Saturday, March 17, 2007

AN EDITORIAL OPINION

AN EDITORIAL OPINION

MUD-SLINGING IS ON THE WAY

Sleazy attack ads filled with lies and misinformation are expected in St. Charles mail boxes soon. Although, all of the candidates for political office in St. Charles have signed clean campaign pledges, some of them will not take the high road. Instead of putting out position papers, a few candidates and their supporters will be spending their time investigating their opponents and spinning the situation of some miniscule item that they can expound upon and make things appear worse than they were. They distort the truth in many ways and have no problem lying if it serves their purpose. If they are unable to find anything, expect them to make something up to discredit others. We have learned from past experience some candidates will not resist the urge to go negative with mailed ads that tear down their opponents. They use innuendos and half-truths. Expect it; mud-slinging is on the way.

We are hoping that St. Charles residents are too smart to be fooled by this rubbish. We know that our readers are the most informed and intelligent. They will see through these types of ads and would hope our readers would place these disreputable ads in the trash.

The telephone calls have begun. Calls are being made from the Paric Corporation asking voters if they are planning on voting for Patti York for Mayor. They then want to know if the voter is a Democrat or a Republican. Then they ask if you are pro-life or pro-choice. This is in direct conflict with the way local politics are supposed to be run. The city has all elected officials run non-partisan for a reason. Those who vote didn’t want party politics to seep into our city. That is what these calls are all about; they are trying to turn our great city into Washington, D.C. where party comes before the people and what's best.

How you vote or who you vote for is no one’s business. When these live calls or pre-recorded calls start coming into your home, we suggest you hang up.

The Paric Corporation was the general contractor on the St. Charles Convention Center, the New Police Headquarters and numerous other projects in the City. During the construction and upon the completion of the St. Charles Convention Center Paric submitted several change orders amounting to hundreds of thousand of dollars in cost overruns. Mayor York was a member of the oversite committee and voted in favor of paying Paric. Paric has also indicated they want to be the general contractor on the Community Center that is in the planning for St. Charles residents. Paric has made a good living off your tax dollars and must see the writing on the wall if there is a change in City Hall. No longer will you overpay for city projects and that money can be spent on our roads and sidewalks, instead of building headquarters for McEagle and Paric in Winghaven. The City will be able to provide the basic services that are so desperately needed to increase our quality of life instead of the Paric executives in O’Fallon.