Jim Foster correspondence to his potential supporters 8/10/11

The news coverage of the Cindy Bass and Brian Rudnick challenges to my 11th hour attempt to get on the City Council ballot for the general election in November has brought attention to this race it would not have had without the challenges. Now, it was a real gamble that I could get it done in the 6 days before deadline but some real effort was put forth and we made it. As of this minute I am on the ballot, but challenged.

Why should a community not have some dialogue during the run-up to a general election; even if one political party has an 85% voter registration in the district? Is the very idea of an Independent candidate so revolting to this political machine top leadership that the reactionary whim of a candidate who was elected more on endorsements from a Governor and Congressman than a platform, put the full force of the party on stomping him out on technicalities that few others are challenged on?

Are they really so concerned that a lifetime non-partisan who gathered 550 votes in the last election could actually defeat one of the most controlling political machines in this country? – – apparently so!

Chris Brennan’s explanation of this unexpected situation in the Daily News apparently multiplied over itself on Facebook I am told and the feedback against the Cindy/party decision is significant. The story is also told News works and the Patch.

Now, I know some of you in the Northwest consider my views and how I state them a little to strident for your own tastes, however, it was said long ago that “politics ain’t beanbag”. There are number of dedicated Democrats in the Northwest that are still in denial that there is any real corruption worth mentioning and that top-down rule gets more done that true democracy, but I strongly disagree. I know that narrow politician/developer cabal wants me shut up, my newspaper closed and have worked hard to bring that about – – but so far we are still publishing the facts – – and opinions from all over the political spectrum. Has it occurred to anyone that none of those challenges I have put in writing have ever been refuted by the elected leadership?

The campaign slogan of my run is “AN INDEPENDENT FOR DEMOCRATIC VALUES”. Assuming I am still on the ballot, you will hear and read that with great frequency on an almost a daily basis in the three months left until the November election. I will be visible at community meetings, fund raisers, scheduled events and invitational debates that will give you the opportunity to review my background, listen to a platform for a reborn Northwest, and ask questions as I refute all that negative propaganda the elected officials and their acolytes have been touting for a number of years now.

No, I was not “Sent here by Republicans in Washington with my big-money friends to gentrify Germantown” as was circulated by Donna Miller’s Chief of Staff a few years back when I was becoming an annoyance on Johnson Street issues. Actually, I was born here on Cliveden Street, the son of two Roosevelt Democrats, lived in this community most of my life, and registered Independent in 1963. I thought then that I did not know enough about either party and when I learned more about them, I would switch to the one that was more impressive. That has yet to happen, and apparently the country today feels the same way as 40% now consider themselves non-partisan.

Regardless of your take on my views, most folks feel that a choice at election time outweighs “no choice”. It seems that this power party and its primary candidate want “NO CONVERSATION BEFORE THE CORONATION”. That can change if they simply withdraw the challenge. Contact from concerned citizens might just embarrass them into the democratic process.

Jim Foster

Publisher

Germantown Newspapers