We received a number of email complaints at LovelandPolitics about your editorial yesterday entitled “Partisanship has no place in our local government.” I must confess, however, that I agreed with most of what you wrote. I also prefer the days when Loveland candidates ran on only Loveland issues and would applaud any effort to return to pools, parks and potholes as the issues being discussed.
The irony is the candidate you endorsed, Donna Rice, is the one who introduced partisan politics into the Ward 1 city council race and is accusing her opponent, John Case, of being some sort of Manchurian candidate supported by mysterious outside interests.
Rice is running a campaign using partisan associations to catapult herself into local office through irresponsible fear mongering about an outsider “green conspiracy” taking over Loveland.
As a lifelong Republican, I know from many friends who were contacted early by Rice that she introduced herself as THE Republican Party candidate for Ward 1. That being said, I am also aware of some local Democrats supporting John Case but unlike Rice he truly is a local guy who I have only heard talk about local issues. What I know is the Rice supporters favored a 1% regional sales tax (RTA), lodging tax and now want an internet sales tax for Loveland. They are not your father’s fiscal conservatives nor is Rice who defends the $113 million of public debt created, in-part, for McWhinney’s now foreclosed shopping center.
Of the two candidates, a majority of Rice’s campaign funds come from sources outside Loveland while Case has only 12.5% of contributions from outside the community. Rice has maintained a residence in Wyoming and walks too close to the ethics line (when implying her work experience is in Colorado when it was not.)
Rice is certainly throwing stones from a glass house as Case raised his family in Loveland where he has resided continuously for the past 18 years. Case’s only political activity I am aware of was in local races while Rice has a long history of activism in statewide political party organizations. Rice, a longtime proponent of gay marriage and abortion within the Republican Party, has been fighting against anyone dubbed a “conservative” from holding a leadership position. I don’t know what abortion or gay marriage has to do with pools, parks or potholes but you appear to find her credentials as a squishy Republican important to serving on city council.
Now Rice wants us terrible and “wacky” conservatives to vote for her simply because she is a Republican. She doesn’t favor issues important to Ward 1 voters like Mahaffey Park which she said should be postponed indefinitely. So the partisan appeal by a divisive partisan Republican insider seems to be the antithesis of what you said you want for Loveland politics in yesterday’s editorial.
Rice’s apparently false accusations about Case having ties to a particular environmental group go unaddressed by your paper which I find troubling. This leaves Loveland voters without the benefit of the unofficial fourth branch of government (an independent press) willing to objectively investigate and report facts regarding outrageous claims made by candidates during political campaigns.
The hypocrisy I find intolerable is when influential people in town who support Rice pretend to want a diverse field of qualified candidates. Then they go privately about the dirty business of intimidating, coercing and discrediting those same candidates in hopes that they will drop-out of the race. Where is your reporting on those despicable activities on behalf of Donna Rice?
I believe Loveland has three better choices for council in Ward 1 than in previous elections despite Rice’s introduction of partisan rancor.
The tireless efforts of some groups in town you favor to manipulate the voters’ choices were successful in the past thus leaving many seats uncontested by design. Council elections are nonpartisan and should be open to any qualified citizen who wants to test their views on local issues through the public process.
Unfortunately, your coverage appears to many as limited by the “who” you know approach thus denying fair coverage for people like Rob Molloy who has unparalleled qualifications to serve on city council given his impressive history as a planning commissioner and zoning board adjuster. Adam Koniecki, who has made an admirable effort at being elected in the last race, addressed more local issue in the last candidate forum than did Rice.
I just wish you would use your position as the Editor of Loveland’s daily newspaper to encourage the end you say you want most in your editorial.
If you really want vigorous debate on local issues and less partisanship in local raises than you have to show the courage of an independent local press. Report the backroom deals the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and McWhinney try to create to limit our choices in qualified candidates for city council. Don’t be afraid to endorse candidates from either party based on their stand on local issues they will be able to affect in office; pools, parks and potholes.
Sincerely
L. Weston
