Clarification
Ken Ertel, a candidate for the Bath Township Board of Trustees, used information from the West Side Leader’s published endorsement for the position in a handout piece of literature to some Bath residents as well as on his Web site, and the way the information was presented was misleading. Mr. Ertel used the following information from that endorsement to support his candidacy:
“The time is right to get a new voice on the board.”
“New ideas need to be brought in.”
“After two terms you are pretty worn out.”
To clarify, none of those comments is the opinion of the editorial board that conducted the endorsement interviews.
An accurate presentation of these comments is in the following paragraphs from the Sept. 27, 2007, endorsement article:
With [Elaina] Goodrich coming up on 12 years on the board, and [Donald] Jenkins and [James] Nelson with nearly 10 years each, both challengers to Goodrich said the time is right to get a new voice on the board.
[Ernest] Mertens, an attorney with a practice in Fairlawn, said two terms is enough for anyone to serve. He pledged that if elected, he would not seek more than eight years in office.
“After two terms you are pretty worn out,” Mertens said. “New ideas need to be brought in.”
While Mr. Ertel did not directly indicate the comments were made by the West Side Leader editorial board, we do not want any of our readers to be confused as to whose candidacy we have endorsed, which is the incumbent, Elaina Goodrich’s candidacy.
To his credit, Mr. Ertel did
respond to our request to have those comments removed
from his Web site, which he did promptly, and he indicated
he would not circulate the handout to any more residences.
He also stated, “My campaign committee did not
try to intentionally mislead anyone, but we are sorry
for any confusion that may have been created.”
To read the full endorsement,
click here.
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