| Ouray's Jurassic pathway ...
 Had an interesting conversation with former state legislator Ben Alexander yesterday. If you asked him, he might describe our conversation as "another reason not to take the Daily Press anymore."
I had called to ask Ben about his group VOTE (Voices of the Electorate) and the upcoming school board candidate forum the group is hosting. He was upset that we intended to publish a story connecting him to the group — fearing his association would "taint" the forum.
"But that's what you guys do," Alexander said, complaining that we wouldn't withhold the information. "I guess this is how you do it and it makes me sad."
Yeah, this is how we do it.
Here's some context: Ben and Kay Alexander, both former state legislators, have in the past been active in local school board elections, actively backing candidates. Kay presently heads up Children First, an organization that works to install conservative school board candidates and promotes the concept of allowing public funding to be tethered to a student when they decide to exit the public system and attend a private, charter or religious school. Both Ben and Kay have said that they are disengaged this time around, foregoing any candidate endorsements or forums.
This, however, is not true. Last month, Ben attempted to get sitting school board member Tom West booted from the ballot, complaining that he was breaking term limit rules (the school district's legal opinion contends otherwise). And according to board candidate Jody Hovde, Kay approached her about getting out of the race to avoid draining votes away from opponent Dawn Schieldt, who the Alexanders openly supported last time around.
And now we've got the VOTE forum. Alexander claims that the forum — for which he's brought aboard independent moderator Dr. Greg O'Brien, a retired school superintendent from California that now resides in Ouray — will be a totally neutral, civil, non-partisan affair. And maybe he's right. But then why all the cloak-and-dagger? Well, because he's also right about this: his association does taint the forum. And attempting to conceal his involvement because he knows that awareness of such involvement would taint the process — that's just plain ol' shady.
And that's exactly why this is information the public needs to know. And so, yeah, this is how we do it — we pass along useful information so that y'all can make informed decisions.
Have a Good One,
Jeremy Morrison,
managing editor
QUICK LINKS |
No comments:
Post a Comment