YES, The Libertarian Party of Allen County intentionally did not run a candidate against Republican Mitch Harper--so what! We did absolutely nothing wrong in doing so. Our stance is we don't waste our time and our member's money opposing people we tend to agree with. We would rather use our time and efforts and resources to make positive changes in our community.
I think its a little unwise at this point for the journal gazette to resort to obvious smear tactics so early in this political season. First off they could have asked the Libertarian Party for a statement for this article, which they did not. Second they used the word omission to instead of vacancy to describe the lack of a Libertarian candidate running for 4th district city council seat. The word omission is a strong word with negative connotations. The word omission is associated in most peoples mind with the word lie and conspiracy. Wait there's more :
"noticeable omission"... just come out and ask us
"Libertarian Protection"... what are we the mafia?
"libertarian-small L beliefs".... come on now!
"raise questions".... journalism is easy-go straight to the source and ask your questions unless you don't want the people to have the answers cause the answers make a story into NO story.
To me its slightly confusing when someone manufactures a story using highly descriptive language on a topic they refused to do research on.
We left a candidate out of that race for one reason. We don't actually SUPPORT Mitch Harper but we simply just don't OPPOSE him or many of his views.
You should have asked we would have just told you!
Staff SGT Jeremiah Jeffrey (currently deployed)
husband of Chairwoman Jennifer Jeffrey, Libertarian Party of Allen County.
______________________________
_____________
In Response to the newspaper story on Sunday, July 1, 2007:
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070701/LOCAL0202/707010439&SearchID=73285830618086 Column by Benjamin Lanka and Niki Kelly
Libertarian protection
While the Allen County Libertarian Party last week announced a near-full slate of Fort Wayne City Council candidates, the party had one noticeable omission. The Libertarians won't run anyone in the 4th District race, which features Republican Mitch Harper and Democrat Charles Langley.
What makes the omission noteworthy is Harper was one of the speakers at the Indiana Libertarian Party convention this year in Fort Wayne. At the time he said he held many libertarian – small L – beliefs, although he is a staunch member of the Republican Party.
Harper, a former state representative, said it did "raise his eyebrows" when he saw the Libertarians were running candidates in every council race but his, and even said he thought it would raise questions. He said, however, he didn't engineer the ballot vacancy. He probably didn't beg for another opponent, either.
Posts
7 comments:
Jennifer,
I did ask Mitch, Sylvester and Enders (I didn't have your e-mail but I suppose I could've looked it up) that very question several days ago. All 3 told me that it was not intentional and that nobody stepped up to run in that district.
Now you're specifically saying that it WAS intentional. So which is it?
The point several of us who are blogging, writing, working, etc.. (note the letter is from Jeremiah) is that we are running candidates who are going to change the way current government is run here in Allen County.
To be accused of engineering it so that we would throw an election is what bothers many of us. We are here to win and election, win hearts and minds, and change government. Not simply to P*** off the Republicans and throw an election. That is what we are being accused of.
I suppose (considering the emails I have received from both sides of this) you could look at it as "he wasn't really accusing you" or you could look at it as he was "smearing".
Engineering? Absolutely not. Running candidates in elections where we could have influence and win, Yes.
Are the Republicans engineering the race? Did they run someone for Clerk? Anyone accuse them of engineering or rigging or protecting the candidate who isn't of their party?
Had we had someone who would be a Libertarian who would be a strong candidate we would have run them. In all the races.
We don't support candidates from other parties, but we don't always have someone who we can run against all of them either.
Does that mean we protected them? Does that mean it was intentional? We didn't accidentally forget to turn in their forms. There wasn't anyone there. Plain and simple.
Jeff,
When you asked me, I did say that I did not like the idea of running a candidate against Harper. Some LPAC members agreed with me, some did not. If the membership wanted to nominate someone for that district, they would have been able to do so. We did have a potential candidate a year ago, but she changed her mind before Harper declared his candidacy. Since no one in the 4th District expressed an interest in running, it was a moot point anyway.
Perhaps the issue is with the use of the word "oppose" and "intentionally"
Do we oppose what Mitch stands for? Not on a much. We tend to agree with a lot of his views, many in our party have said.
Did we oppose his race? No..
Did we oppose the mayor? No..
Did we oppose the clerk? No..
We made an effort to oppose as many people as we could.
Did we accidentally not file someone? No..
Was there a strong candidate who we would have run against him? No..
Will he help change government? Yep.
Get used to it, no one could possibly know more than Tracy Warner and Ben Lanka. Obviously it is easier for them to manufacture news than it is to actually investigate and report it. The paper has an obvious bias, and these two are onboard. They are from the journalism school of, "Journalists can change the world by shaping the news", as opposed to changing the world by simply reporting.
I think they would be surprised to know their approval ratings rival that of the US Congress. They are in good company.
I think Langley has it in the bag
This has nothing to with the thread and has everything to do with the thread:
On this 4th of July, 2007, there are men and women that are fighting and dying for our ability to engage in discourse such as this. To that end...
SSG Jeffrey - thank you for what you and your buddies do for us every day. Be safe and come back to your family and community soon.
Best,
Adam Mildred
Post a Comment