Party leaders say Web posts deter candidates

MANALAPAN - There was a time in American politics when opponents could settle their problems with a duel. You saw it coming and went face-to-face with your enemy. That's when it was easy.

Now elected officials, indeed even volunteers working in the community, can expect to endure an unchecked onslaught of vicious volleys thrown by anonymous assailants who hide in the shadow of the First Amendment.

The result, according to four political leaders in Monmouth County, is a political pool that is being depleted of its best and brightest.

While acknowledging that public criticism of public officials is as old as written history, Manalapan Republican Party Chairman Stephen McEnery said the opportunities afforded by the anonymity of the Internet are like nothing that has ever been seen before. He said that is proving to not be a good thing.

McEnery spoke with the News Transcript as did Gerard Ward, who chairs the Manalapan Democratic Party;Monmouth County Democratic Party Chairman Victor Scudiery; and Monmouth County Republican Party Chairman Adam Puharic.

Their comments followed a story published in the News Transcript on Feb. 20 which reported how George Spodak, a former mayor ofManalapan, asked Township Committee members to condemn anonymous Internet attacks.

Spodak acknowledged that he has been the target of such attacks in recent months and several members of the committee said they had felt the brunt of Internet bullying, too.

It was Spodak's contention that good people will not seek public office at the cost of seeing themselves and their family members attacked online.

McEnery said Spodak was on target with the points he made during his Feb. 13 appearance before the Township Committee. McEnery said the online attacks are cowardly and said when anonymous individuals post messages that besmirch officials, volunteers and other citizens, they end up giving Manalapan a bad name.

"Mayor Spodak has a point that the blog sites are giving people second thoughts about entering public service. There was a time when volunteering gave a person and their family a sense of pride about doing a good thing for the community. Now you have to consider how much abuse you and your family can take.

"You have to consider finger pointing at your wife or husband, your children being ridiculed by their schoolmates and people questioning your integrity no matter what you do.Why would you want to enter public service? I hope Manalapan can figure out a way to uncover who the bloggers are so we can regain some dignity again as a nice place to live," McEnery said.

Ward said these uses of the Internet "overwhelm" the good that could come from the Internet.

"I am a firm believer in free speech and I encourage people to participate in our democracy by speaking their minds," he said. "The blog phenomenon is reshaping political discourse because it allows people to debate without being face to face. Instead of exchanging ideas in a rational manner, people hide behind the anonymity afforded by that site.

"As a result, much of the content are statements that people would be embarrassed to say if they had to say them in public. People who post on those sites should follow a simple rule - if it would be rude to make the statement in a faceto face discussion, don't write it online. Basic civility is all that is required. I think that this will weed out a lot of the unfortunate personal attacks that get mixed in with genuine, interesting commentary on local politics.

"Otherwise, people get turned off by the negativity and those who would consider public service get scared off by the likelihood that they and their family members will be the subject of nasty, unfounded and unregulated personal attacks," Ward said. "It also overwhelms an important purpose of the site, which is to let people solicit opinions on anything from reliable mechanics to a good dog-sitting service. Finally, by bringing the level of political discussion to such a low level, the reputation of our town is besmirched. We should be known for our positive attributes, not our negative attitudes."

The fallout from Internet guerrilla attacks and bullying tactics is being felt on the county level as well.

When asked if anonymous Internet messages are giving prospective candidates second thoughts about running for office, Puharic and Scudiery responded strongly in the affirmative.

Scudiery said, "They are absolutely having an effect because they say vicious lies, and whether you like it or not, there are going to be individuals who believe it. People don't want to expose themselves or their families. It's become very questionable in households. One starts wondering, 'Is it, can it be true?' It's human nature. It is brought up quite a bit and as a consequence, a lot of good people don't want to get involved."

Puharic said the Internet attacks are affecting people and the very nature of politics itself.

"Political blogs are a destructive force dumbing down our political discourse in so many ways. Volunteers and ordinary citizens are discouraged from joining campaigns, appalled by the lies, innuendo and slander spread online from anonymous hate-writers.

"As a result, people who gain monetarily or are mentally unstable make up the majority of political operatives available to a chairman as willing workers," he said. "Blogs also reinforce lying and slander because the most outrageous and untrue online comments are spread the fastest. If it damages you or your family it will move across e-mails very fast.

"Finally, blogs are a form of mental retardation because those who post and reply only allow similar opinions to perpetuate on their sites - thereby reinforcing an already weak gene pool," Puharic said.