Republican Trojan Horses

Under the cloak of non-partisan endorsements, the local Republican committee continues to recommend and support candidates for seats in both the Town Council and School Board elected offices.

Each year, these endorsed candidates are placed on the sample ballot along with other Republican party-nominated candidates for the County, State, and National offices. This is “trojan horse” politicking, not only confusing but a violation of the rules as outlined by the Town and State charters. Many of my fellow residents ask why the Republican party is even involved in non-partisan elections.

The problem with this violation is that it results in a stacked deck, offering a well-funded, unfair advantage against truly non-partisan candidates. Republican support and manpower are given to their endorsed candidates running for the same offices in the five districts.

The Virginia Founding Fathers felt that non-partisan elections at the Town and School Board level would help keep the focus on local community issues and not national partisan self-interests.

The promotional slogan that we should “Keep Warren Red” has nothing to do with the challenges facing the Town and County. Winning is not the objective. Rather, it’s improving our quality of life. Clearly, this is the reason why the Founding Fathers put into place rules to help ensure non-partisan officeholders who will be dedicated to local issues.

We now have candidates running who have not been endorsed yet and are very conservative by our high community standards. For one reason or another, there wasn’t a meeting of the minds with the Republican party, but they still feel driven to run for office. Seek them out.

Let’s elect the best people for the job who will work for the citizens. Let’s break the cycle that we have been stuck in for the last several years and elect the most qualified candidates instead of “Red” being the goal.

Let’s elect concerned citizens instead of Trojan horses.

Michael Graham
Front Royal

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