Who is Norfolks’s Don Segretti?

Whoever sent out the flyer attacking Daun Hester and using the name of the Paul Fraim campaign might want to familiarize himself with Donald Segretti.

Segretti, a Republican political operative, faked the letterhead of Democratic candidate Edmund Muskie. He also apparently stole letterhead from the Hubert Humphrey campaign and used it to send out false news releases.

In 1974, Segretti pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal (in fact, forged) campaign literature and was sentenced to six months in prison, actually serving four months.

Unless the law has changed, whoever prepared the flyer has committed a crime. (And since it was done in Microsoft Word, the identity of the person who prepared it is known.) The only question at this point is whether an investigation will be undertaken and the perpetrator brought to justice.

There has been a tendency in Norfolk to employ the “no harm, no foul” rule when it comes to dealing with circumstances such as this. That is wrong. The results of the election should have no bearing on whether or not justice is pursued.