Stewart calls Gillespie's work for Tyson Foods 'human trafficking'

By Laura Vozzella | The Washington Post 3 hrs ago

WASHINGTON — Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Corey Stewart on Tuesday accused one of his rivals of participating in "human trafficking," a claim he based on work Ed Gillespie's lobbying firm did for Tyson Foods when the poultry giant was charged with smuggling Mexicans across the border to work in its U.S. plants.

"In essence, Ed Gillespie is complicit in smuggling illegal aliens into this country," Stewart said. "He's complicit in human trafficking."

Stewart, a Republican Prince William supervisor who faces Gillespie and state Sen. Frank Wagner, Virginia Beach, in the June 13 GOP primary, made the claim one day after The Washington Post reported that Tyson paid Quinn Gillespie & Associates more than $1 million for help on a range of issues, including the criminal case, which ended in acquittal.

Gillespie's campaign dismissed Stewart's claim — coming exactly two weeks before the primary — as a baseless attack.

"Corey Stewart's campaign has been a constant stream of fabrication and falsehoods," Gillespie spokeswoman Abbi Sigler wrote in an email. "Tyson Foods retained Quinn Gillespie in 2001 to provide public relations services dealing with charges for which a jury later found the company not guilty. As the Washington Post reported, Tyson's made clear the firm was not retained to lobby on the issue and Ed was not involved in the day-to-day work for them."

Polls show Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman and onetime adviser to President George W. Bush, with a double-digit lead over Stewart and Wagner heading into the home stretch. Many political analysts believe Stewart turned himself into a fringe candidate months ago by making the preservation of the state's Confederate monuments the central issue of his campaign.

But Stewart sees an opportunity to reset the race by playing up Gillespie's ties to Tyson, noting that a sizeable chunk of the electorate undecided or even unaware of the race.

"Now people are tuning in," he said," suggesting that voters will turn away from Gillespie "when people find out that Ed Gillespie has been complicit in human trafficking of illegal immigrants into this country, illegal immigrants who are murdering and battering and raping American citizens."

Tyson hired Quinn Gillespie & Associates in December 2001, just days before the U.S. Justice Department charged the poultry giant with illegally smuggling Mexicans into the country to work at processing plants in Virginia and elsewhere.Tyson acknowledged some smuggling at the time but maintained that it had been the work of rogue employees and not sanctioned by corporate leaders. The company eventually was acquitted.

Tyson paid Gillespie's firm more than $1.1 million from 2001 to 2007 to lobby Bush's White House, the Senate and the House on a range of issues, according to federal lobbying disclosures. Gillespie was listed as a Tyson lobbyist for several of those years. He was registered to handle issues that included "amnesty proposals," "immigration reform," "country of origin labeling," and "labor and workforce issues," according to those forms.

Gary Mickelson, a Tyson spokesman, told The Post that the company hired Gillespie's firm "for public affairs consulting, not lobbying, when our company was facing immigration charges. ... Most of the work done by Quinn-Gillespie for our company did not involve Mr. Gillespie."

Even without this latest development, immigration has been a tricky issue for Gillespie, who hails from the party's establishment wing and supported the 2013 "Gang of 8" immigration deal that called for tighter border security as well as a pathway to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants. Gillespie now says he never supported the amnesty aspect of the deal; he says wanted a pathway to legal status, not citizenship.

Gillespie has struck a "big-tent" tone in TV commercials, which have him promising to be a "governor for all Virginians," while his Facebook ads show images of a massive border wall and a handcuffed illegal immigrant.

Stewart also tried to appeal to various GOP constituencies as he blasted Gillespie's work for Tyson, by turns describing Tyson's illegal workforce as murderous and exploited.

He spoke at a morning conference at county office building, surrounded by photos of Virginians who had been killed by illegal immigrants.

"If it weren't for the efforts of Ed Gillespie and Tyson, some of these people would still be alive today," Stewart said.

Asked if he had any evidence that illegal immigrants who had worked at Tyson plants had killed anyone, Stewart said, "No, but I know a significant portion of those who come here illegally, they have criminal backgrounds and commit crimes."

At the same time, Stewart suggested that Gillespie had helped to exploit the immigrants, saying that they were smuggled into the country to work for wages and working conditions that no American would accept.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/po...88ef6cdcc.html