Opinion Piece By Samuel Strait – June 2, 2018 –
I think it was about a week ago that I received this year’s Slate advertising recommending which candidates to vote for in the coming June 5th election. Its life span, the flyer’s, was measured in minutes in my house before it took up residence in the old proverbial circular can. I remember thinking when I saw David Mason’s name listed in the flyer whether or not it would become a local faux issue. The Triplicate did not disappoint.
Now I’m not a Democrat, or a Republican for that matter, but according to conventional wisdom, at least the local paper’s wisdom, I’m supposed to be either confused, deceived and misled, or, angry at the Democrats for sending me a misleading bit of campaign literature from a party I don’t belong. After 2016’s debacle, when the Triplicate tried and failed to influence the local election four days prior, by headlining a similar story to “Democrats say Mason mailer is deceptive” , Jessica Cejnar, May 31, 2018, the Triplicate is trying that strategy out once again. Of course now as back then, the Triplicate, whose three weekly issues circulate, I’m told, less than Safeway’s once a week direct advertising mailer, is seeking to remain relevant in spite of the fact that all of their 2016 endorsements failed to move the electorate and lost. I suppose when you back candidates with nothing to offer but political double speak and no lasting benefit to the voters, you get what you don’t wish for, defeat at the polls.
It is certainly nice that the local Democratic Central Committee is so well fixed that they require two vice chairs. Purportedly, if both vice chairs are interviewed in the Triplicate story and both men submit a letter to the editor we are suppose to sit up and take notice. I guess Kevin must be out of town regaling like minded progressive liberals with his progressive fantasies and couldn’t take time out to be properly outraged. Getting back to the “two” vice chairs, Mr. Brian Stone, and Mr. James Ramsey, it seems that they have a debacle of their own to deal with, something about the possible insolvency at the harbor. Must be nice that spending emotional capital to fuss like a couple of old men about a non issue, can take the sting out of their current little problem that they are part and parcel of, at the harbor.
Honestly Mr. Stone and Mr. Ramsey, should I be offended that you are implying that “older voters” are any less capable of making an informed decision at election time than say “close minded progressive liberal Democrats”, or “die hard NRA member conservative Republicans”, or even maybe that fresh faced college student with little in the way of life experiences but well schooled in political theory? It is certainly nice of both you and the incumbent Gerry Hemmingsen to take the time to be suitably outraged for all of us, but I am of the mind that this stunt might be desperation on the part of the Triplicate, the incumbent and the Democratic Central Committee.
I do not have a problem with Mr. David Mason paying for an advertisement in a “Democratic only” mailer for a non partisan office at the local level. As a challenger, getting your name and ideas out to the voting public is important. Incumbents have a record and name recognition with the voters from their time in office, good or bad.
I’m not sure why the Del Norte County’s Clerk Recorder would chime in with her opinion about what voters are thinking, but her comments hardly add to the weight of the outrage. What has become clear now is that the Triplicate has made a second effort on the eve of an election to manufacture a controversy for the express purpose of influencing an electorate. Shame on the local paper and the Democratic Central Committee. Elections are supposed to be about electing the best possible person for the job. The Triplicate and the Democratic Central Committee might try to field and then endorse candidates who have vision and are problem solvers, something that one does not find in the current incumbent’s resume.
Get to know the people that you are electing. Vote wisely, and more importantly vote on June 5th.
Senior citizens Bob, not unlike a conman. Then to say that they can think for themselves. Just be honest, you are not a democrat so do not dress as one.
Sam is right. The aim of a candidate for office is to get their ideas to as many voters as possible. These slate mailers have been around for decades and have been used by many local candidates for office, so it was standard operating procedure for me to use them in the 2016 campaign.
It was only because the zealots of the radical wing Democratic Central Committee failed at their attempt to use the office of the Fair Political Practices Commission to smear me in the 2016 election that they grabbed onto the Slate Mailer as an issue. That also failed. Do they think that the average Democrat voter can’t think for themselves and will do whatever a slate mailer says they should do? Do those members of the central committee think so little of the average Democrat voter and assume that they can’t read the arguments in the voters guide they received from the county clerk? So considering they could not find fault with David Mason, they again grabbed on to the failed issue of the Slate Mailer.
If I do run in 2020 I intend to again utilize the services of the slate mailer to reach as many voters as possible, and I would hope that the zealots of the radical wing of the central committee drag out their failed strategy of crying crocodile tears that I attempted to get my successes before Democratic voters.
should had learned from Bob and Roger. Be honest, people like honesty in a representative. Truth is important. As a republican, I am offended that someone would represent us as without a moral compass. Just be yourself and see if that does it.
Why vote, it just encourages them. To use psychological descriptions, voters are either co-dependent or enablers.