Saratoga News

Letters & Opinions

Clean the slate--elect King, Siam, Page to council

The time has come for Saratoga voters to clean the slate and reclaim their city. To do so, the Saratoga News believes residents must re-elect Kathleen King and elect Hab Siam and Chuck Page to the Saratoga City Council. In so doing, the city will send a clear message to the group that for more than two decades has backed candidate slates.

The powerful group, led by Jeff Schwartz, must be stopped. The candidates running on the slate backed by that group--Jill Hunter, Marilyn Marchetti and Jim Sorden--will just continue that tradition.

How do we know they're backed by Schwartz and his friends? The slate candidates told us.

"I don't know how to run a campaign and Jeff Schwartz does," said Hunter when asked during a meeting with our editorial board about her involvement with the slate.

Are the members of the slate independent voices? We don't think so. When asked during our endorsement meeting who would speak for the slate, Marchelli stepped forward and said, "I will." Independent thinkers do not need a spokesperson.

We don't believe in slates. We don't believe in electing candidates in city council elections who are put up as a team by political action groups. We support independent thinkers, and that's what we believe the community will get in King, Siam and Page.

Page will bring a positive, upbeat attitude to the city which Saratoga so dearly needs right now. His philosophy of protecting the past and present while preparing for the future is exactly what the city needs.

Siam will offer a new perspective and diverse thinking. His independence is clear and his desire to "break the stranglehold of political power that one group's had over the city" is admirable.

King will offer the experience gained in four years of service on the council. We didn't agree with every decision she made in her first term, but we are convinced that she is a tireless worker who always has the best interest of the city at heart.

King was a member of the slate that also included Nick Streit and Norman Kline when she was elected in 2002. But during her stint on the council, she fell out of favor with the slate leadership and was not asked back. Those who fall out of favor are typically not re-elected when the political machine gears up to defeat them in their next run.

That silent threat must be in the back of the minds of anyone elected on a slate.

Siam indicates that he was also asked to join the slate, but when he was told that he had to agree to certain conditions, he says, "I refused."

When things get so bad that one community leader compares Saratoga politics to the shady, smoke-filled backroom dealings of Tammany Hall, it's time for residents to take a good, hard look at their city.

Saratogans must ask themselves on election day if they want independent thinkers like Kathleen King, Hab Siam and Chuck Page to sit on their city council, or members who will need to look to the back of the chambers for approval before casting a vote.

It's up to you. After Nov. 7 it could be politics as usual in the city, or it could be Saratoga's Independence Day.