“There he goes again” – former Delegate Dick Black, though he should know better, he just can’t curb his characteristic impulse to go too far.
Black is running for the newly formed 13th State Senate District, covering Loudoun and Prince William Counties, after winning the Republican primary.
The State Senate District was newly created following the census, constructed to be “Republican leaning” but the Democratic Senate Candidate, businessman Shawn Mitchell, a combat veteran, garnering wide support, is giving “Tricky Dick” a run for his money and the inside skinny is a real contest with the electoral outcome in doubt.
Some may remember how Tricky Dick lost his seat in the General Assembly to then challenger - and now former Delegate David Poisson (Pwa-zon).
Among other campaign miscalculations, Dick repeatedly, and intentionally, mispronounced Poisson’s name as “poison.”
Dick’s arrogance confirmed his inadequacy as a public official, like when Dick handed out plastic fetuses to members of the General Assembly, proving he just goes too far.
After his humiliating defeat, Dick lusted after a political comeback; he thought to move his residence so he could run for Congress, then he thought to move his residence to run for a different State Senate seat, and, finally, he chose “us” – we lucky few – so he could “represent” us in the General Assembly.
Dick’s latest political over-reaching gaffe concerns his knowing distortion of a business law dispute that Mr. Mitchell’s counsel defended and settled.
Dick has an extensive background in the law. He was trial counsel in Fort Hood, Texas, a Staff Judge Advocate supervising 40 attorneys, and the Director of the Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon.
This suggests that when he mischaracterizes the details of Mitchell’s law suit, he is exploiting the public’s unfamiliarity with litigation to his political campaign advantage.
Here are the facts: Mitchell settled a business dispute with his former Manassas employer, Parrish Services, Inc., who claimed that Shawn had violated an agreement not to compete. Shawn’s counsel responded in pleadings that the agreement had not been violated. Each side made counterclaims against the other and these pleadings are public and in the court file in the Prince William Circuit Court.
While the pleadings are public, the settlement is not.
By law, we are not entitled to know the terms of settlement and the parties may not discuss them either.
But we can infer that, despite the Parrish Services’ claim of unlawful competition, that Mitchell’s continuing business suggests either the parties agreed that he did not compete or that his ongoing competition is permissible.
In a blast campaign e-mail on September 30, 2011, Black nevertheless wrote “details of Shawn Mitchell having been sued by his former employer … are burning up the internet.” Black published elements of the Parrish Services’ original claims but not a word about Mitchell’s defense, or the settlement in March 2011.
In a 2nd blast campaign e-mail on October 3, 2011, Black did it again; he wrote “[i]t is no wonder that when Mitchell was sued by his last employer they said …” and then he repeated what Parrish Services claimed, remaining mute about Mitchell’s defense or counterclaim, and nothing about the fact that it had been settled six months earlier.
Surely Mr. Black’s vast legal acumen encompasses an understanding of what it means to settle a case and dismiss the suit.
It is also curious that Parrish Services of Manassas contributed $1,718 to Mr. Black’s campaign on August 31, 2011. Could this be a different Parrish Services in Manassas than the one that sued Mr. Mitchell?
In any case, we can see Black hasn’t learned to curb his desperate excesses.
No matter.
I just know we’ll do a whole lot better with Shawn Mitchell as our State Senator.
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