Correcting the record on slates and Fountain Hills candidates

OPINION — Gregg Dudash claims I was “scolding” by criticizing his misguided civility lecture. No, I was, and am again, correcting the record.

Brenda Kalivianakis is running for mayor without affiliation. Catherine Myrich and Jeff Tate are Independents, so aren’t registered with a political party. Susan DeGennaro is a Democrat. The four are generally like-minded, but aren’t running as a “slate” as Dudash claims.

There are no political parties in a non-partisan election, hence no slates. "Independent" simply means no party. It doesn’t mean candidates must weather the political storm alone. Meanwhile, his crew is running as a team; so what? Yet Mr. Dudash incorrectly and irrelevantly insists that the other four are a slate, which somehow voids Myrich and Tate as Independents.

He then takes exception to my having compared the current mayor to the mythological gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turns one to stone. I also cited Sauron from “Lord of the Rings,” whose mountaintop searchlight found and punished the disloyal. Both are perfect analogues for Mr. Friedel's stern gazes and frowns during his autocratic conduct of council meetings.

Mr. Dudash's letters usually have three topics.  Here, the third is an attempt under the guise of “civility” to defend the town majority’s “Christian belief.” He claims that the ROT ticket is civil, while Friedel runs meetings like a boss to be feared. Larrabee's history includes involvement with Turning Point's Joseph McCarthy-like “Professors List,” which blackballs university instructors who are insufficiently conservative for TPUSA. Larrabee is notorious for his outrageous public comments, in particular railing against transgender individuals. How's that for civility?

His crew's opponents, Kalivianakis, Myrich, Tate and DeGennaro, are not only legitimately civil and benevolent residents, but are competent, qualified candidates. They are neither autocrats nor obsessed with imposition of religious mandates on Fountain Hills. They deserve your vote.

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