NAC Exclusive: Brenda Scharlow’s rebuttal to “FOS Blogger's Tall Tales.”

(For the senior editor's endorsements, go here: Cat's in the cradle, and more endorsements preceding Tuesday's election.)

In the interest of fairness, and because certain trognonymous outposts of local blogging continue to operate outside the boundaries of taste and decency, NAC today gives 3rd district city council candidate Brenda Scharlow (R) equal time to respond to charges made in a blog where comments are not allowed.

After all, doesn't such an opportunity lie at the very heart of "freedom of speech"?

On Sunday the senior editor learned that last week, a letter was sent to the Tribune attacking Scharlow. The newspaper contacted Brenda to provide an opportunity for rebuttal, but the letter apparently was withdrawn, only to magically reappear almost verbatim mere days later in a posting at Vicki Denhart’s Freedom of Speech trog/blog.

Read the attack here: WHY SCHARLOW FOR CITY COUNCIL?

Ironically, prior to learning about the back story of the anti-Scharlow attack, and personally annoyed at yet another cowardly sliming, I already had responded to it in an NA Confidential posting on Saturday.

Come out of your cave, Ms. Bolovschak, and disavow the treacherous troglodyte.

Indeed, it’s the sort of farce that small towns like ours seem to specialize in staging. I’m left to guess that the anti-Scharlow attack on FOS emanated in some fashion from her opponent in Tuesday’s election, incumbent Steve Price, but to be sure, there is no proof that Price was involved. Perhaps it came from a little bird. At any rate, the corrosive vitriol that routinely spews from various corners of New Albany’s Main Street corridor remains a phenomenon to behold (and to abhor), but one thing that I believe without any doubt is that Scharlow’s side of the story deserves to be heard before voters head to the polls.

And so it will be heard now. Take it away, Brenda.

---

"We listed the property 601 W. Main St. and sold it. We were told by the buyers that they were going to sell granite, ceramic, and slate. We were even shown samples. Prior to this, a "lingerie' " shop had opened on Main St., and Mayor Regina Overton called the shop and asked the businessmen to quietly close the shop to avoid unfavorable publicity, and they did.

"With the real threat of unsavory businesses springing up, did the people in office take proper steps with zoning laws to stop this? No, they did nothing. Thus, when we sold the property, 601 W. Main St., we had no protection. We trust the people in office to protect us by establishing proper zoning, codes, and laws. It is from this experience, one of the many reasons, I am running for 3rd district council to establish and enforce laws to protect our people.

"We bought 324 E. Main St. to establish our TUMBLEBUS headquarters. The property was in very bad shape. We invested $25,000 in renovation with every intention of paving the lot. It did take about 6 months to come up with the additional $10,000 to pave the area. The condition of the sidewalks was beyond. The little children do not trip in front of TUMBLEBUS anymore. But what do they do between 5th and 6th St. on Main where the condition of the sidewalk is dangerous? It is also for this reason, to create a city plan to repair our sidewalks and streets that I am running for city council.

"My husband and I bought the Sloan, Bicknell, Paris home, 600 E. Main St., renovated it, and lived there for eight years. It is located on Mansion Row at the corner of East 6th St. and Main St. Due to the flood wall, there was no "river view" except in the cupola or widow's walk. Located behind us was a concrete factory. Neighbors will agree that daily the noise, dirt and dust from the factory was irritating. We bought that blighted site, zoned light industrial/row housing. The city had no plan to bring this industrial site into the National Register of Historic Places. We have contended with the railroad tracks, floodwall, and an electrical substation, but successfully we are building a high end development. All of the homes in the development complement the historic mansion row and will only raise everyone's property value. Have you seen Shiloh Place? Come see for yourself.

"Would you rather have a concrete factory?

"By the way, we have spent over $10,000 in sewer hookups. And we have never filed bankruptcy, personally or with any business or corporation with which we have been associated.

"I believe in the freedom of speech, but outright lying is not acceptable. When you make statements without the facts you are lying. We have seen too much of this in this city.

