Politics in Gates reached a new low yesterday as the Gates Democrats' mailer hit homes across the town.
Half of the mailer was a hit piece aimed at Town Justice John Pisaturo. This is the second such attack on him focusing on the fact that he was censured for giving overly large fines to speeders.
The piece says that "Judge Pisaturo broke the law" by handing out those large fines. This is becoming a typical tactic; implying that a crime was committed when the issue is compliance with an administrative or regulatory aspect of a statute. Further, why do the Democrats think hammering speeders is such a bad thing? Maybe drivers would slow down in Gates if they knew they were going to get the biggest fines possible.
The other half of the mailer was more of the same old "chicken little" criticism. The Democrat mailer used out-of-context "facts" along with quotes from editorials from 15-16 months ago in an effort to distort Ralph Esposito's record and lead people to unjustified conclusions. This has gone on for five years now. Ms. Swanton and the Democrats have been criticising Mr. Esposito and the GOP, but during all of that time, they have never offered a concrete, positive proposal for changes in Gates' government. Ms. Swanton focused on Ralph's car; Mr. McIntee on some secretarial salaries. Five years and the best they can do is "save" the Town a few thousand dollars?
A quick look at the latest mailer leads to an inescapable conclusion; the Democrats know they are losing this year so they will say anything in a last ditch effort to salvage their campaign. Most residents of Gates are reaching the conclusion, as the D&C and G-C Post did, that all Swanton and her gang can do is criticise the current administration; they have no positive plan or real ideas for running the town.
Further, their brand of politics is disgraceful. This is not like the pointed, rather witty ads they ran two years ago. Those ads went to the edge but usually didn't cross it. This year's campaign has gone far beyond the pale. I believe the Republican campaign has been positive and fair. We have campaigned solely on what we have done over the past few years and made virtually no references to our opponents.
Too bad the Democrats chose the dark side. I say shame on them.
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2 comments:
I was directed here to your blog. I see you still have no respect for the truth. Just as when you accused the Democrats for wanting to eliminate the police department and when challenged for proof of those statements you slunk away into the ether.
A censure from the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct is no mere slap on the wrist. It is serious when a judge breaks the law he has sworn to enforce. However, you seem to advocate this behavior. I thought you were a lawyer. Democrats, on the other hand, are in favor of equal justice for all. I think that’s covered in The Constitution.
While discussing the rest of the brochure you go into your fiction mode of total misrepresentation. “out-of-context "facts" along with quotes from editorials from 15-16 months ago” is hardly the content of the piece. There are actually 6 quotations from Mr. Esposito and one quote from an editorial that discusses what Mr. Esposito said. In 3 of those quotations Mr. Esposito grossly misrepresents the facts. Not surprisingly the misstatements occur immediately before elections. Actually the point being made is – Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
As for Ms. Swanton not discussing a plan for returning fiscal sanity to Gates, there have been several pieces as well as one in the D&C this morning discussing in detail what actions she would take.
It’s your blog you so I guess you say whatever you like. But please try to retain some shred of honesty..
Doug:
There are a lot of ways to twist the truth. Given how good you have been at it, I find it quite rich that you are tring to lecture me on truthfullness.
A fact or quote, taken out of context, can lead people to a conclusion that is not warranted. You have been very good at that. Your recent flyer included a chart showing taxes going up. The chart did not say if those were town taxes, school taxes, county taxes, or some combination thereof. Without the context, people will reach conclusions that may not be warranted.
For years, you have used terms like "illegal" and "broke the law" to describe Town Board action and more recently, Judge Pisaturo's actions. Obviously, you hope readers will infer criminality from those statements, which, in these circumstances, would be unjustified. Acts which are "ultra vires" are not "illegal" and those involved are not subject to criminal penalty.
Your campaigns have been little more than blatant attempts to scare people into believing that the Town of Gates was in an implacable crisis. The budget deficit was a problem, but it was never the crisis you and Sue made it out to be. At no time did the deficit threaten material reductions in vital town services. You depicted the Town of Gates as the Titanic two years ago, but we're still sailing on.
Moreover, your candidates engaged in a whispering campaign against Ralph Esposito, alleging that the Comptroller "was trying to find out where the money went". Sue regularly expressed "her concern" at Board meetings that the deficit would be $4.0 million by now or that taxes would have to go up in the 2008 budget. But, those slanders and predictions have all been shown to be false.
The D&C and G-C Post editorials endorsing Ralph for re-election, both chided you for spending most of your time criticizing the GOP, rather than offering a positive plan. Sue's comments in today's paper were the closest thing yet to a plan, but most of the items are just window dressing which would have little fiscal impact. And, I'd really like to know how you would accomplish the few things she listed that are material. My favorite item there is "reducing borrowing". Mark McIntee loves to point out that he refused to vote for the bonding of highway equipment. Of course, the following month, he seconded the motion to spend the money he did not want to borrow. "Have your cake and eat it too" is not much of a governing philosophy.
Mark also angrily claimed that the town Hall and Highway Garage are "falling apart". What's his proposal for fixing them? How would he get funding to renovate the Library or fix the Hinchey House? Oh well, he's been too busy posturing over a few thousand dollars of secretarial salaries to focus on serious issues.
You can bluster all you want, but the fact is that the Democrats cannot do anything more than the GOP has done about the deficit unless you cut a major program. If it comes to that, you and I both know which one you and Sue would choose.
Finally, I can say I'm proud of the Gates GOP campaign this year. We took the high road and dealt only with our record of accomplishments. We did not take any cheap shots at Sue, Mark, Tom or Karen. Your campaign, to the contrary, was virtually nothing but cheap shots, distortions and mis-representations.
We'll see which method worked best on Tuesday.
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