AUBURN — A last-minute robocall paid for by a Nevada man targets District Attorney Andrew Robinson with allegations of unethical activity that the prosecutor said are not true.
Robinson said Tuesday morning he’s frustrated there’s no easy way to respond to the robocalls that have smeared him to many voters in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties, as those voters head to the polls today to decide the district attorney race.
Every aspect of the allegations raised in the call are untrue, Robinson said.
The caller on the robocall identified himself as Kevin Grundy, a former Farmington man convicted of stalking in 2006, according to Robinson.
A call to Grundy was not immediately returned.
According to Sun Journal archives, in July 2005, Grundy was charged with stalking and harassment in Farmington. In the robocall, Grundy accused Robinson of falsely charging him for personal interests.
Republican challenger Seth Carey has sent text messages to voters via their cellphones in the last hours of the campaign as well. It contained some of the same unproven allegations.
At the polls Tuesday, Carey said that, “when government officials abuse their power and falsely charge people with crimes this happens and it should. Sometimes you pick on the wrong person and he has power, too.”
One of the charges made by Carey is that Lewiston Police Chief Brian O’Malley blames Robinson for an alleged increase in violent crime.
O’Malley said Tuesday he never talked with Carey about the issue until he confronted the candidate at Longley Elementary School as voters went in and out of the polling place.
He said he introduced himself to Carey “as he had no idea who I was. I advised him that I have never spoken with him about violent crime or that the current DA was the cause of the increase of violent crime.”
O’Malley said Carey told him he’d heard the chief had made the charge. O’Malley again denied ever saying it.
“I have known DA Robinson for over 15 years and I have found him to be a hardworking, level-headed prosecutor,” O’Malley said.
“Under his proven direction and leadership, his office works hard to further public safety in our community. DA Robinson is approachable and has worked hard to modernize his office,” the chief said.
O’Malley said that because of his position he doesn’t get involved in politics “but I was taken aback when I learned of Carey’s robocalls and text messages.”
Grundy tried to take out a political advertisement in the Sun Journal that made some of the same charges, but the the paper refused to publish it.
In a note to the newspaper, Grundy said Robinson “is bad news and with or without the support of the Sun Journal I am going to expose him for the sneaky and dirty guy that he is.”
Robinson, standing at the polls shaking hands with voters, said he reached out to the Sun Journal because “I don’t have another forum to address it” in a timely way.
Robinson is engaged in a re-election fight with Carey, whose law license has been suspended and who faces possible loss of his ability to practice law as early as next week, when he is scheduled for a hearing on possible sanctions for unprofessional conduct.
The robocaller told voters to vote against Robinson.
Robocalls have become a common political tactic, with recordings, normally by prominent people or politicians, played to whoever answers a phone in a particular area.
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