GOP Political Thuggery in VA: Jeanmarie Devolites Davis sent personal info. about her opponent's family in campaign mailer

First, know one key fact: State Senator Jeanmarie Devolites Davis is the wife of Congressman Tom Davis. They're quite the GOP power couple -- and they are running an ugly re-election campaign for her state senate seat in Northern Virginia. The elections for Virginia's state senators and delegates are next week -- and the Democrats are poised to take back control of the State Senate.

In what has to be one of the nastiest moves to date, Devolites Davis sent out a campaign mailer targeting her opponent, Chap Peterson, which identified his home address -- and the names of his kids:

Circled in red on the mail is part of a public document that lists Petersen's home phone number and Fairfax City address.

The names of the former state delegate's wife and two young daughters are also listed.

Petersen said a strange, jarring phone call to his home answered by his wife alerted him to the disclosure. He said his wife was so unnerved by that call and others that she refused to answer the phone and spent the day at her parents'.

"The thing that really bothers me is it was part of an attack ad," Petersen said. "This ad is meant to incite anger at me, and then you have my daughters' names circled and my home phone number circled and my home address circled. The net effect is to get somebody angry at me and have them contact me."

That's the kind of ugly politics Virginia gets from Davis and his wife. They have been running this thug type operation for years -- even before they were married to each other.

Ten years ago, in a former job, my organization sent out a mailing against Ms. Devolites when she was running for state delegate. Congressman Tom Davis exploded. He called me screaming about the mailing (which was factual, by the way.) He called my boss screaming. He demanded both of us show up at his Congressional office to yell at us in person about doing a mailing against the beloved Devolites. Yes, we had to show up at his Capitol Hill office to get blasted over a state political issue. Coincidentally, she showed up. He wanted me to see how beautiful and lovely she was. Huh??? It was a very creepy experience -- and left a very bad taste for a number of reasons.

That was ten years ago. Now Davis and Devolites are married. They still run negative, ugly campaigns. Hopefully, she'll lose next week. He's not running for U.S. Senate to replace John Warner. He can and should be beat next year if he runs for re-election.