Letter: implication that local voters are easily manipulated is an insult 

To the editor,

Ms. Funk stated in her Q & A to the A-Town News on 3 October that “For the past 10 years, the council and leaders have all been hand-picked by established partisan leaders. I’ve stepped up independently to make sure that other people in Atascadero have a voice.” Her implication is that there is some type of hidden organization within Atascadero that picks and chooses candidates and drowns out all other opposition. Such thinking is paranoid and delusional.

Every resident who ran for a seat on the Atascadero City Council within the last 10 years decided on their own to run for public office. They spoke to many civic groups and sought out support from prominent members of the community or were well known within various civic organizations. Over time, people coalesced around particular candidates that best represented their views and supported them with money, public endorsements and sometimes by actively campaigning on their behalf.

This isn’t Chicago or New York where political parties, ward bosses and a few powerful individuals run the city. If Ms Funk’s candidates lost in the past it’s because the voters rejected their proposed policies or simply disliked the candidate on a personal level. The people of Atascadero are exceptionally well-informed and not easily deceived. Ms Funks’ implication that local voters are easily manipulated is an insult to Atascadero voters.

Al Fonzi
Atascadero

About the author: News Staff

News staff of the A-Town Daily News wrote and edited this article from local contributors and press releases. Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Connect with him on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog. He can be reached at [email protected].