part of the civil case settled this week have brought further information to light. It is now clear that Anne Petera, the chief assistant to Attorney General Kilgore, learned of the eavesdropping the first night, that she was given a copy of the notes the next morning and then called the Attorney General. He asked not to be told details and said she should call his Deputy. On the third day, the deputy finally reported the crime to the State Police.

At no time, however, did Attorney General Kilgore instruct his staff to report this crime. Because of the failure to act in a timely manner, the second call was listened to, by even more Republican staffers, and the second crime was committed.

Not every person who listened to the calls was charged with a crime. These decisions were in the hands of the U.S. Attorney, Paul McNulty. It is not clear why some were charged and others were not, or why some discrepancies in sworn testimony were not resolved. Perhaps the U.S. Attorney will now complete his investigation.

My hope is that this settlement will act as an object lesson to those who want to win at any cost, who will sacrifice ethics, and even engage in criminal behavior to gain political advantage. Virginia must insist on higher standards and insist that its political establishment adhere to them. Senator Mary Margaret Whipple may be emailed at mmwhipple@erols.com