Copyright, 2005, The Davis Enterprise. All Rights Reserved.
| November 3, 2005
Bob Dunning |
| And yet my differences with Forbes and Harrington haven't prevented me from seeing them as decent folks who care deeply about our town, even if our respective visions for Davis differ substantially.And so, when I saw these two longtime residents unfairly maligned in a full-page ad in Tuesday's Enterprise, and again Wednesday, I knew I couldn't sit idly by.By no stretch of the imagination can Stan Forbes and Mike Harrington be considered "Gidaro's candidates" as the ad on Page A3 claims. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.Put simply, no Steve Gidaro project would ever be approved by Harrington or Forbes if they were on the council. The sad part about all this is that the people who placed this ad know what they claimed isn't true.For the record, City Councilman Don Saylor, a strong supporter of Covell Village, was also a "beneficiary" of Gidaro's "secret campaign" spending in the 2004 council election and yet his name was conveniently left out of the ad.Don Saylor, too, is a decent man who cares deeply about Davis. He was an innocent victim of Gidaro's meddling in 2004, as were Stan Forbes and Mike Harrington.Anyone with an IQ above single digits knows that Steve Gidaro was freelancing, representing no one but himself in a futile, 11th-hour attempt to influence a Davis city council race. He was not acting on behalf of Forbes or Harrington or Saylor, and to claim Forbes and Harrington were "Gidaro's candidates" is a low blow indeed.It's especially disturbing given that the people placing the ad did so knowing the charge was false.For whatever reason, in these last days of the campaign, the Yes on X folks have abandoned discussion of the merits of their project and have decided instead to ride this Gidaro horse all the way to the finish line.They shifted from a focus on the amenities of Covell Village and what they believe it will add to the town and are now trying to scare us into voting "yes" by creating a bogeyman on the border.All's fair in love and politics, but in this case the Yes on X campaign has unfairly maligned Stan Forbes and Mike Harrington with a series of alleged "facts" that everyone knows are both false and hurtful.Both men are owed a public apology.Put simply, Steve Gidaro will never win a citywide vote in Davis for his project. Steve Gidaro will never win a countywide vote for his project. Steve Gidaro will never gain approval for his project from either the Davis City Council or the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. It won't happen. Ever.And if Steve Gidaro is as powerful and evil and devious as the Yes on X folks claim he is, he won't be deterred if Covell Village passes and he won't be deterred if Covell Village fails.But, if he is as big a threat as we are being told and he has been looming on the horizon for such a long time, why didn't we hear his name mentioned until the final days of the Measure X campaign?Since I don't have a dog in this fight and don't plan to ever move from my humble home on Hunt Way, I have enjoyed getting the glossy brochures extolling the virtues of Covell Village from the Yes on X campaign and the predictions of doom and gloom from the No on X campaign.Each side has scored points on some issues and lost points on others.But the full-page ad on Page A3 of Tuesday's and Wednesday's papers truly turned my head. It was a low point in the history of Davis city politics.— Reach Bob Dunning at dunning@davisenterprise.net |
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Copyright, 2005, The Davis Enterprise. All Rights Reserved. |