Attacks (and a follow-up letter from a resident)

Over the past several days, many of you have reached out, angered and repelled over a series of coordinated attack letters targeting me.

First and foremost, thank you for expressing your support. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated. And many thanks to all who are channeling their irritation about those letters into offers of further help for our campaign.

I want to share with you what my wife, Lorraine, said in a text to another council candidate a few weeks ago when she (the candidate) was the target of a baseless, deceptive attack mailer:

“Hang in there. Your community knows you and that’s a huge asset you bring to your campaign. And attack pieces generally don’t sit well with Worthington voters – whoever’s behind this apparently does not know Worthington very well!”

I believe she’s right.

As for me, I embrace robust, fact-based debate, on any and all issues. But the baseless character assassination these folks are engaging in is not that. Their letters are packed with distortions, deceptions, misleading statements, and vague, unfounded claims. This is toxic to our community, and it’s not the way we do things in Worthington.

Perhaps most disturbing to me is the statements they made not about me, but about you—the public. They said that the voters, who supported and passed the Issue 38 Worthington charter amendment back in 2015, were “fooled” into doing so. Really? These same folks have said that the 1200+ residents who have signed the Project Community Park Worthington petition (many of those signatures accompanied by articulate, insightful comments), didn’t really understand what it meant when they signed it.

The lack of respect for the voters is on full display, as is their failure to grasp the reality that Worthington residents are thinking people who are fully capable of making well-founded decisions based on facts and their own desires for this city they love. Bottom line, the letter writers can’t accept the basic fact that others, informed and thoughtful, disagree with them.

Whether you received the envelope containing three letters (one anonymous), or the envelope containing one letter, the common thread is that all of the authors whose identities are discernible are board members of one organization. These letters—clearly a coordinated effort—unfortunately reflect how some try to influence through deception, rather than reason-based persuasion.

There is a lot to discuss about how to move forward positively, but that conversation will have to wait until after the election. I myself, and everyone involved with this campaign, will spend these last few days continuing to do what we’ve been doing all along: engaging in real, face-to-face conversations with our neighbors, sharing our thoughts, ideas, and aspirations with one another. And when we differ, we do so with civility.

David

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I received the following letter late this morning, written by Tom Hamer, long-time Worthington resident, which he had sent to the Dispatch.  It speaks to the attacks and, more importantly, our community: