3rd District race heats up with newsletter charges
The Times-Dispatch’s Will Jones reports on charges from 3rd District City Council challenger Jonathan Davis that incumbent Chris Hilbert violated a revised city law with the distribution of his latest newsletter:
The change barred newsletters and other communications funded by the city from being issued within 90 days of a contested election.The inaugural edition of Hilbert’s 3rd District News started arriving in mailboxes the week of Aug. 11 — within the 90-day period, Davis said.
“To go out at this point in a council race, it was unnecessary and unwarranted,” he said.
The timing also is suspect because the newsletter is dated May but covers events from August through the end of the year, said Freddie Harrison, Davis’ campaign manager.
“This is the first newsletter to our knowledge,” he said. “It has to be a political move.”
Hilbert described the newsletter as a service to constituents, not a political piece. He said it does not violate the ordinance because it was given to the U.S. Postal Service on Aug. 4 — 92 days before the election.
“I’m the council person. I’m not the postmaster,” he said. “I’m satisfied that we did the right thing.”
Hilbert, who is seeking a third term on council, said he and his legislative assistant are aware of the pre-election rules and careful to make sure that e-mails don’t include his name.
Hilbert said that the newsletter was created from a template and that the May date was an oversight. He said he may have sent out one newsletter earlier in his tenure.
Looks like Jonthan Davis broke state election laws by using his state job to design and print his stuff for his campaign. Even if Mr. Davis truly believes he didn’t nothing wrong, this shows his lack of good judgement and should not be running for City Council.
I completely agree with Steve’s assessment. While I certainly think that job training for the incarcerated is important, to defend the training of these youth for something that he himself has benefited from is beyond ridiculous.
In the hope of enlightening Mr. Davis he should know that if he didn’t pay the youth’s $2/hour wage (which is obviously the case per his quote in the RTD), it is we, THE TAXPAYERS, who footed the bill.
It’s clear by his responses to the times dispatch that Mr. Davis doesn’t believe he did anything wrong and that in itself is almost more disturbing. I hope the residents of the 3rd district are outraged by what is clearly unethical behavior.