Jeannemarie Davis learned an important lesson yesterday in her campaign for the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2013 lieutenant governor’s race: As it happens, people take offense when you equate voting for oneself with remembering the lives lost in the September 11 terror attacks.

The Huffington Post reported that Davis, a former state senator from Northern Virginia who is married to former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, did as much when her campaign sent out an email to supporters saying, “As we remember those fallen Americans from 11 years ago, please encourage everyone to participate in our great Democracy.”

Davis’ campaign apparently didn’t get the memo that campaigns were expected yesterday to set aside partisan attacks. Even President Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s campaigns refrained from their generally nasty tones yesterday.

“Please provide information on any ways that the Obama Administration has hurt you or your community, so that I can better tell the story of why it is so important that Virginians replace President Obama and his Democratic Senate,” her email continued.

But many of Davis’ fellow conservatives were a bit shocked she did not abide the unwritten, though socially expected, rule of dropping negative campaigning on September 11. “This is horrific,” said the blog Bearing Drift, which describes itself as “Virginia’s Conservative Voice.”

And in addition to the emails, Davis’ campaign followed up with a round of robo-calls that mentioned Romney by name. “We have nothing to do with this,” a Romney spokeswoman told The Huffington Post.