Joe Levi:
a cross-discipline, multi-dimensional problem solver who thinks outside the box – but within reality™

Syracuse Mayor Confuses Partisan Research and Partisan Campaigning

I’m posting this at the request of Mayor Jamie Nagle.

We recently ran a story about the Davis County Democrats planning a “Save Syracuse’s City Council” door-to-door campaign to be hold at Mayor Nagle’s home — and how they later removed the post.

After that, and entirely unrelated, Chairman of the Davis County GOP, Rusty Cannon, sent an email, stating the following:

As Election Day approaches I wanted to encourage you to get out and vote in the various municipal elections going on. We would never tell anyone how to vote, however I would encourage Republican voters to inquire among the candidates for elected office as to what their party affiliation is if they have one. We often hear the argument that ‘these are not partisan races’, but since elected officials have the power to control and tax, their party affiliation can be an indication of what their guiding principles are- and are therefore vitally important. My job as the Davis County Republican Party Chair is to promote the election of Republicans and drive our party platform forward in the county.

Here is a link to the list of candidates in Davis County, I encourage you to call candidates in your area if you have any questions as to what their party affiliation is: CLICK HERE

Mayor Nagle forwarded his email to me with the following preface:

Mr. Levi,

I am curious why you don’t have so much outrage over this email. Do you want to call what the republicans are doing as pot or kettle. Post this to your official page, disseminate this like you did with the other you were outraged over and then you will have credibility. But you already received this and were strangely silent. From the Davis GOP Chairman, Rusty Cannon.

So, not taking a request from the Mayor of Syracuse lightly, at her request I am posting her question.

This is my reply:

Mayor Nagle,

I’m confused.

Are you comparing the Chairman of the Davis County GOP calling on Republicans, to contact a candidate directly and personally ask them directly about their political affiliation — with you hosting the Davis County Democrats organized door-to-door campaign to “Save Syracuse’s City Council” from more conservative candidates in your home? Seriously?

One Party is asking people to research their candidates and use their political affiliation as an indicator of who they are and how they’ll vote. After all, why would one align oneself with a party if they didn’t subscribe to at least the majority of planks in that Party’s platform?

The other Party is using inflammatory terms like “candidates that want to gut city governments” and “too many of them are tea party tenthers” and “we need to stop them now before they get larger platforms for their extremist ideas” — and organizing a door-to-door campaign to presumably spread this deliberately inflammatory and polarizing to “propagandize” voters into voting for (or against) certain candidates.

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