It is a lot harder to evaluate the other “endorsed by Orr” candidates because they have no experience leading a town or an open website highlighting their skills.
These people might be nice people and good neighbors, but that does not mean that they will make good members of Council. I have nothing to evaluate their ability to lead on because they have not done it, other than for a few months on recreation for a couple, and have not made a point of creating an open website to talk about their skills with voters. Because of this, while I may have been inclined to vote for some of these people, I can only evaluate them based on two things I see and believe.
First, I firmly believe that you can judge a person by the company they keep. These 4 people have had the ability to speak out and distance themselves from Kerns’ and Orr’s lies. They have not demonstrated that courage, at least in a public way.
Second, and this is more important to me, let’s assume the Orr team wins. Who is going to “lead” them come January? Orr from the corner? Look at how he has led the police department as a prime example of how that is a problem. Understaffed, loss of officers, and reduced services (until election time, then all kinds of promises are made). Kerns with his lies? The borough will be seeing red with the debt we will incur to defend his ignorance. Dave Paterson? No-Orr isolates him now. That is not going to change after a new election cycle if Orr’s team wins. Which leaves us with Danielle Thompson. For those of you who can (remember that her posts are on a private page), go back and read the closed Republican Facebook page. Thompson spends her time talking about people, many of whom are not council members, people in a position to make a change, or candidates rather than presenting a counterargument to the blog’s posts. Obviously, Thompson has a forum. She could post her counterargument and evidence for that position. Instead, she posts angry rants with false accusations, all for the children to read because she and the other administrators of the site thought it a wise decision to exclude voters from the page but include young kids on it. What would be the point in having a closed off to voter political page but adding kids to it?
When I look at how the RRPOE candidates have handled themselves throughout this election, they have stayed “above the fray” and left the mean spirited personal attacks out of the campaign. While some of their supporters who are unconnected to the campaign may have put out their own opinions of Orr’s ticket, the candidates have stuck to the issues at hand in an attempt to show how they will lead the entire town. To be an elected official, one needs to be able to lead the entire town, not just the part that agrees with you. On the other side, the “endorsed by Orr” candidates, rather than put out a final piece of literature talking about themselves, chose instead to negatively attack their opponents with door hangers. The candidates themselves, with some of their supporters, hung them on door.
To summarize. Saying that a person is nice or a good neighbor does not qualify them to run a town. It is entirely possible that in two years, after seeing all of the great things these people may do on the recreation board, we may write that they are quality candidates deserving of our support. Now is not that time, though. People change, as has our position on some members of the sitting Council. It is healthy to have disagreeing opinions and the "endorsed by Orr" ticket has shown no evidence that they will be able to handle the disagreements that certainly occur when a town is being led.