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April 19, 2000

37th 'smear' suit dropped;Lemon satisfied by apology from Harley consultant

By Tom Murse

A political consultant to Kevin Harley's state House campaign has apologized for last-minute negativetelephone calls against two of the candidate's April 4 primary opponents.

The consultant, Don Raymond, "regrets any misperception" that Marc Lemon was behind more than2,800 calls that accused fellow Republican candidate Tom Creighton of wrongdoing as a township

supervisor, according to a letter written by Raymond's attorney.

The phone messages indirectly suggested that Lemon had commissioned the calls.

Raymond's apology does not state who asked him to commission the phone calls. And Harley said todaythat Raymond acted on his own without consulting him or his top strategists.

The letter, dated Tuesday, apologizes to both Lemon and Creighton for any misperceptions created bythe negative message.

Today, Lemon said he was satisfied by the apology and will not file a lawsuit against Raymond or any ofthe other parties involved. And inquiries by the Lancaster County District Attorney's office and stateBureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation are also likely to be dropped.

"At this point, I think the record's been cleared and I'm moving on, and we're all moving on," Lemon said.

"I am suspending the matter...because they have responded and I think they've sufficiently met mydemands."

Creighton, who won the Republican primary, said this morning that the apology "is totally satisfactory tome."

Raymond is vice president and treasurer of Raymond & Cliggett Inc., now called RCR Inc., ofPhoenixville, Chester County. The firm was hired by Harley's campaign for the 37th Legislative Districtseat.

Raymond hired Eagle Consulting Group in Harrisburg to make the calls, Eagle president ChristopherNicholas has confirmed. Nicholas then paid a Virginia company, Conquest Communications, to make thecalls on the eve of the election.

Although Raymond worked closely with Harley, Harley and his top strategist both maintain they had noidea that he commissioned the calls.

"I think Raymond did it on his own, as far as I know. I mean, that's what he told me," Harley said. "I had avery frank discussion with him. I'm extremely upset and disappointed that he would take it upon himself todo something like that."

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"I was extremely disappointed that someone...I was paying to do my mail and radio and TV productionwould engage in a smear campaign," Harley continued. "He took it upon himself to do it. I wasn't aware.""It was uncalled for...I just think it's despicable," Harley said. "If he told me he was doing this, I would havesaid, "You're not doing it.' "

Bill Hall, one of Harley's top strategists, said neither he nor anyone else in the campaign asked Raymondto commission the phone calls. He said he was unaware that Raymond ordered the calls to be made.

A copy of the apology letter was provided to the New Era by Lemon. But neither Raymond nor hisattorney, Joseph D. Holston Jr. of Harrisburg, returned telephone calls seeking comment.

Before the apology, Lemon had suggested the Harley campaign might be responsible. He fired off a letterto county, state and federal officials, charging that the calls were false, fraudulent and defamatory.He said he will now inform those officials that he is satisfied with apology.

District Attorney Donald Totaro, who ordered an inquiry to determine whether election laws or criminallaws were broken, said this week that his office would not pursue the matter if Lemon indicated he wassatisfied.

This morning, though, Totaro cautioned that he will wait to see Lemon's letter before making a decision

on whether to suspend the inquiry.

And an election bureau spokeswoman said that the agency does not investigate a complaint i f the partiesinvolved eventually resolve the matter.

From the beginning of the dispute, Lemon has indicated that he would not pursue the issue through alawsuit if he got an apology.

"I was able to negotiate a resolution with the other party," he said this morning. "At this point I'm lookingforward to doing whatever I can to help bring the party together to become one unit.

"I feel that the group responsible for this has been identified and has cleared the record," Lemoncontinued, "and everyone can draw their own conclusions as to the actions of those responsible."