Here's CFMNP's Steve Corneliussen's summary of the "Fort Monroe is UNDER ATTACK" campaign flyer distributed by Virginia senate candidate Tricia Stall in early October 2007:

"Fort Monroe is UNDER ATTACK ..." says the flyer's cover, with that phrase plus a red gash superimposed on an aerial photo of the entire National Historic Landmark -- i.e., the whole post.

Inside, the flyer presents some information under a banner headline that, with the following allegation, completes the thought that starts on the front: "From John Miller's BIG DEVELOPER friends."

In the center spread are brief blurbs making allegations about millions that developers give to state politicians and about big developers giving lots of money to their "hand-picked" candidate, John Miller, and also reporting that the Virginian-Pilot once mentioned that Fort Monroe has developers salivating.

The flyer also emphasizes the comparison between what's going on with Fort Monroe and, in principle, what's going on with HRTA, the General Assembly's cobbled-together taxing authority for regional transportation solutions.

From our CFMNP.org Web site, I'm guessing that the flyer's makers got this from the Pilot's July 5, 2006, editorial: "What's worrisome is that Hampton has framed this as an exercise in redevelopment first and historic preservation second."

The flyer also quotes from what it calls "Citizens for Fort Monroe Park." (Why does everybody mangle our name?") They took this from something I wrote a year ago that also talked about the Hampton-owns-it presumption: "Hampton's town-planning consultants have operated under a closely related presumption: that substantial public acreage at Fort Monroe should be 'redeveloped,' for Hampton's benefit, into way-upscale private neighborhoods. Call that the 'redevelopment' presumption."

They also have a timeline of Fort Monroe history along the bottom of the center spread. (It mentions the Contraband story in the obsolete way.)

Next to the timeline, the flyer says, "Fort Monroe is too important to be turned over to John Miller and his developer friends."

On the back, there's a photo of Mrs. Stall and Del. Gear. "Tricia Stall and Tom Gear are Preserving and Protecting Fort Monroe," the banner says. There's a Fort Monroe-based endorsement of Mrs. Stall by Del. Gear, with his photo.

And there's this: "We can count on Tricia Stall and Delegate Tom Gear to stand up to the big real estate developers and the good ol' boys who want to use Fort Monroe to make millions of dollars for themselves. Tricia Stall and Tom Gear believe that Fort Monroe belongs to all of us -- not just a select few developers and good ol' boy politicians."

The flyer is paid for by the Republican Party of Virginia.

 

I don't necessarily agree with everything in the flyer, but as both candidates know quite well, I believe ardently that Fort Monroe is and ought to be an important campaign issue.

 

-Steve Corneliussen

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