I did my civic duty on Friday at Moody Park, early in the morning – according to the sign-in sheet, I was the fifth person to vote that day. That makes me one of 1302 people to cast their ballot, in person or by mail, so far in this runoff. Unless the weekend totals are a complete bust, I imagine we’ll have on the order of 2000 votes by close of business Tuesday, which means my original projection is almost certain to be low, quite possibly very low. It’s not out of the question to me at this point that the runoff could get almost as many voters as the May election. Probably not, but if we’re at 2000 votes on Wednesday, an equivalent amount on the 13th is conceivable.
This week we saw the first example of negative campaigning, as Maverick Welsh sent out a couple of mailers that said Ed Gonzalez was part of the “same tired system” and represents “politics as usual”. This has made some folks, like Stace, unhappy with Welsh. I have three things to say about this. One, I thought these mailers were pretty generic as far as attacks go – I definitely thought the stuff sent out in 2003 about Adrian Garcia was worse. As such, they didn’t particularly bother me. Two, the language used in these pieces strikes me as the kind of thing one candidate says when the other candidate has the support of much of the political establishment, including the previous occupant of the office. At its core, the message is “Vote for change”, which when you consider that seven months ago the people in District H voted like crazy for Adrian Garcia for Sheriff, may perhaps not be an optimal strategy. And finally, along those lines, some other late in the game attacks against Garcia made by his 2003 runoff opponent Diana Davila Martinez seem to have benefited him more than they harmed him, at least in my neck of the woods. We’ll know soon enough if history repeats itself.
I had the same reaction to the mailings, though I don’t think Welsh needed to go there. I also got my first somewhat negative in tone Gonzalez mailing – the “home values” one that suggests that voting for Welsh is a crazy act which will lead to your home value declining. All a bit silly.
Stace Medellin put it well :
I’m not surprised, but I am disappointed in the campaign of Maverick Welsh for District H. Not only has he gone negative, but he has gone on a rampage, attacking a decorated police officer and community leader as someone who cannot be trusted, without providing much proof of anything.
Welsh goes on to blame Ed Gonzalez for problems regarding crime and for being part of the “same, tired system.” What Welsh seems to forget is that while Ed Gonzalez was out working to protect our streets, while risking his life, Welsh was working for a policy-maker (Peter Brown) that should have been working on these issues. I find it quite peculiar that Peter Brown can go around taking credit for things, while Welsh blames all of the challenges facing District H on one decorated homicide detective.
Either Welsh is desperate, or he just doesn’t get it. Welsh asks about Ed Gonzalez, “What has he really done?” But the mail piece provides nothing which would state what Welsh has done. One would figure he’d be taking credit for something after his short time as a staffer for a councilman.
And the second mail piece, well, that just seems like something taken out of the Republican playbook–”run for your lives! the parks are filled with sexual predators paid by your tax dollars!!!”
The politics of fear has no business being in this race.
Unfortunately, in what was supposed to be a race between two progressive-minded candidates, Welsh has taken the low road to “politics as usual.”
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