Letter to the Editor: Speck Aims to Set the Record Straight

To the Editor:

I’m not sure how I got so lucky as to warrant a , but the quote she refers to was not from me.

It was part of a flyer produced by the that had a sentence about each of the endorsed candidates, and I am part of that PAC…along with Vice Mayor Kerry Donley, Councilman Rob Krupicka, former Councilman Lonnie Rich, former City Manager Vola Lawson, former Housing Authority Chair Melvin Miller and many other civic, political and community leaders.

To just mention me is to do exactly what Katy accuses others of doing and that is to make an issue about the person and not about the substance. Let me assure you that this was not the first attack piece—not by a long shot—against a City Council candidate and in the absence of any  information to the contrary, I take Sean Holihan at his word that he was unaware was being produced.

But if I had been asked (and I was not), I would have advised not to do something like this because it was unnecessary. Anyone with the slightest degree of political acumen could have foretold the outcome of the primary as it related to Boyd Walker and my guess is the flyer was a wash—a few people may have decided to vote against Boyd after reading it and a few people may have decided to vote for him, but its overall impact was negligible.

I have known Katy Canady for a long time, and I have only seen her operate in one gear: Angry. Anything she may write or say that is positive is almost always accompanied by a derogatory or critical comment—usually about someone else.  So, to paraphrase her final statement, I hope her style of politics is not part of Alexandria’s future.

David Speck