"In conclusion, it is this very spirit of hatred, contention, envy, and jealousy that is trying to permeate our city and every city council meeting. This is one of the main reasons I am running for city council: To fight this attitude.

"If you are in agreement, please vote Brenda Scharlow, 3rd district city council. Thanks."

On November 6, vote for Scharlow for 3rd district council.

During his recent forum appearance before the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, incumbent 3rd district councilman Steve Price was visibly disoriented when I pointed out to him that in 2007, he had voted lock-step with the 1st district’s Dan Coffey almost 98% of the time.

After a mercifully brief and laughably ineffectual denial, Price bristled and responded that his near perfect confluence with the malicious Wizard of Westside could be explained by the 1st and 3rd districts being alike.

Like many of the urban legends that pass as gospel within non-critical minds, this assertion simply isn’t true, and in refuting it, the reasons for change in the 3rd district become abundantly clear.

The bulk of New Albany’s historic business district lies in the territory of the 3rd district. The tourist draw of Mansion Row on Main Street is located in the 3rd. The once vibrant Vincennes Street commercial corridor originates in the 3rd, as does the most significant portion of the Ohio River Greenway project. A big chunk of the city’s historic housing stock lines the streets in the 3rd.

During his first term in office, the accidental councilman Price – twice rejected by overwhelming primary votes, only to scrape through owing to splits in three-way races – has been consistently unable to fathom the potential inherent in his own district. Bizarrely possessed with the notion that ignorance is somehow a virtue, he has proceeded to vote against the interests of his own district again, and again, and again.

The contrast between Price’s dully repetitious underachievement and the life experience of Republican challenger Brenda Scharlow could not be more instructive to prospective voters.

As a young adult, married, harried and faced with the demands of a large family, Scharlow swiftly rejected Price’s “circle the wagons” approach to budgetary matters by seeking an entrepreneurial solution. She founded a business and made the pie larger. Then, applying the same wisdom to their community, Scharlow and husband Larry embraced the potential of New Albany’s core by investing in it not once, but thrice: First with Tumblebus, then in the conversion of the Grand theater into a convention and banquet facility, and now with the building of condominiums by the riverfront.

Price can do no more than spout homilies, and he slouches behind them.

Scharlow designs her own ball, and she runs with it.

Price warns against a litany of forthcoming catastrophe, and he proposes regress as the only course.

Scharlow grasps what might be, and she counsels progress as a remedy.

Price’s worldview is an embarrassment to Democrats, and the Democratic Party knows it, even if it says nothing publicly.

Scharlow’s platform is a credit to Republicans, and they certainly need it.

No candidate is perfect, but the majority of Brenda Scharlow's positions are calibrated to suit the needs of the 3rd district. Conversely, after four years in office, Steve Price all but concedes that he still cannot fathom those needs.

On November 6, vote for Scharlow for 3rd district council.

See also: Five takes a look at Three, at NA Shadow Council.

VIDEO: 3rd District Council Q&A

The East Spring Street Neighborhood Association hosted a question and answer session for 3rd district City Council candidates on October 10. Steve Price is the Democratic incumbent. Brenda Scharlow is the Republican challenger. ESNA President Greg Phipps moderated with a few pre-submitted questions taken from earlier meetings with mayoral candidates. The rest of the questions and conversation were directed by attendees.

The full session lasted a little over an hour. It's presented here in nine segments of six to ten minutes each, arranged from top to bottom in chronological order so that each segment flows into the next. One question was missed, as noted in the respective segment.

"Five takes a look at Three."

A new blogger on the block:

Five takes a look at Three ... from the NA Shadow Council blog.

It's not my job to "shadow" events in District 3, but I can't quite resist commenting on what I've heard coming out of the "major" party campaigns going on over there.

Though I couldn't make it, friends reported some of the comments made by the candidates at the Muir Manor candidate's forum, moderated by Greg Phipps. From what I am told, all but a handful of the attendees were members of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association. (what's going on with their acronym, ESNA? Doesn't the name dictate 2 esses?)

