Why wasn't the message I submitted to you in the early morning hours of April 16, 2010 posted to our township residents on MyHanoverTownship.com? My message was a response to your inappropriate listing on the site of the signatures each candidate for Hanover Township Committee obtained on their petitions to be eligible to have their names placed on he voting ballot. I know you own the site, and can be as subjective as you want about the items you actually display, but my message was both factually accurate and educational. Don\'t you believe the constituents of our township are entitled to receive the benefit of factual information on your website, when it is made available, instead of receiving information that is either inaccurate, or just plain criticism with no substance?
By posting my message on the website instead of suppressing it, (which is the path you have seemingly decided follow to this point), you demonstrate you can truly offer objectivity, (which I thought mediums providing platforms for healthy political debate constantly strive to achieve), and at the same time, be a genuine guarantor and patriot of the Constitution's First Amendment rights.
Richard A. Dunne - Democratic Candidate for Hanover Township Committee
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Sponsor's response
Mr. Dunne,
Whenever someone posts on MyHanoverTownship.com I receive an email confirmation after which I go to the site and publish the content. I checked my emails and there was no post from you. It is possible that your session was terminated prior to submitting the post or perhaps something else happened. I know from my own personal experience I have had this happen to me in particular if the post was long. In any event please re-submit it or send it to me as a regular mail to tsutclif@state-elec.com.
Also, as you probably noticed, there is a section on the site to support the candidates in their effort to reach out to the public. You are welcome to participate in that effort and if you so desire please send me some biographical info or a profile and I will post it under your section.
Now for the substance of your email. You are an attorney, so you should know that it is not usually a good idea to make accusations without full knowledge of the facts. You have submitted content to MyHanoverTownship.com on previous occasions and I have posted them. I believe the last one dealt with the consolidation of the DPW and Rec. I also remember posts from you during last year’s election cycle. There is clearly no suppression going on and instead a simply example of technology not working - it happens.
If this was so important why did you wait 6-days before writing?
There was nothing inappropriate on my part relating to the printing of the petition numbers. I did not publish the actual names (which I could have since these are public documents) and as I pointed out the intent was to show the public part of the process of running for office.
My other point was to demonstrate the fact that Ron Francioli, the former Mayor who had been accused of mounting a campaign to oust Judy Iradi, was not in fact circulating his own petition. As Mr. Francioli pointed out, the effort to draft him was being conducted by others and he had no intention of running unless it was proven there was support out there for his re-election. The number of signatures that he received served to support this position.
I would also point out that I took the proactive course and created a section on this site for you and the other candidates to use during this election cycle. If it was my intent to suppress content from any candidate, why would I have done this?
Finally, you are correct in that I do own this site and could if I chose to do so, disallow content - I don\'t unless of course it is blatantly offensive. I have published content from others that was critical of me and responded accordingly.
Please feel free to use the site however you deem appropriate and good luck with your campaign.
