Guest Commentary
by Steve Hunyar
Our sleepy little town of Alpine is a great place to live. But as of late, political corruption has begun creeping into our bedroom community.
A large (8.5″ x 14″) 2-sided, 4-color hit piece was mailed to presumably all the registered voters in our school district precincts. The pamphlet lambasted a candidate who is running for the Alpine Union School District School Board. To the best of my recollection of living here for over 20 years, this very professionally produced negative ad is the first to target an individual.
The hit piece was produced by Public Safety Advocates, FPPC ID#1364679 – a PAC in North County. There is little information available on this PAC. However, someone in our community had to be behind the effort to publish and mail it – and they remain anonymous.
Whoever is behind this effort should be ashamed of him/herself, and I know someday, the truth will be exposed. Anonymously attacking a candidate in a manner such as this is an act of cowardice. Personally I ignore trash such as this, because as my father always told me, “consider the source of who is giving you advice” and in this case, the source chooses to remain hidden.
Even more disturbing, I was surprised to see another mailer (pictured here) that claims the candidates listed on the flyer were endorsed by 115 local families who are well known in Alpine – and then lists each of the families. However, a number of people on this list have clearly indicated they never gave permission to be on a political circular.
How would you like it if someone attached your endorsement to a proposition, a bond, or a slate of candidates – without getting your permission?
This flyer was paid for by “Voters for Progress and Reform” and does not have a FPPC ID# as a PAC. I Googled and Bing Mapped the address on the leaflet and the address is shown as an office on Navajo Road – outside of Alpine.
Coincidentally, this mailer and the negative attack mailer, are on the same oversized paper (8.5 x 14), are 2-sided, 4-color, have duplicate postal mailing label/codes, and are of the exact same quality. There is little doubt in my mind they were designed by the same group.
There is too much anonymity in politics today, and a lack of transparency. If you are going to negatively attack someone, have the courage to stamp your name on it, rather than hide behind a veil of secrecy. This is nothing more than political malpractice by a group operating in the shadows.
Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill famously said ‘All politics is local’. Unfortunately he was right and it appears big government politics is now local and a few of my neighbors have opted to corruptly devolve our hamlet. Upping the political hacksmanship by operating behind closed doors in our community; lying and taking advantage of others to gain a political advantage. Someone in our local community has orchestrated the infiltration of Alpine’s politics by outside PACs. How truly sad.
In speaking with a few candidates who are equally upset that their name is on the piece, I was told this was not a paid slate by the candidates running for election. However I can only surmise there are those running for office who knew full well the dishonesty and disingenuousness of what they were doing.
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Steve Hunyar is a resident of Alpine and author of “America the Disposable: The Culture War During the Era of Apathy” and “Houseboating Lake Powell,” as well as the founder of The ConservativePatriot.Com — a podcast mecca for the right. To contact Steve, please email him at steve@theconservativepatriot.com