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LL covered Yvette Alexander‘s email bombardment of Ward 7 race rival Vince Gray yesterday, but Alexander’s campaign really escalated things today. Basing her attacks on the Gray investigation files released last week, Alexander is now working a new theme: Vince Gray is a bad father.
Last week’s document dump offered more evidence that Gray’s son Carlos Gray was the “close relative” of Gray’s who allegedly received an illicit $10,000 cash payment from shadow campaign financier Jeff Thompson. (Carlos Gray hasn’t been charged with any crimes related to the campaign, and didn’t respond to LL’s request for comment).
In a new blast email called “All in the Family,” available in full below, Alexander’s campaign urges voters to consider whether Gray used his son as a bagman.
“You need to think about what sort of a man puts his own son in a position that his son could go to jail for being involved in his shadow campaign?” the email reads.
Just as with the earlier emails, Gray campaign spokesman Chuck Thies says Gray remains unperturbed about Alexander pulling his son into the race.
“Vince has zero interest in any emails Yvette is sending,” Thies says.
If anything, Thies says, the Gray campaign welcomes Alexander’s slams. Thies claims that the campaign has raised $1,470 since Alexander launched her salvos earlier this week.
“It’s like she’s going over and jiggling the slot machine for us,” Thies says.
Alexander’s full campaign email:
Well, we have more instances of cheating, lying, back room deals, and cash in rumpled paper bags.
The documents released last week make pretty slow reading. Between the redacted portions, the blunt writing style, and the pages and pages of “he said this, they did that” I’m willing to bet that Vince Gray is counting on you never reading them. He is hoping their boring bulk will keep all the curious at bay – or at least unable to finish reading what the U.S. Attorney collected before you vote on election day.
The reporters at the Washington Post had to read them and here’s what they saw:
Newly released documents … indicate that Gray’s son, Carlos Gray, is the Individual prosecutors previously identified as the “close relative” of the former mayor’s whom Thompson paid $10,000 purportedly to pay Howard University students working on the (shadow) campaign.
(The) FBI affidavit released Friday describes the $10,000 payment as involving “the son of” an individual whose name is redacted. The affidavit tracks an incident described by prosecutors in another recent filing, in which a “close relative” of Gray’s received the money from Thompson via an intermediary.
The Washington Post, April 15, 2016So, why is a son’s misguided attempts at helping his father win the Mayor’s office important to the voters of Ward 7? Because when you place your vote you need to think about a son being used as a “Bag Man.” Even more importantly, you need to think about what sort of a man puts his own son in a position that his son could go to jail for being involved in his shadow campaign?
Colbert I. King, Pulitzer Prize winner, Washington Post Editor, and Dunbar High School graduate tells us the sort of man writing; “In 2010, Gray sat at the helm of a campaign team willing to cheat to win.”
Washington Post,December 6th, 2013
Photo by Darrow Montgomery