THE SPECTATOR: SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!
Ladies, ladies, ladies….what are you doing? All of a sudden, the Washington County Republican Women seem to have lost their senses. Last week, this organization began running ads suggesting that people vote “no” to all of the proposed City of Brenham charter amendments. The reasons given by the Washington County Republican Women are that “the public was not informed of the proposed changes in a timely manner, that the proposed amendments are contradictory and confusing, that they raise salaries yet decrease duties, and that they place power in the hands of one person.” Their ad concludes with the question “Where did these proposals come from?”.
All of those statements are blatantly false, and the Washington County Republican Women should know that. This organization’s mission statement says “We encourage Republican women to run for office and our party feels it’s important to inform our members and the electorate through political education. We believe all issues are local issues, and that it is critical to have informed voters!”. If that is true, how did these women just realize there were charter amendments included in this election? There have been numerous public meetings about them over the past eight months, and the City Council discussed them many times before placing them on the ballot. In fact, a current City Councilmember talked about them at a recent meeting of The Washington County Republican Women. When Sandie Kindt, the chairman of the Washington County Republican Party and an officer of the Washington County Republican Women was reminded about that, her only response was “free speech works both ways”. Huh?
It's extremely disappointing that an organization, whose sole purpose for being is about government and local political issues, would act as if this charter amendment election was kept a secret. It’s even more disappointing that they would try to mislead the public into thinking these amendments could raise taxes. On the City of Brenham website, each of the amendments is fully explained, and shows if there is any budget impact. The only one that affects the budget, and by only $19,500, is the increase in the salaries of the Mayor and Councilmembers. If you don’t agree with that, then don’t vote for it. But for these women to try to tell people to vote “no” to all of the amendments because they haven’t had time to study them is just absurd. Most of the amendments are about cleaning up grammatical errors or bringing the City up to date with state and federal laws. An important one is imposing term limits on the mayor and council of only three consecutive terms. I strongly urge the citizens of Brenham to disregard these untruths from the Washington County Republican Women and do your own homework. It’s really not that hard to do. And that’s the way it looks to this Spectator.
A HUGE kudos to you Tom for being the only brave enough media outlet around here to tell the truth! You know what our parents and grandparents used to tell us right? The truth hurts. I’m very proud of you Tom for calling out the “bad actors” and exposing the downright distain that some of these political candidates have for the current seat holders. Keep in mind all you candidates, “When you point a finger to someone you have three pointed right back at you.” And, “If you hide any portion of the truth, it become a whole lie.” Trying to destroy someone because you just don’t like them or because you want the position they hold, doesn’t make you a martyr it makes you hypocrite. Be very careful for what you ask for, you just might get it. One more….If you were seated in a room with all of these candidates, all were asked to write down their problems and place them on the table, then instructed to choose from any one of the written problems to try and solve. Which would you choose, someone else’s problem, or your own?
I’ve known Tom for many years and I used to work for him myself several years ago. I have never known him for being bias when it comes to the news or politically. He has always been neutral. Just like what was said a few days ago, these people that you are trying to tear down publicly have families, kids, businesses that support our community, and pay taxes just like you. What you are doing in order for the betterment of your “political career” is extremely hurtful to them and to you. Open your eyes and take a long look in the mirror before you start throwing the daggers, one of them just may ricochet back at you.
Is anyone paying attention to the fact that it’s the same roughly 25 people who are fighting tooth and nail on behalf of the Champion Fellowship candidates, and the most upset with the Spectator exposing all of this? It feels like a small group of people making a lot of noise in an attempt to project strength and numbers.
I appreciate you taking the time to do this.