印第安纳波利斯——一名黑人妇女说，作为印第安纳州的国会候选人，她收到了许多反对副总统迈克·彭斯的哥哥的种族主义和威胁信息，她在一次竞选活动前听到她认为是枪声后报警。
民主党人珍妮·李·莱克(Jeannine Lee Lake)在共和党主导的第六区与共和党众议员格雷格·彭斯(Greg Pence)面临长期的竞争。她说，周四晚上，她刚把车停在曼西的维拉·梅(Vera Mae)小酒馆外，就听到她认为是司机侧窗外的三声枪响。莱克说，她很慌乱，但没有受伤，她没有注意到车辆损坏。
蒙西警察队长史蒂夫·考克斯说，警察在晚上8点后不久就对现场做出了反应，调查正在进行中。
“对我来说太可怕了，”莱克说。“现在，就我们在这场运动中所处的位置而言，就一些负面的事情、已经发生的骚扰而言，我确实觉得事情正在升级。”
这些指控来自一些执法部门，选举全国各地的官员和政治家都担心暴力事件，因为分裂的选民在最有争议的选举中投票选举美国历史上的美国。
莱克说，今年夏天晚些时候，在特拉华州共和党在脸书上公布了她的个人地址和联系信息后，她开始收到种族主义电话信息和个人财产损失。许多语音邮件称她为种族诽谤，并包含其他贬义语言。
一名男子在莱克与美联社分享的一条信息中说:“你只不过是个多嘴的混蛋。”。
她说，上个月有人给她和两名竞选助手邮寄了一份22页的文件，其中包含了她即将离婚和个人行踪的私人细节。莱克说，她认为这些包裹是“个人威胁”，因为简单的在线搜索无法找到收集的研究。
审查此案的特拉华州县检察官埃里克·霍夫曼(Eric Hoffman)报告说，“一个信封里有一份未知人士寄给莱克夫人的各种选举法规和条例的复印件。”他继续说，这些文件“没有明确或隐含的威胁”，并补充说，“鉴于这些事实，根据印第安纳州的法律，没有犯罪。”
莱克在9月份向警长办公室报告说，有人破坏了她家的财产。她说，在有人打破后窗后，她的竞选房车上的一部个人手机、门磁和竞选标志周一被盗。
彭斯否认与这些事件有任何牵连，并要求检察官“进行全面调查”。
彭斯的发言人凯尔·罗伯逊(Kyle Robertson)周五对美联社表示:“国会议员格雷格·彭斯(Greg Pence)不容忍任何此类行为，并支持进行全面调查。”。
莱克说，出于对自己和工作人员安全的考虑，她现在正考虑暂停所有面对面的竞选活动。
“我很害怕，我讨厌我有这种感觉，”她说。“但所有这些因素加在一起，让我的感官得到了提升——比以往任何一次竞选活动都要强烈。”
莱克是今年秋天印第安纳州唯一一名竞选联邦公职的黑人女性。格雷格·彭斯在2018年轻而易举地击败了她，赢得了这个席位，迈克·彭斯在成为州长和副总统之前担任了12年。
在她的竞选活动中，莱克一直直言不讳地表达她反对种族主义和偏见以及支持民权的立场。今年夏天，她还在社交媒体上批评彭斯允许在他在印第安纳州爱丁堡共同拥有的一个庞大的古董商场出售带有种族主义描述的非裔美国人物品。
——
凯西·史密斯是美联社/美国议会新闻报道倡议的成员。“为美国报道”是一个非盈利性的国家服务项目，它将记者安排在当地的新闻编辑室报道未报道的问题。
Opponent of Pence's brother alleges racist threats, gunfire
INDIANAPOLIS -- A Black woman who says she has received numerous racist and threatening messages as an Indiana congressional candidate against Vice President Mike Pence's brother called police after hearing what she thought was gunfire before a campaign event.
Democrat Jeannine Lee Lake, who faces long odds against Republican Rep. Greg Pence in the GOP-dominated 6th District, said she had just parked Thursday evening outside Vera Mae’s Bistro in Muncie when she heard what she believes were three gunshots outside the driver’s side window. Lake said she was rattled but uninjured, and she noticed no damage to the vehicle.
Muncie Police Capt. Steve Cox said officers responded to the scene shortly after 8 p.m., and an investigation is ongoing.
“It's terrifying to me,” Lake said. “Now, in the scope of where we’re at with this campaign, in terms of some of the negative things, the harassment that's happened, I do feel like things are escalating quite a bit.”
The accusations come as some law enforcement, election officials and politicians nationwide are concerned about violence as a divided electorate votes in one of the most contentious elections in U.S. history.
Lake said she began receiving racist phone messages and damage to personal property late this summer after the Delaware County GOP published her personal address and contact information in a Facebook post. Many of the voicemails call her racial slurs and include other derogatory language.
"You’re nothing but a loudmouth frickin’ n(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk),” a man said in one of the messages Lake shared with The Associated Press.
She says that last month somebody mailed her and two campaign aides a 22-page document containing private details about her pending divorce and personal whereabouts. Lake said she considered the packages to be “personal threats” because the research gathered couldn't be found with simple online searches.
Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman, who reviewed the case, reported an “envelope contained photocopies of various election statutes and regulations that the unknown person or persons had mailed to Mrs. Lake." The documents contained “no explicit or implicit threats," he continued, adding, “given these facts, under Indiana law, no crime has been committed.”
Lake made a sheriff's office report in September that somebody vandalized property at her home. She said a personal cellphone, door magnets and campaign signs were stolen Monday from her campaign RV after somebody broke the back window.
Pence has denied any involvement in the incidents and asked that the prosecutor “conduct a full investigation.”
“Congressman Greg Pence does not condone any sort of this behavior and supports a full investigation,” Kyle Robertson, a spokesman for Pence, told the AP on Friday.
Lake said she's now contemplating a suspension of all in-person campaigning activities due to safety concerns she has for herself and her staff.
“I’m afraid, and I hate that I feel this way,” she said. “But all of these things together, it has my senses heightened — way more than during any campaigning before.”
Lake is the only Black woman running for federal office in Indiana this fall. Greg Pence easily defeated her in 2018 to win the seat, which Mike Pence held for 12 years before becoming governor and then vice president.
Throughout her campaign, Lake has remained outspoken about her stances against racism and bigotry and in support of civil rights. This summer, she also took to social media to criticize Pence for allowing the sale of objects with racist depictions of African Americans at a sprawling antiques mall he co-owns in Edinburgh, Indiana.
——
Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
