Dirty trick targets gay GOP alderman candidate. MSM yawns.

In Annapolis, MD, an openly gay candidate for city alderman is the target of anonymous, malicious campaign literature suggesting that he is a pedophile.  He subsequently loses his election bid.

From Ken Shepherd at Newsbusters:

It's the type of story highlighting bigotry and homophobia that the mainstream media would love to trumpet and it happened just days ago in the 2009 city elections in Annapolis, Md.

Unfortunately for Scott Bowling, he's a Republican in the liberal capital city of Maryland.

Aside from coverage in the Annapolis Capital and the Baltimore Sun's Maryland Politics blog, a Google News search and Nexis searches of the AP wire, major newspapers, and network transcripts revealed no coverage of the story in the mainstream media:

A candidate for Annapolis alderman says he will file a complaint with the state Attorney General’s office after an anonymous racist and homophobic flier criticizing his candidacy began circulating last weekend.

The flier, addressed to the “Friends and Supporters of Black Annapolis,” was distributed in public housing developments in Ward 3, where Republican Scott Bowling, who is white, is challenging the Democratic incumbent Classie Hoyle, who is African-American.

The flier states that Bowling “will be a danger to us all and our children,” and makes references to the “risk of sexual assault,” and says that Bowling is “white and gay,” and “wants to push for a pro gay agenda at City Hall.”

“It’s racial, bigoted and prejudiced and this has no place in Annapolis politics,” said Bowling, 38, a mortgage banker.

Shepherd concludes:

Given Annapolis's proximity to Washington, D.C., it's hard to believe that this story would not come to the attention of editors at the Washington Post or the bureau chiefs for the cable news networks in D.C. Yet although the Post has a Maryland Politics blog, the Bowling controversy has not even been covered in that lightly-trafficked portion of the Post's Web page, much less given ink in the dead tree edition.

Steve Charing has more on his OUTspoken blog:

Bowling, a Mortgage Banker with Wells Fargo, didn’t run on gay rights issues nor did he draw special attention to his sexuality; he was a hundred percent focused on such local matters as taxes, fiscal restraint and planning. But at the same time he never shied away publicly from his sexual orientation. His life partner, Dave Miller (rear in photo), is the campaign’s treasurer.

Recent polls predicted a razor-thin contest with Hoyle. Bowling’s sexual orientation didn’t surface much until he picked up key endorsements, notably former candidate for mayor Democrat Trudy McFall, the local Firefighters Union and the Annapolis Capital. Then there were more frequent attempts to raise the issue of his being gay, Bowling told OUTloud, in an effort to instill fear in the Ward’s voters. "They tried to associate me with the Sam Shropshire incident implying that all gay men are pedophiles."

Shropshire, an Alderman in Ward 7, is accused of fondling a male Navy midshipman last spring, and a trial date is set for February. He has repeatedly denied that he’s gay. "The scandal has stained the city," said Bowling "and they tried to link me to it."

Then the ugliness deteriorated more just 48 hours prior to the election. The following statement was issued by the Bowling camp:

"An anonymous and illegal flier is being distributed in Ward 3. The flier is filled with hatred and bigotry intended to motivate the historically African-American communities within Parole to vote for Democrats Josh Cohen and Classie Hoyle. Scott Bowling, a candidate for Alderman in Ward 3 has called on the U.S. Attorney General's Office as well as a Maryland Attorney's General's office to investigate this as a hate crime and as a violation of the Voting Rights Act."

It sounds like the democrat incumbent,  Classie Hoyle, who refused to condemn the flyer in question, isn't so classy.  The double standard of the mainstream media is breathtaking.  Where is the outrage at the racist, bigoted character lynching of this man?