Rochester City council candidates spar over campaign letter, job layoff

Source: Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.迷你倉新蒲崗Aug. 29--The Rochester Youth Hockey Association says a letter sent on its email July 9 soliciting votes for city council candidate Mark Hickey was a mistake, but the runner-up contends the letter influenced the primary election in Hickey's favor.Shaun Palmer, the runner-up in the seven-candidate July 30 primary for the Ward 5 city council seat, said he's consulted with two attorneys on the matter but doesn't plan to file a complaint against the nonprofit association.Federal law prohibits nonprofit organizations from participating in political campaigns or attempting to influence elections.Addressed to "Rochester Youth Hockey," the letter says "Please support Mark Hickey's run for Rochester City Council, Ward 5," and "Voter turnout for this July 30th special election will be extremely low. A margin of 50 votes could decide this election so every vote is crucial."Out of 10,893 registered voters in Ward 5, just 1,348 voted in the primary. Hickey was the clear leader -- capturing 648 votes, or 48 percent. If he had taken more than 50 percent, Hickey would have won the Ward 5 seat outright. Palmer came away with 19 percent of the votes, and the two men advanced to the general election, scheduled for Sept. 17.The letter originated with Hickey's campaign team and was not supposed to be sent out as a Rochester Youth Hockey Association email, said Hickey, who is a RYHA board member. His campaign initially sent it to a number of high school hockey groups that are not nonprofits, he said.However, somebody in the RYHA forwarded the letter to the association's member email list. And, because it came from the RYHA's email address, it appeared with the association's banner at the top, making it look like a RYHA-sanctioned email, Hickey said."But that was never the intent. It shouldn't have happened. And as soon as the association realized that it went out on the official mailing list, they immediately sent a correction and said this shouldn't have happened," Hickey said.That second email was sent the morning of July 11, saying, "You recently received an email concerning the city council race from the RYHA. That email should not have been sent to you. We apolo迷你倉出租ize for the error."'Inadvertent mistake'It was an inadvertent mistake, said RYHA board president Robert Benner, an attorney at Dunlap and Seeger, in Rochester."When it was brought to my attention that it happened, we wanted it to unhappen," Benner said, adding that he made the decision to send out the corrective email.Byron Clark, the third runner-up in the primary, told Palmer about the letter on Aug. 5, when the two saw each other at a National Night Out neighborhood party, Palmer said.Palmer said he doesn't believe it was intentional, but the fact that, in his opinion, it influenced the election puts him in an awkward position."I think it had a huge effect on the election," he said. "You know, everybody says it's wrong, but nobody wants to file a complaint. And I don't want to be the person to file a complaint because then it looks like I've got sour grapes."Hickey's IBM layoffPalmer also takes issue with the fact that Hickey did not reveal he was laid off from IBM when the two men participated in the League of Women Voters' candidates forum on July 22.Hickey, an electrical engineer who was with IBM for 17 years, said he was notified June 12, and his last day was July 12.Palmer said he thinks Hickey should have told people at the forum he had been laid off so they wouldn't assume he was still employed.To that, Hickey said in an interview Wednesday he didn't believe it was necessary or appropriate to announce his layoff either in the forum's brief introduction or closing statement periods."I think Mr. Palmer is saying that I'm misstating that I'm still working at IBM, and I'm not doing that. A lot of people are affected by this, but I'm certainly not ashamed to have been laid off by IBM. It's certainly nothing I did wrong," Hickey said.He pointed out that, if Palmer wins the general election, he will have to quit his job as a building inspector for the city of Rochester."I don't think he's made any attempt to hide that. But when he introduces himself to people in that first 60 seconds, he probably doesn't include that in his opening," Hickey said.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Post-Bulletin Visit the Post-Bulletin at .postbulletin.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