Tuesday

Sun Gazette - Bad to Worse

Hello, Yupette,

I attended the July 28th candidates' debates for the 31st Senate District and 49th Assembly District at El Puerto on the Pike. Based upon what I heard the candidates say, and the significant conflicts of interest Sun Gazette Editor Scott McCaffrey maintains, Mr. McCaffrey and the Sun Gazette should not be endorsing any candidate for public office.

Scott McCaffrey refused to attend the July 28th debates. If he had attended he would have known that Jaime Areizaga-Soto served as both a White House Fellow and as an aide to the Democratic leadership of the General Assembly.

Mr. Areizaga-Soto demonstrated during his debate with Barbara Favola that his knowledge and working relationships with senators will make him an effective State Senator. Barbara Favola demonstrated that she doesn't really know what's happening in the General Assembly.

But the real problem with Scott's endorsement of Barbara Favola is he's a member of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce's Executive Committee and serves at the pleasure of fellow Chamber members who are Barbara's campaign contributors.

As in past endorsements, Scott provides several excellent reasons why a candidate, in this instance Barbara Favola, should not be running for election or re-election and then proceeds to endorse the candidate.

Scott's employer, American Community Newspapers, is run by a group of chamber of commerce and real estate boosters in Dallas and Leesburg. ACN is owned by a consortium of banks and financial services corporations, led by General Electric, that are only concerned about ACN's bottom line. To the point where the Sun Gazette runs an ad next to Scott's endorsement of Barbara pointing readers to favolafacts.com, a laundry list of Barbara Favola's conflicts of interest and contributions received from Republicans and Neocons. Surprise, surprise, McCaffrey and the Sun Gazette endorsed Barbara Favola.

Terri