Ok, Bill Schmidt is a hypocrite, we knew that from his time on the common council. He’s for free speech, but went along with having the librarian put in jail because she went over her allotted time at the microphone and the republican majority didn’t like what she was saying.
He's the law and order candidate, but he actively sought the libertarian partys support and they support legalizing drugs and prostitution. By the way, for the first time ever our local police union has endorsed a candidate for mayor, it was Mary Foster.
He thinks lawn signs are pollution, but he now has lawn signs. The Peekskill Guardian doesn't buy his excuse that his political action committee did the signs without his permission. If he can't control this small group of newcomers, how can we believe he can control city hall. Finally Mr. Schmidt has said he wanted a civil campaign where both candidates ran on their record. This was something Mr. Schmidt knew he could never do. It was less than two years ago that based on his record the voters of Peekskill rejected him for common council. Why on earth would they make him mayor? Mr. Schmidt knew that to win he would have to do what he does best, smear, misrepresent and outright lie. But how was he going to do it? If he wasn’t covert people would see the mean, nasty, vindictive Bill Schmidt that so many of us know from his letters to the editor and snide dismissals of citizens wishing to be heard at council meetings.
With this in mind let’s look at the Schmidt Campaign
The first thing he did was to start Peekskill Guardian, He’s best buddies with Mr. Bazzo of the bozzo manifesto. They’re as tight as school girls, and just as mean. Andy taught him the ropes and he was off on his mary way. He needed help, all that hate doesn’t just spread itself. Wait he thought, Tony Siedeman hates the democrats, he’s mean and vindictive with a generous helping of self-righteousness. Since he’s sure to lose his cushy job if they take the majority, I know he will help. Mr. Siedeman, the city misinformation officer stuck his head out of John Testa’s pocket long enough to say, I’m on board, and the rest is history.
Together with help from Mayor Testa they created Peekskill Fist. A group so misinformed that their campaign brochure was declared "factually flawed," by Westchester’s fair campaign committee. With Seideman using his position as city information officer, Peekskill First has called press conferences misrepresenting the reasons. On every occasion when the charade became clear they were rebuked by the press.
What has Bill Schmidt left in our mailboxes? Not one of Mr. Schmidt’s mailing has promised anything other than the status quo. He has simply recycled the Testa Team literature from the last election.. It the one instance where it’s fortunate for the Republicans that nothing they promised in the last election has come to fruition. He compounded the insult to the voters intelligents by filling his literature with misleading lies about the democrats voting record. The same lies that were discredited by the Westchester fair campaign committee. As George Bush says, "ya gotta catapult the propaganda."
Mr Schmidt has authored misleading push poll calls through a company called RDI Marketing in Ohio. Their Manager, Josh Bridges verified that the calls were being made on behalf of Bill Schmidt. Mr Bridges refused to release the whole script but confirmed it was provided by Mr. Schmidt. Anyone wishing to verify this on their own can call RDI at (513) 984-5927. For those of you who do not know what a push poll is, let us explain. The caller will ask who’s got your vote. If it is not the unscrupulous candidate they will ask increasingly negative questions until you change your vote. For example, if you said you where voting for Bill Schmidt, they might ask , Would you still vote for Schmidt if you knew he voted to raise taxes by 60% while a councilman? If you said yes they would up the rhetoric and say, would you still vote for Bill Schmidt if you knew he was connected to organized crime? They keep going until you say No. This is one more reason to say no to Mr. Schmidt on Tuesday.
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Lets not forget the political theater created by Nelson Ave. harpie Barabra LoPrete and other Peekskill First members at common council meetings. If you want to them to ask them about their behavior they're the only ones on nelson ave with Schmidt signs. They placed the rest illegally around Peekskill on public land.
Finally, Bill Schmidt showed his real face. Masked only slightly by the front group, Citizens for a safer Peekskill a.k.a. Tony Seideman. This misleading photocopied flyer tries to link the democrats to sex offenders. This was very interesting considering some of the emails we have received regarding Mr. Schmidt’s personal behavior.
As promised The Peekskill Guardian has been looking into Peekskill First. As we suspected they are nothing more than a GOP front group, designed by John Testa and Bill Schmidt as a last ditch effort to maintain the status quo. The last thing the GOP wanted was to lose their ability to sell Peekskill to the highest bidder or at least to someone with the ability to sell the mayor a Riverbend Condo at a price so low it was like giving it away. Losing control would also draw back the curtains and shine sunlight on the last 26 years of Republican graft. No one is talking about the two large dumpsters that showed up behind city hall the day after the election.
