Sunday, September 09, 2007

"Low Key" vs "Low Responsibility"

Benjamin Lanka's column in today's Journal Gazette stated:

Being low-key and quiet isn’t necessarily a bad personality trait, but political candidates likely wouldn’t want those terms associated with their campaigns.

Yet that is how many in the community view the campaign waged to date by Democratic mayoral nominee Tom Henry.

While his opponent, Republican Matt Kelty, campaigns under the cloud of felony indictments, Henry has been unable to grab the spotlight, partly because he refuses to make Kelty’s legal problems an issue.


Tom Henry once again clarified at yesterday's rally that he WOULD NOT go negative against Matt Kelty, as easy as that would be to do. I respect Tom for that stance and I think that most of my fellow residents of the Summit City do as well. While scandal certainly does sell, candidates who "go for the jugular" generally tend to be individuals who have no substance of their own to run upon. Tom, on the other hand, HAS presented no less than six proposals for change that his administration will bring to our city:

• A community task force to examine how to use the city’s trust fund.

• Asking the General Assembly to go into a special session to provide more property tax relief and local tax options.

• A team to examine the benefits of area rivers.

• A safe-house program for children.

• An economic development coordinating council to increase communication among development agencies.

• Collective purchasing for local governments.


Matt Kelty, on the other hand, is using his time left before the election to produce audio and You Tube spots which portray him as a "victim of (Choose One:) 1.- Andy Downs, 2.- Kevin Knuth, 3.-Nelson Peter's supporters, 4.- Cathy Hawks, 5.- Steve Shine, 6.- Other". It's with great pleasure that I offer the following advice to the Republican candidate for mayor of Fort Wayne:

"Suck it up, pull yourself up by your boot straps, and be responsible for your own decisions and actions".

I actually enjoyed that for a second or two, but only because of the hypocrisy involved. . .


NO hypocrisy THERE! Hat Tip to Andrew Kaduk for the above graphic!

1 comment:

Phil Marx said...

This article is comical. Tom Henry has been busy campaigning, and several of his ideas have shown up on this and other blogs. While I think some of his proposals lack substance, I'll at least give him credit for putting something out there.

On the Matt Kelty indictment, Henry has been absolutely silent, and this should been seen as a credit to him.

It is the traditional media which is placing the focus on the indictment rather than actual ideas which are being put forth by both sides. For either newspaper to come out and say Henry's campaign is in low gear because the Kelty indictment is stealing all the attention, when they are the ones choosing to do this, is just plain idiotic.