The radio ads on WDAC-FM linking Molly Henderson and abortion are another sign that the race for a minority seat on the county commissioner board has become a contest between Henderson and Jim Clymer.
And that makes Henderson a big target for Clymer supporters. A summer poll by the Constitution Party nominee’s campaign reportedly showed the race then was between Clymer and Henderson, a pro-choice Democrat, with the other Democrat, Bill Saylor, and Green Party nominee Scott Kender running behind.
So Henderson has been taking fire for her position on abortion and for alleged conflicts of interest.
Conversely, Clymer backers say darkly that Henderson has been going after their guy too.
They say she had the most to gain from a whispering campaign that Clymer is linked to the Ku Klux Klan and that the rumor was passed to a reporter by Henderson’s honorary campaign chairman, county Commissioner Ron Ford. She denies any involvement.
One of Henderson’s most vocal critics has been 5thEstate.com publisher Ron Harper Jr., a Clymer supporter.
Harper recently launched a Henderson parody Web site, mollyhenderson.com, in which he gleefully satirizes her own Web site, votemollyhenderson.com, and charges that Henderson was running a food safety training business at the same time she was the city’s health department head.
The site also says Henderson would have a conflict as commissioner because her husband, Alex Henderson, works for the Hartman Underhill and Brubaker law firm, which does work for the county. 5thEstate.com has a link to the parody site, which Henderson said she has not seen.
But Harper, who makes no secret of his support for Clymer, said, “The only time I use 5thEstate.com is when I think someone is unsuitable for public office. Molly Henderson is a cross between John Barley and Jean Mowery.”
That would be the resigned 100th District legislator and the former Democrat county commissioner, respectively.
As the race winds into the final days, expect abortion to be a continued target.
While county commissioners might not have much say on abortion policy, hitting the pro-lifers’ hot-button issue mobilizes conservatives, especially those in the Plain community who don’t always vote, to turn out on Tuesday.
And Clymer needs a big showing of social conservatives if he’s to beat Henderson.
Meanwhile, Clymer supporters think Henderson’s people are behind not only the KKK rumors – which apparently had its genesis in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s listing of the Constitution Party as a supporter of the militia movement – but the recent mailings of Republican Dick Shellenberger’s 30-year-old divorce papers to reporters and Republican committee members.
The thinking is that both dirty tricks are aimed at trying to suppress the conservative vote.
Henderson said she had nothing to do with either tactic. Of the Shellenberger mailings, she said, “That is certainly not true. That’s very unkind.”
Spreading the word that Henderson is pro-choice, though, might energize the pro-lifers, particularly via the spots on WDAC, the influential Christian radio station.
Henderson hadn’t heard the ads as of Friday.
“While this (abortion) is not an issue for the county commissioners,” she said, “single-issue politics isn’t good in any race. ...
“We’re just trying to address issues to appeal to people through ideas.”
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