Danbury: Time To 'Move On' From Sherber Scandal

Senior CNS senator says scandal is 'old news'

MAINE CITY, ARMANA--Senior Conservative senator Chuck Danbury has heard enough about his fellow Conservative colleague's sex scandal, and he thinks it's time the press--and the Nationalist Party--move on.

"It happened months ago, and it was unfortunate, it was a mistake, it was stupid, but it's time for everybody to move on," Danbury said in an interview with GNN.

He's talking about Senator Driscoll Sherber of Biereland, who in June 2009 admitted to having an extramarital affair with a Senate aid. Mr. Sherber, who campaigned as a pro-family conservative, apologized for the affair publicly, and subsequently retreated to seclusion for the next several weeks. His Conservative colleagues condemned his behavior, but none called for his resignation.

Since the scandal broke, Nationalists have not ceased to bring up the senator's checkered past, often indirectly referrencing it in campaign ads.

"We sent Driscoll Sherber to Mavocke to get things done for our state, and what has he been doing? Well, not the work of the people, that's for sure," says one attack ad, that is currently running in Biereland's seven media markets.

But Nationalists and the media need to stop bringing up the scandal, Senator Danbury said in his interview with GNN.

"This is old news. Everyone knows about it now, we don't need the media and Julie Grendhau reminding us every time we turn on the TV," Danbury said, referring to NAT candidate Julie Grendhau, who narrowly lost to Sherber in a 2009 special election, and is seeking a rematch in 2010.

But Bill Allen, a political reporter for the Greene Mountain Press, Brookings' daily newspaper, says Sherber's personal affairs should be public knowledge.

"When the voters send someone to Mavocke to represent them, they have a right to know the character of that person, and what kind of person they are, both publicly and privately," Allen said.

Grendhau's campaign agrees, although takes a slightly different approach to the matter.

"For us, it's not so much that Driscoll Sherber had an affair. That's his business, that's his life, his decision. The real issue is that we sent him to Mavocke to get things done for Biereland, and we now know that during the first several months he was in office, he was not doing anything for our state. He was too consumed with his personal relationships," said Mark Connal, a spokesman for the Grendhau campaign.

The Sherber campaign says both the media and the Grendhau campaign are exploiting the issue for political gain.

"This is a personal, private family matter, and instead of letting the Sherber family heal and deal with this situation on their own terms, Julie Grendhau and her friends in the media are making a spectacle out of it," Sherber campaign spokesman Jeff Todd told the NPF.

A lawyer for the Sherber family also requested privacy during the coming election.

"For the sake of the senator, his wife Emily, and their children, we would respectfully ask for a certain degree of privacy," attorney Mark Whalberger said.

Last week, Glitter magazine reported rumors that Sherber and his wife are negotiating an interview with the GBC, however, Mr. Whalberger would not comment on the accuracy of those claims.