Yesterday I finally received my long-awaited first campaign flyer from Ernie McAlister. My exxpections were met, and his flyer proves that you can indeed put enough polish on a turd to make it shine. I'd scan a copy and post it here, but I'm sure all living or dead citizens of Cary have already received their copy. This Lie-O-Gram is well-produced, but I guess when you have $100,000 of developer money to spend you can afford the best. On the other hand, when you have spent four years selling out Cary, you probably are forced to spend a lot of money on campaign collateral to make people think you were actually serving their needs.

By the way, I call Ernie's flyer a Lie-O-Gram because failure to tell the whole truth constitutes a lie as far as I'm concerned.

A few observations in the form of "Ernie said, Joe Said" ......

On "Making a difference" over the last four years ...

Ernie said "Successfully passed a $120M clean water bond to fund a regional wastewater treatment facility"
Joe said "I spent $120M of your tax money to keep my developer friends happy and let them continue to build.

Ernie said "Assumed ownership of SAS Soccer Park"
Joe said "Which loses money every year, but we're fiscally responsible!!"

Ernie said "Provided land to the Wake County Public School System"
Joe said "Gave them land which the previous mayor secured from developers"

Ernie said "Restored Cary's long term fiscal health"
Joe said "Increased Cary's debt to the largest amount in the history of the town"

On Ernie's "Vision for our future" ...

Ernie said "Invest $100M to build and expand Cary's roads"
Joe said "Again, your tax dollars at work to support developers' business interests"

Ernie said "Keep Cary's tax rate low"
Joe said "By continuing to go into debt and leaving it for the next mayor to clean up"

Ernie said "Initiate a land banking program [for schools]"
Joe said "Ernie, that one is just plain over the line. You have done zip for our students during your administration and made the BoE's even worse by driving over 6% residential growth. Now you come up with this six weeks before the election? [see previous post on this subject]. Cary students, two of whom are my kids, are not your political collateral to be exploited for the purpose of your reelection. To come up with a stunt like this dishonors all Cary students."

We got fooled by Ernie's pretty flyers and worthless promises four years ago, we won't get fooled again!