Sax has used dirty tactics before

Published 1:30 am Thursday, September 20, 2018

The headline on the front page of the Sept. 14 Herald (“Election rival: Lovick was sex abuse suspect in ’90s”) was an unfortunate gift to Republican Jeff Sax in his run against Democrat John Lovick for state representative in the 44th Legislative District.

It’s exactly the smear that Sax and his political consultant, Chad Minnick, hoped to create when they dredged up public documents regarding unproven and false allegations of sexual abuse against Lovick from the 1990s and shopped them around to media outlets. The Herald and the Seattle Times (in articles on Sept. 14) both state that they investigated the allegations and determined they were a non-story. Sax and crew then put the documents online and, sadly, both newspapers scooped up the dirt as if it were real news.

The Seattle Times, however, makes it clear in its headline that the “alleged victim says no abuse occurred.” Lovick has publicly denied these unsubstantiated allegations, and the Times’s much more detailed article quotes his daughter, the supposed victim, as saying “there was no abuse. There is no scandal. Our community has bigger issues for … local reporters to focus on besides harassing public servants.” The Times also notes that Lovick’s son, Jeffrey Lovick, a Los Angeles police officer, called the allegations untrue and characterized Sax’s effort as “desperate, amateurish and gutless.”

Sax has used dirty campaign tactics before. In 2005, when he ran against Dave Somers for Snohomish County Council, his team plastered signs on Somers’ campaign posters saying “Gay endorsed.” Sax himself was under criminal investigation for leaking confidential documents when he was on the Snohomish County Council. Sax’s campaign is bought and paid for by the Snohomish County building industry, and he will say or do anything to try to smear John Lovick. Don’t fall for his tricks!

Howard Lazzarini

Everett