Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Councilman Crawford Publicly Denounces AFA and Calls on Kelty to do the Same

Republican councilman John Crawford publicly rejected the American Family Association and their ad against mayoral candidate Tom Henry. He also called on Matt Kelty to condemn the message behind the ad and the AFA for running it. His comments came at the end of tonight's city council meeting and are shown below:
I want to go on record concerning the recent radio ad by the American Family Association. I repudiate this message and I strongly condemn the American Family Association for this campaign ad. The AFA is to be condemned in general for this type of shameful tactic and in particular for this ad. The ad is misleading and appeals to the base instincts of intolerance and bigotry.

The ad references an amendment to the Metro Antidiscrimination Ordinance as promoting the gay rights agenda. The only agenda that ordinance promoted was the human agenda - the desire of all people to not be discriminated against. All that ordinance said was that an employee with a good work record should not be able to be told one day he or she is being fired exclusively for their sexual orientation anymore than for their race, sex, age, or religion. The ordinance no more promoted the gay rights agenda than it promoted the agenda of any other group that wants to not be discriminated against. I am fiercely opposed to any form of discrimination against any group and I was proud to vote for that amendment.

It is not just the right thing to do, it is vitally important for this city to be progressive and welcome all groups here if we are to have the strongest economy and city we can have. I commend Allen County Republican Party Chairman Steve Shine for going on record with his concerns about this ad. Republican candidate Matt Kelty should also condemn the message of this ad and the AFA for running it unless he agrees with the message. This is the most reprehensible campaign ad I have ever encountered in this area, and I think it is important for candidates to repudiate it.

Kudos to Crawford for publicly condemning this ad and the AFA. Meanwhile the AFA is now going after Steve Shine.

11 comments:

Dan Turkette said...

Rather than link to a brief article about the letter, here's a link to the entire letter from Micah Clark to Steve Shine

Andrew Kaduk said...

And what a fine heap of tripe it is.

Last I checked, one of the cornerstones of carpenter worship was "judge not thy brother."

I guess Micah and his flock of knuckle-dragging mouth breathers must have missed that part.

I cannot fathom for the life of me why people are so concerned with "who marries who" and so forth...what a phenomenal waste of time.

Kudos to the Smoke Nazi for a profound statement.

Jeff Pruitt said...

Thanks for the link to the letter. I saw it right after I posted this and was going to add a link but you beat me to it...

de_tokeville said...

Yay Smoke Nazi! I'll lift my glass to you even if I can't have a cigarette with it.

Kevin Knuth said...

Does ANYONE really believe that Kelty has not had a chance to hear this ad yet?

Jeff Pruitt said...

Kevin,

I personally filled out the Kelty campaign's contact form on their website and sent a link to the ad to the Kelty campaign. I also asked them to have Matt listen to it and respond.

I KNOW they received my communication because his communications director e-mailed me back and it was not an automated response.

sigmund5 said...

Why do the Kelty people keep spouting the lie that they can't have contact with the PAC? Isn't that a strictly Federal law? I would love to respond to Dan T. or micah about it but I am banned. Anyone want to ask them this directly?

Eric White said...

Jeff,

Dan would really appreciate it if we would start covering the issues! Of course, I think the issues have already been beaten to a bloody pulp around the blogshere. But hey, what do I know.

I say we "bring it!"

Parson said...

As much as it hurts, I have to agree with Crawford. I've agreed with Steve Shine and now Crawford, the end could be near.

Jeff Pruitt said...

Eric,

I believe I've covered numerous issues on this blog. The items I've posted about Matt Kelty were either in the news or became news. The Kelty supporters may not want to admit it but Kelty's honesty/integrity is the #1 issue.

It's fair game because he's made it fair game. The man is a liar and I will not apologize nor temper my coverage of him because some don't want to admit it. I believe he's a troubled individual and would be an extremely dangerous choice for mayor.

Would this be an issue if Nelson Peters were the candidate? Probably not. So the question one might ask is - why is that? Why has Kelty's honesty/integrity become the #1 issue?

I'm sure it's some kind of conspiracy headed by "lefty" bloggers...

Eric White said...

I know, and you have done a great job covering the election!