Is Andy Dulin being deceitful? Or just savvy?
The Republican Charlotte City Council member upset Democrats by calling Democratic voters in heavily Democratic Districts 3 and District 5 to tout the Republican candidates in those races. The catch? Dulin never said the candidates are Republicans, never said he is a Republican, and instead identified himself as a member of the Democratic National Convention host committee.
A number of readers have contacted the Observer, suggesting that Dulin was misleading voters. At least one suggested that Dulin should be removed from the host committee for using his position to confuse Democratic voters. Dulin said is hearing from upset voters as well.
But he says he has nothing to be ashamed of.
"I don't think I was deceitful. I never said anything that wasn't true," Dulin told the Observer editorial board today. "Now, it was a call to Democrats. That's an opportunity for me to identify with the Democrats: 'Hey, I'm on the DNC host committee and I'm calling you to let you know these men are worthy of your support.' I have nothing to be ashamed of."
We think Dulin was definitely guilty, figuratively, of a misdemeanor, but not a felony.
What do you think?
Taylor Batten
Posts
16 comments:
No less deceitful than what Union Leaders and the Press do.
The Observer tells people who they should vote for, he did not say he was a Democrat and the Observer even printed that he was on the host committee, if people are too stupid to do research or by anything somebody who calls them unsolicited hook line and sinker then they deserve what they get.
savvy and a lil desperate. Rs haven't gotten the early vote turnout they'd like.
what about Cannon robocalling from his small biz? folks see the EX Parking name on their caller id and are almost compelled to answer, esp if they work/park Uptown
Ditto on the Cannon call. Caller ID says "EZ parking". I wish it was actually his Mom and not a recording so I could ask her if she knows he's on the down low.
Shady. Misleading. And yes Dulin you should be ashamed but you're too air-headed to realize it. We are all Charlotteans first and Dems/Repubs second. Whatever short-term gains this may have produced, was it worth eroding Charlotteans confidence and trust in our local govt. and politicians??
I wouldn't miss a chance to take a shot at Andy Dulin. But this is just a little too far of a reach to make it into a big deal.
I've met Andy a dozen times at neighborhood fund raising events and I don't ever recall him introducing himself as I'm Andy Dulin I'm a Republican.
He gets a free pass on this.
How do you confuse Democratic voters???
Give them a spelling test.
He did nothing wrong. If people are voting on phone calls rather than actually researching who they are voting for, that's their stupidity in action. I think it's brilliant.
The fact that this may have caused some Dems to vote Republican shows their intelligence level.
However, since most of them vote the straight ticket rather than actually knowing who they are voting for, so I doubt any 'harm' was done anyway.
I wouldn't miss a chance to take a shot at Andy Dulin. But this is just a little too far of a reach to make it into a big deal.
I've met Andy a dozen times at neighborhood fund raising events and I don't ever recall him introducing himself as I'm Andy Dulin I'm a Republican.
He gets a free pass on this.
This is a perfect example of why we end up with the wrong people in office: Voting a straight party tickets. You live in Charlotte, yet don't care enough to know who your CURRENT City Council members are? Andy Dulin is quite a visable public offical, and is always in the news, at events and reaching out to the community. You are going to VOTE in Charlotte, but you don't spend any time getting to know what the candidates stand for, much less their party affiliation? And because a district is predominantly Democrat, does that mean Republicans should not bother to campaign in those districts? This is absurd. I live in a majority Republican district, yet the ACORN folks were out stumping for Obama without announcing their affiliation. How is that different? At some point people need to use the brain God gave them and start taking responsibility for themselves.
I don't have a problem with this at all.
I have a problem with voters who choose not to educate themselves about their elected leaders or those running for office.
What?! Are we now going to legislate the exact verbage of those robocalls? Ridiculous. It's a non-issue. Geez, I'm so tired of everybody whining (and the press constantly reporting) about this and that. How about we all accept a little responsibility for our decisions, including who we vote for?
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