Mr. Price showed something by just appearing. The Spring Streeters are almost uniformly fed up with Steve Price. It would be hard to characterize that group as either Democrat or Republican, but for the most part they are progressive in the best sense. They believe in a government that is responsive to its constituents, and they believe that government SHOULD be a vehicle for accomplishing community-shared objectives.

ESNA Oktoberfest meeting tonight features Price, Scharlow and a guy who plays spoons.

For its October meeting tonight (October 10, 2007), the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association has scheduled as guests Steve Price (D-Dubious) & Brenda Scharlow (R), candidates for the 3rd district city council seat. The meeting will be held at Muir Manor, which is located on the corner of East Spring Street and 13th.

Questions previously addressed to the mayoral forum attendees candidates will be repeated -- more often to Price than to Scharlow. The neighborhood association's business meeting will be from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., with the guests arriving at 7:30.

Republican Brenda Scharlow's platform includes ordinance enforcement and promoting business downtown, while the extremely nominal and syntax challenged Democrat Price "value's your taxpayer dollars," "identifies problems and implores solutions," and once played geetar for the Darlins on the old Andy Griffith Show.

No beer allowed. Too bad.

You should know the drill by now: City council tonight.

THE COMMON COUNCIL OF THE CIVIL CITY OF NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, WILL HOLD A REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING IN THE THIRD FLOOR ASSEMBLY ROOM OF THE CITY/COUNTY BUILDING ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2007 AT 7:30 P.M.

I’m looking forward to this agenda item:

Jerry Ulrich & Larry Kochert – report on redistricting lawsuit.

While we’re on the topic of the council’s newfound commitment to redistrict (at the point of an edict), here’s a classic Steve Price moment, as described with notable restraint by the Courier-Journal’s Dick Kaukas:

Steve Price, District 3 councilman, said whatever redistricting plan is adopted could make it more challenging for some incumbents to win re-election.

For instance, Price said, one proposal being considered would take away a precinct now in District 3 and replace it with another that is now in an adjacent district.

"That could make it a little harder," Price said, because voters in the precinct new to his district won't be as familiar with him and his record.

But Price acknowledged he will have four years to make himself known.

That’s certainly a hopeful sign, since Price is so well known in the presently configured 3rd council district that more than 60% of registered Democrats regularly vote against him, and this fact brings us to Price’s main opponent in the forthcoming fall election, Republican Brenda Scharlow, and her simple yet functional platform, which is now posted at the GOP web site:

1. Enforce Ordinances
2. Clean Up Our Neighborhoods
3. Improve City Parks
4. 2-way VS 1-way Street Evaluations
5. Promote Business in the Downtown

It isn’t exactly weighty, but it touches the needed bases, and so I’m delighted to endorse a Republican candidate for perhaps the first time in my life.

Vote Brenda Scharlow in November.

Yes, there is a third candidate in the 3rd district race. We’ve been monitoring Libertarian Thomas Keister’s web site for signs that he knows anything at all about the current state of affairs in New Albany, and that he intends to take the race seriously.

As yet, no such evidence has emerged that Keister is willing or able to apply his Libertarian principles to the 3rd district’s current dilemma. Until Keister, who has all the appearances of a budding perennial candidate (one Verle Huffman is enough for this reporter's lifetime), manages to be credible, there is no reason to risk yet another 3-way vote split that will have the inevitable result of returning the underachieving Price to office.

Who’s going to the meeting tonight?

I’ll be the one wearing the beanie.

3rd district independent council race? "There are no good reasons for empowering this dysfunction any longer."

With the filing deadline for independent candidates fast approaching, let’s take a final look at the mathematics of the 3rd district council race.

The numbers are as cruel as they are inevitable.

