In his letter to the Minneapolis Observer, City Council candidate Ralph Remington accuses his opponent Scott Persons of being "slimy and manipulative," "vile and petty," and (as if straining for the worst epithet of all) "Karl Rovian." All this in the process of complaining about the "tone" of the Persons campaign.
I recently moved out of the 10th Ward, so I won't be casting a vote for any of the candidates, but I did follow the race closely from early on, and I'm increasingly struck by Remington's preference for demonizing his opponent rather than presenting his own detailed, forward-looking plans for the ward and the city. In the early days of the campaign, I met Remington, Persons, and Gay Noble, who's also running, and I had a favorable view of all of them. However, I was later struck by the fact that while Persons and Noble liked to speak of their visions for the city, Remington tended to shout "Who's the leader in the room!" -- as if bombast were equivalent to leadership. More disturbing was to hear him allege, while courting a handful of supporters, that "Scott Persons is for unfettered private development as long as it doesn't use taxpayer dollars" (I think that's a verbatim quote). I had heard Persons talk about development many times, and the message was always that he's for smart, well-planned, environmentally sound development along existing commercial corridors only -- a far cry from "unfettered." Then, in an interview in the Wedge newsletter, Remington spread rumors of dark and secretive pre-convention meetings arranged by Persons to block an endorsement that Remington calls "his" even though he failed to earn it (and I think it's safe to say that every candidate, including Remington, had the same two preferred convention outcomes, in the same order: either win the endorsement or come out with no endorsement). To spread such conspiracy theories through the print media without any substantiation beyond "some of my delegates told me" seems a dangerous move for someone so eager to call his opponent vile, petty, slimy, and manipulative. Remington asserts, "Believe me, if I say something is substantiated, it is substantiated." Okay. You've spread the rumors in print. Substantiate them. Otherwise, you might find that while demonizing and misrepresenting the views of a longtime community activist and fellow progressive DFLer may work well at firing up supporters who believe every word you say, the voters in general might not respond so positively to such tactics. Jason McGrath Corcoran, Mpls REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
