Dirty Politics In Huntsville

You may have read about dirty politics in the big city of Syracuse, but it seems like Quiet and peaceful Ogden Valley is not immune to big city chicanery . We just received this email with the attached audio file that has been circulating around Huntsville and feel that it deserves some weekend viewing:

Dear Ogden Valley Forum,

This phone recording was forwarded to me this morning and quite frankly I am disgusted. Let me explain.

Huntsville has a two party system for its municipal elections. Not Republican and Democrat, but "Our Town" and "Party 1." No one really knows which party they belong to, and in fact, it really doesn't matter.

One party held their nominating convention last Tuesday and the other was held on Thursday. Each convention nominated a candidate for Mayor and two council members and the ground rules are:

• You may attend both conventions if you wish
  
• Candidates may be nominated at both conventions
• YOU MAY ONLY VOTE AT ONE CONVENTION

At the Tuesday convention, Chris Stevenson was nominated and placed on the ballot for Mayor where he had flooded the room with family supporters.

Here is where it gets sticky.

Over the next couple of days, Chris apparently called nearly every resident or registered voter in town to invite them out to the Thursday Nominating Convention. That seems fairly harmless, but he went on to tell folks that Tim Hansen was going to be put up for Mayor and he would recommend the support of Tim.

Now Tim is a good guy, but in no way is he Mayor material. And in NO WAY could he be elected to Mayor.

Why would one candidate for mayor be campaigning for another candidate for mayor? The answer is simple: Put Tim on the ballot and Stevenson wins by a landslide.

In the end, Tim must have realized he had been put on the chopping block when he saw some 125 - 150 residents pack into the overflowing town hall (about 3 times the number of residents that attended the Tuesday meeting). When Tim was nominated, he politely declined and a legitimate candidate was ultimately chosen (Jim Truett).



Here is the rest of the story. The attached phone message was left at the residence of Doug Allen by accident as Doug was also going to be nominated for mayor that evening.

And Ogden Valley, you thought brilliant schemes were only reserved for the big city. It sounds like things are about to get exciting in Huntsville, so we will dust off our old election coverage templates and give the candidates a sounding board soon.

Stay tuned and have a great weekend.