since the Mayor conceded that there were violations it really has become news and I’d be remiss in not commenting on it. I apologize for not having done so earlier. The whole episode was so distasteful to me that I was sort of hoping that it would just go away.
First let me say that it’s hard for me to get worked up over violations of laws that I’m not convinced should even exist. I’ve always maintained that these campaign laws are only attacking the symptom, money in politics, and not the disease, which is the unchecked expansion of government power. They do not protect the citizens, they only protect incumbents. But the latest revelations indicate a real pattern of carelessness regarding the law, and this is certainly not a desirable characteristic for us to look for in our elected officials.
It’s true that I chose at first not to comply with one of Belmar’s ill-conceived campaign laws during my 2010 campaign, but I did so sort of as a form of civil disobedience after vigorously criticizing those laws, and actually publicly mentioned that I was not in compliance before anyone ever even brought it up. Since my campaign was completely self-financed, I didn’t see the need to protect Belmar from the possibility that I might bribe myself. (After the election I did the required filing during the “amnesty” period declared by the mayor, when all the candidates were permitted to correct any campaign problems they might have had.)
But I have never heard any opposition from the Democrats about the laws they have now admitted to violating. The mayor even campaigned as a champion of Belmar’s sunshine laws. So if they like these laws so much, and used their support of them to persuade the public to put their trust in them, I would expect them to at least try to obey them themselves
I’ve tended to shy away from the whole us vs. them, Democrat vs. Republican thing, running indie or third party in order to focus on philosophical, role-of-government type issues . I think people will be more open to my ideas if they don’t right away peg me as being from the enemy’s camp and therefore simply out to hurt them. But I have to say that the other night the Democrats were way out of line.
In my opinion, the only one of them that showed any class during that whole encounter was Jennifer Nicolay. She slightly nervously, but calmly and politely, responded to Mr. Seebeck’s questions. Claire was, well, Claire. (She really needs to develop a thicker skin.) The mayor declared Seebeck’s allegations to be “bogus” (which it turns out they weren’t) and stated that this is “what people hate about politics”. He and Councilman Magovern then immediately proceded to smear their accuser, repeatedly insinuating he is a pervert because he tried to document (as the state advised him to) possible campaign violations involving workers for the Democratic campaign last year, some of whom were teen aged girls. So in the mayor’s mind, people hate when someone makes (largely true) allegations against sitting officials but really like when those officials then falsely accuse their accuser of being a pervert. Wow. The whole episode was disgusting and if I were Mr. Seebeck I would be contemplating a defamation lawsuit against the council at this point.
One more thing. I don’t understand how Brian Magovern can disagree with Mike Seebeck’s statement that he chose the wrong campaign manager. Doesn’t he get it? It doesn’t matter that he won the election. IT WAS ILLEGAL!
Pretty scary stuff. Doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence to say the least.
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I like being me……Claire
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