Woodbridge, VA -- The Frederick campaign announced today that it has contacted Commonwealth’s Attorney for Prince William, Paul Ebert in order to file a complaint and request for an immediate investigation into illegal, harassing, and aggressive phone calls about the race for delegate in the 52nd District.

“Over a dozen people have informed us about these disgraceful phone calls,” said Matt Robbins, Frederick’s campaign manager. “These calls are illegal, unethical, and are not authorized by Friends of Jeff Frederick,” he continued.

The phone calls apparently began over the weekend and come from an unidentified phone number. The calls are made repeatedly until someone answers and then a live person proceeds to ask if the resident supports ‘Jeff Taylor for town council.’ In an obviously rude tone, the callers then abruptly correct themselves by stating “I mean Jeff Frederick for Delegate” and immediately hang up after the resident has answered the question regardless of the answer.

In all cases, the caller hangs up without identifying who has paid for the call.

The failure to identify who is responsible for the ad is a direct violation of Virginia’s “Stand by Your Ad” Law. Code 24.2-1014.1 of Virginia law requires that any phone calls being made for political candidates must inform the person being called of who paid for the ad. In addition, it is a crime for someone to misrepresent themselves over the phone in political calls.

“We call on Charlie Taylor to follow our lead -- first in publicly denouncing this shameful and cynical hoax and second, in calling for a formal investigation into the matter,” said Robbins. “Furthermore, we hope that if anyone in the Taylor camp knows anything about these calls that they immediately step forward and provide all relevant information to the proper authorities,” he said.

Jeff Frederick is a small business owner running for Delegate in the 52nd District. Frederick’s platform of better schools, less traffic and lower taxes has earned widespread grassroots, bipartisan support, and endorsements from local education leaders. The election will be held on November 4th.