To the Editor:

I remember John Snow. For those that don’t, he was the three-term state senator from this district who was defeated by Jim Davis in 2010. The tactics employed by and on behalf of Davis to defeat the most conservative Democrat in the state Senate were so outrageous that, the  New Yorker magazine published an exposé in 2011 called “State for Sale.” (Just Google “NewYorker-State for Sale”)

Almost a million dollars was spent to defeat Snow, many times more money than had ever been spent in a local Senate race, and most of it came from outside the district. 

One of the most effective attacks on John Snow was a blizzard of mailers stuffing all the mail boxes in the district. All of them contained either outright lies or twisted “facts” attacking his personal character or his very conservative voting record in the Senate. To this day, Sen. Davis says he had “nothing to do with them.”

Well guess what, another Sen. Davis flyer has appeared in district mail boxes. This time it is an attack on Jane Hipps, who is running to unseat him this November. True to form it contains a very questionable allegation that some would call a lie. The flyer reads “Jane Hipps told the Macon County Democratic Men’s Club the very first thing she would do in the State Senate is to raise our income taxes by at least 15 percent.”

I have been in the Democratic Men’s Club since it was formed and I am now the treasurer of the Club. I don’t think I have missed any meetings, and I have heard Jane Hipps speak many times. I have never heard her say she would raise any tax by 15 percent.

The Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case to allow the super rich to buy our politicians. Isn’t it time that the price of a politician was reduced to something the middle class could afford? Isn’t it time we respectfully discuss real policy differences? It is just hard to believe that our local dentist Jim Davis would become the poster child for this kind of dirty politics.  

Louis Vitale

Franklin