In papers filed in Loudoun County Circuit Court this month, former Middleburg Vice-Mayor Mark Tate sought new evidence from a Falls Church consultancy, that might well void the charges against him, and confirm Tate's contentions that he was the victim of political dirty tricks.

Tate is currently scheduled to stand trial in Loudoun County Circuit Court on September 8 on charges of election fraud. At press time, under orders from Judge Horne, the Commonwealth's Special Prosecutor was in the process of redrafting the indictment against Tate, narrowing and re-defining the precise charges against the former Vice Mayor for at least the third time; or the fourth if one counts three perjury charges dropped after the Commonwealth's first prosecutor in the case, Commonwealth's Attorney James Plowman, recused himself from the case.

Plowman had brought charges against Tate on the eve of a Republican primary while working actively for Tate's opponent in the race, current State Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel.

JAG

Named for the first time in the case, in a defense team request for a subpoena dated August 13, 2008, was nationally known Republican opposition research specialist Gary Maloney, and his Falls-Church-based firm, the Jackson-Alvarez Group (JAG). Public records indicate that the Holtzman Vogel campaign paid JAG just over $16,000 for work done in 2006 and 2007.

Tate's defense team wants to know what, if anything, Jackson-Alvarez knew or reported that might prove exculpatory in the case. In his subpoena request Tate's attorney, Edwar MacMahon of Middleburg, asserts that the defense has good reason to believe "that the opposition research conducted by JAG included a review and analysis of Mr. Tate's campaign finance filings and that the letter that initiated this action was written by JAG." Indeed, MacMahon's request contends that the "letter," written to the State Board of Elections by political activist and Holtzman Vogel supporter Laurie LeTourneau of Winchester, "... was written by JAG as part of its opposition research," and that they believe "This opposition research ... was paid for by the Vogel campaign."

JAG's attorney, Valerie Pease Maloney, and Special Prosecutor Britten, argued that Tate's defense had no real evidence to back up their assertions, that the subpoena request was, in any case, irrelevant and so broadly stated that it should be dismissed out of hand as nothing more than a "fishing expedition" by Tate's lawyers. Judge Thomas Horne ruled in favor of JAG and the prosecution, quashing Tate's request for the pretrial subpoena.

In doing so, however, Horne noted that JAG's Gary Maloney, Laurie LeTourneu, James Plowman, and possibly others could be called and sworn as witnesses during Tate's trial.

Described by Newsweek's Howard Fineman as among "the best, and toughest advisory talent available" and a fabled 'oppo' guy," Gary Maloney, 50, is said to have begun his political career as a protege of Lee Atwater, doing opposition research for the GOP in the 1984 Reagan-Bush reelection campaign. A partial list of his former clients include Rudolph Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, George Pataki, George Allen, James Gilmore, Strom Thurmond, and Christine Todd Whitman.

He appeared briefly, as himself, in the third week of the short lived HBO TV series, "K Street."

In its coverage of the 2000 New York elections, the New York Observer described Maloney as a man who, over the years, "... developed the mystique of a secretive information wizard who brings great enthusiasm to the task of rummaging through an opponent's personal and political past." "His tactics, which have reportedly included tracking the activities of supposedly hostile reporters," the story continued, "have led opponents to label him everything from a dirty trickster to a sleaze merchant."

Potts, Tate, Vogel, and Politics

In defending his August 13 subpoena request Tate's attorney, Edward MacMahon noted that JAG had done opposition research against former GOP 27th District Senator Russ Potts and that Tate, Potts' opponent in the Republican primary, had seen the kind of work done by Maloney's organization. It was not made clear who commissioned the research on Potts, nor what use, if any, was made of it.

Sources close to the politics and politicians of the 27th district in general, and the Valley in particular, expect that testimony in the September 8 Tate trial will have impact far beyond the confines of the courtroom.