In the August 8 editorial, “Summer politics”, former mayor Charlie Smithgall is likened to six candidates in the 1803 mayoral campaign when he said: “I didn’t intend to run…It was independents, average people putting this thing together.”
WATCHDOG: In the early 19th century, it was considered bad form for a candidate to seek office. Thus the artifice. But in Smithgall’s case, he is truly responding to the will of a number of his constituents who wrote in his name on the primary ballots.
This is an estimable example of democracy because he must know as well as other observers that unless the downtown surveillance cameras pick up Mayor Rick Gray hitting on little girls (or boys), Gray will win by a huge margin.
Three wags of the tail for Charlie Smithgall!
