For two years the Trib could have exposed the folks on our side as frauds had they felt it important enough to bother. It has been striking to me that they simply regurgitated the spin handed them by the District. This is a half-billion-dollar story. Surely the Trib could have sprung for some qualified outside experts to save wade through the data. They didn’t bother. In fact, my sense is that all the Red Plan supporters sat on the side line not quite convinced that the spin from the District made sense or that the spin from the Let Duluth Vote side was inaccurate.
So after three great days of pro vote news last week the Trib has subjected Duluth to a solid week of cheer leading for the Red Plan culminating in today’s exercise in one sided opinion. The only piece worth beans in today’s paper and the only piece written from the pro vote side was written by a former school board member, banker and financial analyst Richard Paulsen.
Every thing else was a celebration of the Red Plan and complaints that the lilliputians of Let Duluth Vote were thuggish liars.
There are liars in this town. As the old saw goes, something rotten in the state of Denmark. Too bad the Trib has such a bad nose for news.
Now, with two days left before the election, this is all the Trib can do to salvage what they claim will be the salvation of our schools. If the Trib is right and the incumbents all lose and a more modest plan is approved causing Duluth to be pulled into a black hole the Trib will have only itself to blame.
Oh, and as for that request for campaign donations circulated in the schools soliciting $25 donations from people wishing to put their names in the paper in support of the Red Plan. It got a lot more names than donations. The piece ended up in the Budgeteer. The list showed 300 couples or individuals for a total of a little over 500 total names. It was organized alphabetically – something the pros avoid and I’ve lived in town long enough to be struck by the names not included on it.
Had 300 $25 donations come in they would have raised $7,500. That ad cost a grand or less. Let Duluth Vote got donations from about 2000 folks in one go round a year ago and raised nearly $30,000 and not from high rollers making money on the Red Plan but also from folks on fixed incomes who could ill afford to donate. One in ten sent in thank yous with their donations which I posted once a day for half a year.
These are the folks the Trib wants to vote with their heads not their anger. I hope their anger drives them to the polls where they then vote with their heads.
