I've been involved in a bit of a "battle" with the Gates Blogger and a couple of his readers regarding some local issues.
One of the "correspondents" goes by the name of "Concerned for Gates". Concerned is a strident opponent of Ralph Esposito and the Gates GOP. While he has never identified himself, I'm pretty sure that he is Doug Ross, the Democrat Treasurer. His writing is very similar to Ross' letters to the editor of the Gates-Chili Post.
Concerned is one of those guys who use statistics to prove their points. As we know, you can manipulate statistics to "prove" almost anything. The Democrats, with Ross as their "idea guy" tried to use "statistics" in the 2006 campaign to support their claims that Ralph was leading the Town to ruin.
Their mailouts contained a number of distortions or mis-statements to lead people to erroneous conclusions. These efforts included using inapt graphs regarding tax increases. among other things. The most egregious example was their flyer depicting Town tax revenue vs. expenditures. The graph appeared to show an enormous shortfall. The problem was that the revenue side only included property tax revenue. If you added in non-property tax revenues, the budget balanced.
Sue Swanton and the Democrats have been campaigning against the GOP for 5 years. Yet, in that time, they have never offered any serious alternative operational plan. Ms. Swanton comes to every meeting and she pores over our budget. She has obtained all manner of information through FOIL requests. She and her Democrat colleagues have virtually all of the information Ralph and the Town Board have.
So what are they waiting for? Why have they done nothing but complain (and, go after the Supervisor's car)? It is becoming increasingly obvious that they don't have any better alternatives. They don't have any bold, new ideas which will capture Gates residents' attention. No, bereft of ideas, the Democrats resort to negative campaigning and statistical distortions.
Most people in Gates have figured this out. Politicians who don't offer any alternatives during their campaigns, usually don't have any.
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