Certain truths are unchanged. In political terms, the incumbent councilman Steve Price is little better than a massive block of impervious, weighty and perpetually muddled cement tied to the ankle of New Albany’s downtown revitalization effort, both in terms of the city’s core neighborhoods and its historic business district. In spite of his halfhearted pre-election promises that he intends to represent all of his constituents, he has failed to do so through four underachieving years of his first term, and almost certainly won’t improve on this record of neglect if he is re-elected this fall.

There is a simple reason for Price’s inability to honor his pledge: An inherent disinterest in, and in many cases active antipathy to, the things in life that motivate those people who aren’t like Price. The councilman suffers from an utter and complete absence of future vision, of palpable interest in his own further education, of appreciation for diversity, and of basic political gravitas.

To be succinct, there is no hope for a recovery on Price’s part because he has no discernable desire to learn anything at all beyond what he already grasped as an adolescent. He is a political cipher, contemptuous of knowledge, and he will not change. A penurious mode of cautious, whining, drawling urban damage control is Price’s genetic default setting, and we had might as well get used to it.

Why?

Because in these reactions to a planet he does not understand, Price unfortunately is not alone, and because he is not alone, and because there is an unchanging (at least until death, relocation or imprisonment) bloc of similarly non-minded individuals inhabiting his long-suffering district -- and because most of them, whether Democrat or Republican, buy into the self-identification of the two-party system at its most insanely futile -- it is highly unlikely that the incumbent can be beaten in a three-way race. This has now been proven in successive Democratic primaries.

It is not likely to be disproved now that the Republican Party has declared its intention to select Brenda Scharlow as the GOP candidate in the 3rd district.

Another truth as yet unchanged is that logic and experience indicate that there is only one way to defeat Price, and that is through absolute unity behind a single opposition candidate.

Unity obviously cannot be achieved by fielding an independent candidate and splitting the anti-Price vote, although as I write there are numerous trial balloons being floated and just as many rumors disseminated, and as usually is the case in such self-aggrandizing matters, it is virtually impossible to distinguish the sincere statements of intent from the unhealthy zeal for politics-as-usual game-playing that is the fundamental reason for New Albany’s enduring two-party, small-pond political dysfunction.

There are no good reasons for empowering this dysfunction any longer. I’ll not be running as a candidate, and as the situation stands, there exist no valid case for supporting an independent candidacy of any sort in the 3rd district. Perhaps in 2011, but not this year. The window was cracked open this spring, and an enduringly inexplicable unwillingness on the part of residents to communicate openly with each other slammed it shut. So be it. I -- we -- have other things to do.

But make no mistake: Realism isn’t the same as defeatism, and I’m not discouraged, deflated or otherwise desiring to retire from the struggle on behalf of progressive thinking in the future tense.

In fact, I plan to be quite busy laying the groundwork for ultimate success by continuing this on-line advocacy in the blogosphere and devoting even more time to supporting business ventures – embryonic ones of my own that are under development, and those of others already on the ground, vibrant, and contributing to the revitalization of downtown New Albany, especially the tracts within Price’s own council district that he has done next to nothing to assist during four wasted years of wrongheaded council obstinacy.

Although the anti-Price forces in the 3rd district have yet to show a willingness to unify and win, I remain confident that the helpful cause of interpersonal communications will be advanced, if not now, then later. Self-interest eventually will bring us all to the table, with the only question being how long we'll wait to see it.

I have not contacted Brenda Scharlow prior to writing this essay, and now take this opportunity to publicly request of her a comprehensive platform for her fall campaign. Assuming she complies, and that her planks seem reasonable to me (an open hint: omit the standard GOP fascistic social agenda and you’ll be fine), I’ll proceed to publish her platform in this space, to endorse her candidacy, and to offer to meet her at Bistro New Albany or Connor’s Place (or both) to publicly make good (and be photographed doing so) on my onetime promise to drink Miller Lite before ever again voting Republican.

That’s because if she runs, voting Republican is what I’ll be doing in the 3rd district council race this fall, and in doing so, understand that I most emphatically will not be voting “against” a Democratic Party that itself possesses those cherished ideals closest to my own.

