Eric Hartley re: Hoyle's Handling of "The Flyer"

LINK.

Hoyle's about-face

Posted: November 10, 12:43 pm | (permalink) | (1 comments)

There's a reason Alderwoman Classie Hoyle's about-face on the racist, homophobic attacks against her political opponent seemed sudden: It was utterly insincere.

At last night's Annapolis City Council meeting, Hoyle introduced a resolution condemning attack fliers against Scott Bowling and calling for an investigation by prosecutors.

Before the election, when asked about the attacks, she either didn't return calls or refused to condemn them, simply saying she hadn't seen the flier and had nothing to do with it.

Later -- conveniently, after winning the election over Bowling -- she issued a statement calling the attacks "repugnant and offensive" and saying, "I absolutely reject the actions of any individual or group that circulated it."

A sincere change of heart? Apparently not. Last night, Stewart got Hoyle's attention as she walked past the press table on her way to her seat and asked her about the flier.

Hoyle said she had only seen it "on the computer." She said she had asked a number of people and didn't believe the print edition, so to speak, it was actually distributed in the city at all. I asked why someone would go to the trouble to make it and not distribute it.

"I think it came out of the other camp," Hoyle said with a smile, then walked to her seat.

Her resolution, however, says the flier (which said, among other things, "Keep us from Sin and Sexual Assault. Bowling will be danger to us all and our children - He is WHITE & GAY = SIN") was distributed around the city.

Later in the meeting, Hoyle said she had not heard about the flier until Election Night, which is a little hard to believe, since just about everyone else in the city who follows politics was buzzing about it. Hoyle publicly pledged to donate $500 out of her own pocket to a reward fund to find the person responsible.

Dave Miller, Bowling's partner, spoke during the public comment portion of the council meeting and called Hoyle's after-the-fact condemnation -- when she had already perhaps benefited from the noxious attacks by winning re-election -- "grandstanding."

That sounds about right.

-Eric Hartley