Normally, I try to keep council and campaign issues separate. But this issue warrants a larger audience, so I’m posting it here.
By now, you may have heard or read about the campaign prank I pulled a couple of weeks ago. I took advantage of an opponent’s oversight to spread my own message and tweak his tail at the same time. I did it openly, in my campaign’s name, with proper identification where appropriate. The end result was that if someone mistyped my opponent’s website address, they were directed to my campaign website instead of the standard “Page Not Found” notice. From the use logs, it appears that as many as three Sunnyvale residents may have seen the stunt before the emails started to circulate.
So after the 30-day mandatory ownership period ended on Saturday, I (repeatedly) offered them to my opponent, who (repeatedly) declined them. I have now transferred the URLs in question to a third party, and I no longer own them. My opponent can claim them from the third party whenever he desires, as he knows.
Unfortunately, this has grown into a distraction from more serious discussions about the issues we face. That’s not good for Sunnyvale. In the heat of the campaign, I lost sight of some important things. I forgot that perception can become reality, and that you expect me not just to be above reproach, but to also appear above reproach. I regret this, and I apologize.
I hope that we can put this matter behind us and move on with the business of governing Sunnyvale, running a clean campaign, and talking about real issues that we face – crime, the Downtown, the budget, replacing our City Manager, and the direction Sunnyvale should take as a city. It’s time for all of us to come together, and I hope this is the first step.
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Your opponent is inflexible and rigid! You have been generous to offer the domain names to him.
I don’t see what’s reproachful about this at all. It’s all above-board, and honestly I think it was kinda funny. Public discourse in this country is badly in need of some humor.
Margaret Okuzumi liked this on Facebook.
I think this says volumes about how Mr Merrick will work in cooperation on the council and what his response of first resort will be. To be honest, he’s lucky you (an honest citymate) got the sites rather than some other less savory enterprise.
Good post Jim.