A note to readers: A direct-mail piece from Lovely Warren’s mayoral campaign contains a quote from our August 21 endorsement article. The quote, taken out of context, could give the impression that we endorsed Warren for mayor. We did not; we endorsed incumbent Tom Richards.
This kind of campaign tactic is nothing new, to politics or to us. And it is not illegal (although in our more cynical moments, it tempts us to refrain from saying anything complimentary about any candidate we aren’t endorsing, whatever their strong points).
The tactic is, however, always disappointing, and we’re sorry to see the Warren campaign doing it.
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2013.
What’s disappointing is this blog post. Did the Warren mailer say City endorsed Warren? No. Did it quote your editorial incorrectly? No. Surely, the paper isn’t presuming the right to approve campaign literature now?
Frankly, your indignation is a silly distraction. How about instead, you use your ink to foster some dialogue on the issues plaguing the city? Ya know, child poverty, infant mortality, the lowest grad rates, highest murder rate, etc. ,… issues that your candidate has been rather silent on until he was challenged by Warren.
I guess this might be a silly distraction — unless it happens to YOU.
In my case, it did. Ms. Warren used an old email of mine on a mail piece — without the courtesy of asking me — implying that I was endorsing her, which I did not. And, I was reminded of a lesson I learned at an early age.
I actually ran for office when I was about as old as she is. My wife dutifully screen printed a couple of hundred lawn signs which I decided to put all over the district — without asking, thinking that this is what politics was about.
A wise person who had been elected to office several times called me and said, “Ken, I notice you have several lawn signs up places you probably didn’t get permission for. I’m not saying you have to take them down because it is illegal. Nor am I saying that you take them down because it is unethical. But the way a candidate campaigns is a good indication of the type of elected official they will be after they win.”
I took the signs down and apologized.
issues that lovely warren hasn’t done anything about either and she has worked for gandt for how long? been on the city council for how long? Please, your indignation is no better.
@ Ken- A wise person once told me: “Don’t put anything in an email that you don’t want to see printed on the front page of the newspaper. ” Surely, a man of your stature understands that correspondence to a public official is part of the public record?
I don’t know about the particulars of the quote, but I do believe Lovely Warren to be the best candidate for Mayor of the city of Rochester and hope the primary voters will believe the same. I have been in many campaigns myself and believe Lovely to have the needed vision to include all of Rochester in her work to make the whole city a better place to be. I am also disappointed that some politicos have expressed that she should “wait her turn”. Where would we be if Anthony, Douglas and King had heeded that advice? Vision and contacts beyond the city’s establishment are as much needed here as anything else. That is what Lovely brings to the table. She i s a breath of fresh air in a city where hope is stagnant for too many citizens.
Ruth Scott, former President of the Rochester City Council
The Richards vs. Warren primary reminds me of something that Lewis Carrol wrote…
“Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.
‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.
‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.
‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.”
note my words:
Courtesy. Ethics. My Mother taught me before you use someone’s words, you ask. To blame me for her action is really disappointing. We should ask better of our elected officials. But then, in a day when school board members swear and city council members use the N word — I guess everything goes, right? Who really cares if they don’t?
This behavior can be expected. As a matter of fact, the closer we get to Primary Day, expect more bombs and flame throwers to raise their ugly heads from the Primary challenger and David Gannt. Some Democrats don’t know how to behave any other way. Makes me think of an old Molly Ivins quote: “The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.” Hold your nose until September 10th.
Of course not. The “alternative newspaper” of Rochester has once again reaffirmed the Establishment, status-quo, pro-business, candidate. Some alternative.
This is the bottom line. City wrote something nice about Lovely Warren. They published it. It was seen by thousands of people. The Warren Campaign reprinted it. It is not say anywhere that it is an endorsement. No one would have even thought that unless CITY brought it up. I saw this piece and it is a nice piece. No harm, no foul.
How funny that people are complaining about the fact that they said something nice about someone in a public setting (one an email to a public official — official correspondence, in effect, and the other a publicly printed editorial) — and that person had the unmitigated gall to… quote them? Am I missing something. Were these compliments not meant? Were they things said “just to be polite — but don’t quote me publicly!” Folks, it’s disingenuous to compliment someone publicly and then say “oh, I didn’t want you tell people I said that!”
And Ken, I don’t know what you and your mom talked about, but I can’t think of a time when we discussed the appropriateness of quoting people from official email exchanges — your family must have had some interesting dinner conversations!
So Smugtown, if City had published a movie review saying…
“This is the best movie that John Smith ever directed. Unfortunately that’s not saying much as all his movies have been bombs!”…
… you wouldn’t consider it misleading were the movie company to run an ad using the quote like this…
“City Newspaper says, ‘This is the best movies that John Smith ever directed’” ?
So Ken took the signs down and apologized? Wimp. No wonder he lost. I had a similar experience in my first school board race in Hilton. I took the signs down, apologized, and blamed John Abbott.
MJN, that happens all the time! That’s how people go to see so many bad movies!
What world do you live in? The one where mothers tell their children not to quote someone out of context without first getting their written permission?
If you don’t mean something nice, don’t say something nice.
Just for the record — yes, we did have some great conversations around the dinner table. From when I was a kid right up until her death. Ethics. Politics. Morals. Right and wrong, making anonymous rude comments. — But particularly about the inappropriateness of saying something about somebody’s Mother.
Ken Warner Miz Warren used the emails as she should have to expose the misrepresentations of the truth you were posting in your Blog . In my opinion you were attempting to mislead the public, much like your candidate is in failing to give Lovely proper credit for her input in research, writing a PLA agreement and sitting at the table fighting the fight for the increased hiring of minorities on construction projects….At the time, you COMPLIMENTED her and thanked her for her presence…now you wanna act like she was not there and it was the Tom Richards show…..NOT TRUE and you know it!!..LOVELY WARREN for Mayor!!
Smugtown – The topic was not whether an action occurs frequently but rather, as in the case of Warren taking a City quote out of context., the action is unethical. Apparently, whether it’s politics or the cinema, you have no problem with blatant misrepresentation.