Email exchanges with County Council Candidates

To the Editor and the County Council:

As I opened my Sunday paper and saw yet another article by Bob Wells, I felt I had to clarify some assumptions. There is an assumption that when an article is placed in the paper by a person who is a County Council Candidate, the article would show an understanding of the situation and reflect the facts of the matter. There is also an assumption that a person who was running for County Council would realize that to run is a serious issue and the job is one of public service. In the case of Bob Wells and Skip Dunn, those assumptions are dead wrong. In an email sent to Bob Wells and copied to others, Skip Dunn expressly talks about using the public forum of Council Candidate as a vehicle for furthering their own agenda and a source of free advertising. He states they would then be able to withdraw from the race if they wished. Shortly after this email was sent, both Skip Dunn and Bob Wells registered to run for Council. Please see the entire email at the end of this letter.
During the past months, hardly a week goes by without a written piece from one of these so called candidates. Bob Wells has stated that the citizens ….“need to be informed.” I can state with absolute certainty I am very informed on the topics he has written about and I have found numerous omissions, errors and misinformation in his writings. I am appalled at the dissemination of misinformation and the obvious disrespect shown to the democratic process by these individuals in an attempt to further their own agenda.
Andrea Cunningham
1371 Barranca Rd.
662-2742


-----Original Message-----
From: Skip & Hedy Dunn [ mailto:shdunn@newmexico.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 11:56 AM
To: rwellsnm@earthlink.net
Cc: Annette Fox; Barbara Calef; Barkhudarovs; BB & Carlotta McInteer; Becky & Tom Shankland; Betsy Barnett; Briggs family; Cathy & Ian Strong; Chris Chandler; Clarice Cox; Dale Henderson; Dave & Eve Kloepper; Dave & Faye Brown; Dave Fox; Dick Opsahl; Dixie Jameson; Don & Elaine Morris; Elizabeth Allred; ElRoy Miller; Ev & Ed Griggs; Frank Clinard; George Chandler; Ginny & Mahlon Wilson; Ginny Bell; Heather McClenahan; Henry Finney; Jack Kephart; James Rickman; Janie & Peter O'Rourke; Jeffery Howell; JJ Maier; Joan Cochran; John & Renata Zinn; Joseph Bergstein; Joyce & George Carlson; Judy Humphrey; Julie Pearson, AIA; Kathy Campbell; Kathy Lorio; Ken Fuller; Lloyd & Masha Hunt; Lori Kelley; Lou Agnew; M Skarra; Mark & Linda Wells; Nancy Bartlit; Pat Max; Richard Dunn, GreenWheels; Robert Gibson; Robert Nunz; Ronald Moses; Sarah & Bart Daly; Sarah Chase; Sid Singer; Stepanie Sydoriak; Terry Langham;
Subject: Consider Registering March 21 as a candidate for County Council

I picked up a "2006 DECLARATION OF CANDIDACY" form from the County Clerk's office. It is an extremely simple, one-page form, requiring no signatures for local offices (at least for County Council), requires no party affiliation, etc. It only needs to be signed in the presence of a Notary Public (I use LANB tellers), and must be delivered to the County Clerk's office ON TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2006 (a week from today).

I tell you this as an eternal optimist, and for other reasons listed below. I mentioned to a group last week that it would be very interesting if, say, 15 of us all submitted Declarations of Candidacy for County Council! Reasons:

1. strength in numbers (and only 4 from each party would be left "holding the bag" i.e being on the November ballot after the primary

2. a voice (!!!)
a. the Monitor, for example, would have to put candidates' press releases into print
b. Candidates are invited to speak at civic organizations, e.g. Rotary, Kiwanis, LWV
c. present Councilors and other Candidates would take notice

3. A refreshing "flowering of democracy" right here in Los Alamos, New Mexico, U.S.A.

4. The opportunity to bring to public awareness the generally dysfunctional consequences of our unitary County Council form of government.
a. no checks and balances (e.g. Governor vetoes)
b. results in "Plan A, Business As Usual" BAU instead of "Plan B"
(Lester R. Brown, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, W.W. Norton & Co., 2006)
My localized title: Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a County under Stress and a Community in Trouble ...

5. Many candidates withdraw their candidacy later; you can, too, AFTER your voice is heard.

There may be many more reasons: the important point is I urge you to seriously consider picking up a form and filing your candidacy on March 21.

Skip

Richard "Skip" & Hedy Dunn
107 Sierra Vista Dr.
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3426
(505) 672-3866
shdunn@newmexico.com