A stack of negative campaign mailers pertaining to the city of Wheeling's mayoral race is shown. The illegal attack ads do not contain information about the source of the material or the source of the funding used to send out the mailers, which hit mailboxes of Wheeling residents this week - just days before the municipal election. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING – Candidates in the mayoral race in Wheeling said they were blindsided and appalled by illegal campaign mailers that were sent out to the public this week – dragging what otherwise has been a relatively clean race down into the mud with just one week to go before election day.

Several different negative campaign mailers were sent out to Wheeling residents in different areas of the city over the past few days. Some residents received multiple mailers, while some others have not received any so far.

None of the questionable mailers included the “paid for” disclaimer, which is required by law.

The attack ads appear to be targeting almost every candidate in the Wheeling mayoral race in either the content on the mailers themselves or in online videos to which QR codes on the mailers provide links. The scattershot nature of the attacks make it unclear which candidate – if any – is actually being supported.

The six candidates running to be Wheeling’s next mayor – Carl Carpenter, Beth Hinebaugh, Rosemary Ketchum, Denny Magruder, Chad Thalman and J.T. Thomas – on Tuesday all spoke out against the attack ads and emphatically denied direct knowledge of who was behind the mailers.

“I in no way condone that kind of behavior,” said Carpenter, stating that he received one of the rogue mailers. “I consider it scurrilous to put out an attack like that without attribution to the author or to who financed it.”

Carpenter is one of the only candidates who has not been attacked in either the printed material on the mailers or in any of the videos to which some of them can be linked. On Tuesday, Carpenter theorized that apparently the person or entity behind the attack ads did not consider him to be a “threat” to win the mayoral race, so they obviously felt no need to drag his name into the mud.

One of the ads – with the same Post Office box return address listed on it as the others – attacks Thomas, Ketchum, Magruder and Thalman as being “political opportunists” while boasting Hinebaugh as “authentic conservative leadership for Wheeling.”

“It’s awful,” said Hinebaugh. “I’m floored by all of this. I’m just as shocked as everybody, and this did not come from my campaign.”

Hinebaugh said it was disheartening to see a surge in negative tactics in the 11th hour after weeks of generally positive campaigning, mayoral forums and grassroots efforts by the candidates.

“There’s no rhyme or reason as to who got them, either,” Hinebaugh said of the recipients of the mailers. “I’m just dumbfounded that this suddenly happens with seven days to go before the election. Resorting to smear campaigns and personal attacks not only undermines the trust of the voters, but also distracts from the critical issues that impact our community.”

Many of the candidates have reached out to one another in the wake of the mysterious last-minute surge in mud-slinging campaign ads. A number of candidates who have seen the ads said they believed Hinebaugh was portrayed as being a scapegoat.

“I feel especially bad for Beth,” said Magruder, who noted he has received three of the negative mailers. “I hate to see someone taint the race like this. Why? It’s been a really clean race thus far. I guarantee this didn’t come from me or anyone who supports my campaign.”

Magruder said he has felt a sense of camaraderie among the mayoral candidates in recent weeks, and he reiterated his stance that he planned to extend a hand to all of the candidates following the election.

“These are some good people who are working hard to make their community a better place, and it’s a shame something like this has to tarnish things.”

The QR codes on some of the flyers link to a YouTube page by Common Sense Wheeling.

One of the small handful of videos on the page blasts Thalman for supporting the construction of the new Market Street Parking Garage, then purchasing two nearby buildings that would benefit from the city taxpayers’ multimillion-dollar investment. A video and mailer criticize Magruder for responses during an April 18 forum hosted by The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register concerning the CROWN Act voted in by council before subsequently reversing his stance “only after facing significant criticism.”

Another mailer and a related video allege Ketchum’s campaign brings “socialist” values and an “extremist agenda” that threatens to divide the community. One mailer and linked video characterize Thomas as a candidate who promotes empty promises with a “get stuck dreaming list” with plans that are “all talk, no walk.”

A number of the mailers and videos also blast Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron, painting him as being part of the “good ole boys” network that has been at the helm in the city for too long.

“I would be surprised if these came from any candidate,” Thalman said. “After eight years of being vice mayor, I’ve developed thick skin, but these attacks can still sting, and the negativity gets old.”

Thalman said he has not received any of the negative mailers, but a number of them had been brought to his attention, along with the negative video against him.

“I have no involvement in it, and frankly I don’t like this kind of stuff,” he said. “I hate it. I try not to focus on this. I try to stay focused on the issues and tune these things out.”

Many agreed that the source behind the illegal ads should be prosecuted.

“It’s very, very unfortunate and uncalled for,” Thomas said. “I’ve run a clean campaign, and unfortunately with the timing of all of this, it’s probably too late in the game to prove where it’s coming from before the election. In my mind, it’s pretty easy to figure out where it’s coming from, and I think the voting public is smart enough to figure this out.”

Ketchum also spoke out against the negative ad campaign and even brought it up during Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

“I would hope that voters can see through it,” Ketchum said. “It’s disappointing. We have so many ideas and challenges we could be discussing instead of talking about this.”

Whoever is behind the illegal attack ads is spending a lot of money on them and apparently are motivated to take this route because they believe that their candidate “is not winning,” Ketchum concluded.

“I’m very used to bullies, attack ads and information that is less true than it should be,” she said. “In this race, we’re seven days away from an election, and I think it is unethical and frankly illegal to attack folks without saying who is paying for some of this information. Where is it coming from? Who is compiling it?”

Ketchum said it’s very important to stay focused on the issues and urged citizens to consider the source and do their due diligence if negative attack ads come to their mailboxes.

“We are entering into a new chapter, a new era, and whoever gets elected, we need you to work well and thoughtfully and respectfully.”

On Tuesday, W.Va. Delegate Diana Winzenreid, R-Ohio, said that she registered a formal complaint about the mailers with the Secretary of State’s Office.

Federal Election Commission laws include very specific guidelines on what is required to be on mailers. According to the FEC, communications paid for by an individual, a group, a political committee, a corporation, or a labor organization, but not authorized by a candidate or a candidate’s campaign, must contain a disclaimer notice identifying who paid for the communication and indicating whether any candidate or candidate’s committee authorized the communication.

A disclaimer notice must contain the full name of the individual, group, political committee, corporation, or labor organization that paid for the communication, along with any abbreviated name it uses to identify itself.

The disclaimer notice must also provide the payor’s permanent street address, telephone number, or website address and must further state that the communication was not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, the state’s chief elections officer, said that, because those disclaimers are nowhere to be found on those mailers, they are in fact illegal.

Warner said his investigators should be able to figure out who sent the mailers, even though the necessary identifying information isn’t on them.

“We have five times the number of investigators we did when I came into the office,” he said. “We take election security very seriously. There are all kinds of ways investigators can go about that. They can go back into the mail system, see where it originated from and who it was delivered to. Through a process of elimination, you should be able to figure out where it came from.”

The consequences for an election violation like this can vary, Warner said. It could be a reprimand to clear up the problem and not do it again, or it could rise to the level of being turned over to a prosecutor.

“Sometimes it’s just a simple mistake,” Warner said. “They own up to it, they clear it up and make sure it’s not done in the future.”

(Managing Editor Derek Redd contributed to this story)