Mud slinging, name calling, deceptive ads – it’s the nature of the campaign beast.

But when a negative ad was slung straight into Toby Nixon’s mailbox last Thursday, Oct. 24 likening him to former Republican President Richard Nixon and his alleged involvement in the Watergate Scandals, he said enough is enough.

“How dare you and your party attack me simply because of my name,” the 45th Legislative District candidate and former representative said in an e-mail to opponent and Democratic Rep. Roger Goodman that evening. “The (ad) is the most despicable, repulsive thing I have ever seen in my years of politics … How dare you.”

He also asks Goodman to publicly repudiate the advertisement, as well as the Washington State Democratic Committee that paid for the mailer using in-kind contributions.

The mailer, titled “A History of Republican Attacks,” features President Bush, Bush senior and Richard Nixon, claiming that each had approved negative campaign ad tactics, including Nixon’s alleged break-in at the Watergate Hotel to steal Democratic campaign secrets. The mailer also claims that Toby Nixon continues the “same old right-wing pattern of approving negative campaign tactics.”

Nixon continues in his e-mail to Goodman that it is “ironic beyond belief” that the state Democratic Committee “in an in-kind piece that could be openly coordinated with you, attacks me for approving negative campaign tactics in the most negative campaign piece I have ever seen.”

For the state Democratic Party to make these claims is “calling the kettle black,” Nixon told the Reporter, adding that he has never done a single negative ad mentioning his opponent.

But, most upsetting, is that Goodman broke his word, Nixon said.

“Goodman and I had a gentleman’s agreement,” he said.

At the start of the campaign, they had both agreed to run a clean campaign focused on the issues. Contrast pieces would be fair game, but nothing negative and nasty.

“I’m disappointed in Goodman,” he added. “Sometimes I think I’m not cut out to be a politician because I’m just too honest.”

According to the Public Disclosure Commission’s Web site, the Washington State Democratic Party spent nearly $10,000 for the ad, which in Nixon’s estimate paid for about 20,000 mailings.

But he hopes the ad will affect his campaign positively and that people will see it as an attack on the Republican Party and judge it on that basis.

He also said Goodman owes him, and the people of the 45th District, an apology for “putting this campaign in the gutter. I don’t think there is any more reason to attack a candidate because of his name, which is an attack on family heritage, any more than they should attack someone on race, religion or anything else.”

When the Reporter contacted Goodman, he hadn’t seen the ad, though his wife described it to him over the phone and read him Nixon’s e-mail.

He said the mailer was the state Democratic Party’s decision, however he’s not surprised they sent it out.

“Toby has been deceiving the voters about my record,” Goodman said, citing an ad that the Nixon campaign paid for, which claims Goodman voted for a $3.2 billion deficit and another that claims he supports a state income tax – both of which are not true, he said. “The Democrats can roll over and play dead, or get defensive about it and call the Republicans out.”

He said this is about the state party and what they do.

Before the campaign began, Goodman told Nixon that the parties might throw stuff at each other, but he agreed to keep his campaign civil and on the issues.

He’s complied with that agreement, he says, but is “frustrated with this continuation of these deceptive ads that Toby’s been going around publishing in newspapers and sending out his own mail pieces that voters are sick of.”

He also said he doesn’t blame the Democratic Party for coming to his defense, and he will not publicly repudiate anything.

“That would be like me asking Toby to rebuke his party leaders for their own dirty tactics,” he said, adding the state Republican Party hasn’t yet thrown out any “hit pieces” on him yet, but he’s sure it’s coming as the election gets closer and the intensity goes up.

But Goodman says that Nixon also broke his word.

Last December, the colleagues had sat down for breakfast and Nixon “promised he would never run against me,” Goodman recalled. “When Toby did announce to run against me — having gone back on his promise — I said well, that’s politics. If a party defends me, he’s got to say, ‘that’s politics.’ Everything comes full circle.”