Shady LTISD Board Campaign Tactics

Received this email yesterday:

From: grace@...

To: grace@...

Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 6:52 PM

Subject: Election Fraud in Lakeway?

May 8, 2007

Dear Friends,

Something truly disgusting happened today involving the LTISD Board Elections. Whoever you plan to vote for, you should be horrified. Our right to vote is meaningless when it is stolen by underhanded campaign tactics. Here is what happened.

One of the employees at The Summit assisted living facility on Lohmans Crossing Road has been actively encouraging the residents to vote for the Tolles/Buddin/Williams school board slate. If I were the owner of that business, I would wonder why my employees were spending their work time on such things. They are paid to take care of the retirees, not to tell them how to vote.

This employee went so far as to schedule a “Meet The Candidates” event at the Summit this morning. Again, such an event is a fine idea so that people can be informed before they vote. Not coincidentally, the mobile voting machines were scheduled to visit the Summit at noon so the residents could vote.

The strange part, however, is that the only candidates invited to this event were Susan Tolles, Jason Buddin and Alan Williams. Summit residents were NOT allowed to meet the opponents – Bob Weest, David Lovelace, Carol Johnson and Paul Hendricks. This was clearly not intended to be an “educational” event at all. It was a blatant effort to round up votes for the Tolles/Buddin/Williams slate.

We all know how elderly people can be. Many of the Summit residents are perfectly capable of grasping the issues and deciding who they wish to support. Some are not, and can be easily persuaded to vote for whichever candidate smiles and shakes their hand. Such shameless, cynical manipulation of vulnerable people should NOT happen here - or anywhere. Fortunately, at the last minute Summit management was informed of the improper electioneering and cancelled the event.

There is more. One Summit resident left Weest and Lovelace campaign flyers on a counter where residents are allowed to place free literature. A Summit staff member removed the flyers and hid them in an office. The person who works in that office was seen going from table to table in the cafeteria telling people to vote for Susan Tolles.

Again, whatever you think about the candidates, we can all agree this was wrong. We don't know whether it was legal or not; that is for the courts to decide. At a minimum it is unethical, shady political pandering. Tolles, Buddin, and Williams should publicly denounce what happened at the Summit. They should insist that all of their supporters refrain from any more such tactics from now until election day. If they aren’t willing to condemn this dirty campaigning, they certainly do not deserve to hold any kind of public office in our community.

Please forward this information to all Lake Travis voters you can before the election this Saturday. We have to stop the dirty politics now. Thank you for your kind support.

Patrick & Grace Watson