Pay Attention To Party Platforms

To the Editor:

The Independent Party of Newtown has worked tirelessly to provide you with what we believe to be the critical issues facing Newtown in our platform, the Declaration of Independents. We hoped that our platform will create debate among the political parties, and the recent Letter Hive demonstrates that it has. I am extremely pleased that our platform document is being circulated and reviewed in detail. We believe that the voters are paying attention this year and will choose to exercise their right to make a difference after careful examination of each party’s platform.

Therefore, I anxiously await the detailed platforms from the Democratic and Republican Town Committees so that the citizens of Newtown will have an opportunity to evaluate where they and their candidates stand on the issues compared to IPN. Debate was noticeably absent in the last election when so many incumbents ran unopposed. Perhaps the lack of debate, and candidate choice, is why only 24 percent of the registered voters bothered to participate.

However, the RTC and DTC so far have chosen to react to our platform rather than provide their own platforms. The DTC, in particular, has preferred to offer banal generalities and focus on the alleged accomplishments of the past in the letters to the editor written by supporters of the Rosenthal administration.

We welcome any constructive debate on the issues, but I do have a specific request from those who write in favor of the Rosenthal administration to the Letter Hive. It would be honorable, fair, and more transparent if the authors of these letters could attribute their affiliation with the current administration. I have read too many letters of support for Mr Rosenthal from town employees or appointed commission and board members without adequate disclosure of the relationship between the letter writer and the Rosenthal administration. If you are part of the current administration, then it is your obligation to inform the public of that relationship when publicly praising the boss.

In particular, it was a disappointment to read Pat Kelly’s letter “Transparency On The Transparency” in last week’s Letter Hive. Mr Kelly failed to identify himself as the clerk for the Charter Revision Commission whose mother is Herb Rosenthal’s assistant. This is a classic example of the lack of transparency IPN is going to fix when our candidates are elected in November. Perhaps Mr Kelly is able to find all necessary information from the current administration because he works for them. But more to the point, the government works for us, not the other way around. It is the responsibility of the government to make sure it informs the public that funds it in a timely, easy-to-access, and informative manner. The IPN candidates understand that government does owe the people explanations of its actions, and will demonstrate this when we are elected to public office in November.

Sincerely,

Po Murray

Legislative Council Candidate District 2

Independent Party of Newtown

38 Charter Ridge Drive, Sandy Hook                 September 26, 2007