It was mean-spirited, if not unexpected, when Jim Lauinger and Dave Asher orchestrated Email-gate. It seems Asher and Lauinger tried their best to make it a story after Evergreen Freedom Foundation ‘reporter’ Scott St. Clair uncovered love-letters from councilman Sternoff to his fiancé using city owned email servers. But try as they may -even wasting $5,000 of the taxpayers money on a lawyer/friend - it was to no avail.
The entire mess was viewed as a non-issue by most observers. Sternoff explained and apologized. Greenway grandstanded and exploded in righteous indignation and Burleigh implored everyone to move on. Even Tom Hodgson tried to make political capital out of this apparent ethics goof, but his hypocrisy cost him the election.
The public knew sour grapes when they saw them and they wanted no part of this witch-hunt.
What was totally unexpected was when the tempest-in-a-teapot was adopted and kept alive by Joan McBride and her supporters as a method of ensuring McBride’s ascendancy to the position of mayor over Sternoff, also seeking the position.
Many in the community see Robert Sternoff as a good soldier, a strong leader and a respected force. Sternoff is highly regarded in regional affairs and was second only to retired councilwoman Mary Alyce Burleigh in respect among state and municipal officials.
An additional consequence of naming Sternoff mayor would be to replace some of the shine that had been unjustly removed from his reputation by The Gang of Four (Lauinger, Asher, Greenway and Hodgson ) and their failed efforts to force Sternoff out.
When Bob made his intentions to run for the position of mayor known, Joan was faced with the choice of either waiting two years for her opportunity or find a way to paint Bob as an unpalatable choice.
Unfortunately, she chose the latter.
Joan McBride began the oh-so-serious deliberation of “how can we recover from the embarrassment and shame Bob has brought down on our heads?” There was only one problem… no voters felt embarrassed or ashamed.
Another way she could say that is, “if we portray him as dirty – though we know he’s not, and the Gang of Four portrays him as dirty, then I am the only choice left for mayor.”
Slimy? Yes. Backhanded? Yes.
Duplicitous, two-faced, cowardly, back-stabbing and unbelievably full of gall? Oh yes. And it seems to have worked.
UPDATE:
Defeated candidate Karen Tennyson as well as Nancy Reising and Curtis Thompson have now made Freedom of Information requests for all the emails that reporter St. Clair got. But why?
Are they reporters? No.
Are they losers in a bloody campaign? Yes.
Is this just more of the same? Good God Yes.