Dear Friends and Neighbors:
Having endured a constant barrage of innuendo and false accusations in a newspaper with an agenda and a local monopoly, we think you deserve to know facts that the newspaper chooses to ignore.
FACT: We are conducting separate campaigns. We share similar and even overlapping bases of support because we also share many of the same values and beliefs on the issues.
FACT: The newspaper has so focused on the constant political complaints of its handpicked slate, that our efforts to discuss real issues important to daily life in Lancaster are totally ignored.
FACT: Although claiming to despise negative campaign tactics, the newspaper both amplifies and glorifies every negative word about its slate, turning narrowly-targeted mailers into front page news. Interestingly, we have also been "hit" by mailers sent directly by our opponents' joint campaign. But the newspaper chooses to ignore attacks on us!
FACT: We have each spoken out against hit mailers, and have no knowledge about who is paying for them. The newspaper has as much as called us liars, because its politically-motivated political reporter and the editor cannot imagine we wouldn't know.
FACT: While the political reporter and the editor have devoted hours to interviews and discussions with the slate, we were interviewed only twice during this entire campaign. And when Larry called the newspaper on the day he announced his candidacy, the political reporter wasn't interested. Larry said of the call: "I've spent more time ordering a pizza."
FACT: While the Opinion pages are full of letters attacking us via the failing recall campaign, many of our supporters tell us that their letters to the editor are rejected by the editor. If you read the page regularly, you know this to be true.
This then is what we face in Lancaster: A new Mediaocracy, where freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one, and the ordinary citizen with a different point of view need not apply. Can you imagine the debt owed to the newspaper by our opponents if they control the city council?
We are therefore bringing our case to you directly via the new media. Please spread this message to your fellow citizens in Lancaster, so that they may know the truth about how this election is being subverted and manipulated by people not on the ballot.
For more information, see the rest of this site, and visit Larry's site: www.larrygrooms4lancastercouncil.com