[Cris Alarcon]
I will be late announcing my slate of endorsements for local offices to avoid making a rush to judgement. A few years ago I released a story that was a controversial accusation about a potential office holder that was newsworthy but failed to give the candidate adequate time to respond. After publishing I was informed by trusted sources that the story was so slated as to intentionally give it the opposite meaning of the truth. I immediately retracted the story with a clear explanation, but the damage could not be undone. It was not much different from what we see today with the controversial accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughl. Some accusations are so serious that some time must be given in order for the public to have the information to make a fair decision in our representative government.
Two outstanding questions must be given fair opportunity to be answered, or ignored, before I announce my endorsements. Janelle Horns’ position on local non-constitutional offices with term-limits and Lori Parlin’s profits from Developers to fund her political campaign.
The first outstanding question is regarding the Conservative Bona Fides of Janelle Horn in the Recorder-Clerk race against opposing candidate Todd White. Although the position is non-partisan the candidate's political view often plays into future recommendations of the office holder related to management and pay issues. Term Limits has been a key issue in this county to stop career politicians from using the power of incumbency to subvert the real will of our voters so a true reshuffling of office holders with a full airing of views without incumbency advantage has been a standard of local politics. Todd White has been a local GOP player and has been clear in his position to preserve term limits and understand what offices we can limit, and those that the State Constitution prohibits us from limiting. Janelle Horn has not made a public position to my knowledge. I have sent her a question on this issue and will give her fiar time to respond. Although this does not directly link to the office at hand, I am well know as a Conservative and if two candidates are equally suited I will always endorse the more conservative. This serves as a guild post for both conservatives and liberals.
The second outstanding question involves the use of developers money in the campaign to elect Lori Parlin in the Supervisor's race in her challenge of second term seeker Michel Ranalli. Parlin has run with the statement of no-developer money but facts on the ground tend to dispute that fact. As always in politics the use of “sound bites” often are used to distort facts. It is public record that Parlin sued over a local development and won in a “settlement.” On the campaign trail she claims that she received no money form what she terms a :Judgement” but the fact is that she received some money in a “settlement.” The distinction being that she has implied that she only received monies to cover “costs” of fighting the case, but this is not necessarily correct. In a case like this it is often termed “greenmail” when the cost of litigation from delays exceeds the cost of “paying off” the litigant to go away regardless of the merits of the complaint. It is common practice that these pay-off far exceed the cost of the actual lawsuit, ergo a Blackmail issue. If a candidate would use this method and ask the voters to support them for local office, the voters should know this before making their decision on whom to vote. As this is a last-minute question causing a fury among many it is a valid newsworthy question to put this candidate on the record. Time is short so I will give her enough time to answer this direct question and I will publish her answer, or her failure to answer: “Did your settled lawsuit over the Spanos lawsuit give you, your family, or your associate's any proceeds that would require a tax statement as “profits” as defined by IRS code, Section 61(a)”
These are two questions outstanding that I will soon publish and that you may ask the candidates directly, Cris Alarcon.