Rather, I’ll be voting “against” the incompetent rogue and vacant charlatan Price’s ongoing political blasphemy against those Democratic principles that I possess even if not participating as an active member of the party structure. Herewith the local party is encouraged to jettison those reactionary elements within it that have done the most to disgrace these principles, including Price and his like-non-minded partners in grime like Dan Coffey. Perhaps the party will step forward yet and offer substance that the rest of us can embrace.

Discuss if you wish, or not at all, and sincere thanks to all who have taken an interest in the topics considered here. Your opinions and counsel have been invaluable, and are much appreciated.

I -- we -- aren't going away. Going to work ... going to the mattresses ... going for a Progressive pint or three ... but not away. See you around town.

Divided we fall (again?): Time to discuss the "Price" of unity in the 3rd district.

It strikes me as odd that the Floyd County GOP chose the prelude to a holiday weekend to break the news that Brenda Scharlow is the party’s likely nominee to oppose incumbent 3rd district councilman Steve Price in the November election, but that’s the way it happened, and we though it best to defer discussion for a bit. Here's our Saturday posting, with a quote from the Tribune's story:

3rd district in the spotlight; Price to raid grandma's cookie jar for fall campaign.

Asked whether he was disappointed that he’d now have to fund a general-election campaign, Price replied that he’d long expected a challenge.

“I had heard that they were possibly going to run an independent, so I figured there would definitely be someone running against me somewhere,” Price said.

Indeed, as even Price is aware, planning for an independent campaign was (and remains) afoot. However, a credible Republican candidacy inevitably alters the dynamic; while CM Price came to office with a lopsided win against a colorless GOP opponent in 2003, both his Democratic primary wins have come during three-way races, most recently earlier in May when 63% of those voting chose either Maury Goldberg or Charlie Harshfield over Price's continued reign of error.

There are questions to be answered, and soon.

Given that in stated political thought as well as recorded council deed, Price has consistently performed in a fashion that is deleterious to the future interests of the city in general, and of his district in particular, just how important is it to the residents of 3rd district that he is returned to full-time rental property management in January, 2008?

Did we learn anything from our unfortunate failure to unify during the primary?

If we decide to run an independent candidate in the fall, do we risk yet another three-way split – and yet another Price victory with less than a majority?

Assuming that Scharlow’s platform is palatable (naturally, all bets are off if it isn’t, but recall that she very much needs progressive votes to win the race), do we support the Republican candidate as the best choice for unity, knowing all the while that those in the Democratic Party hierarchy who are closest to us will have no choice except to back Price, even if he is an ongoing embarrassment to them?

(Know that there are potential embarrassments other than Price, but we'll come to that in due time. Also know that the author once wrote in this blog that he’d sooner drink Miller Lite than vote for a Republican. Is defeating Steve Price important enough for me to drink Miller Lite?)

Or do you think it is somehow not proper to discuss these issues openly?

To the contrary, I believe it is fitting and proper that we do so, because to do otherwise is to play politics as usual – and isn’t that what we’re ostensibly against?

Whether you live within the 3rd district or elsewhere in the city, your thoughts on the preceding are much appreciated. If you don’t wish to post, send comments to the e-mail address in my profile and I will repost them pseudonymously.

3rd district in the spotlight; Price to raid grandma's cookie jar for fall campaign.

It's a holiday weekend, and perhaps half our normal readership will be clocking in, so we'll refrain from substantive comment about the changing dynamics of the 3rd district city council race until next week.

The Tribune expands its coverage from yesterday's news flash:

New Albany council: GOP making District three a race, by Eric Scott Campbell.

Many downtown residents will now have an extra choice to make Nov. 6.

Brenda Scharlow has agreed to run against Democratic incumbent District 3 City Councilman Steve Price in the general election, filling the Republican Party’s ballot vacancy there ...

... “I think we just need somebody in there that will have a vision for the city, and I think I would be able to work with anybody” elected to the council or mayor’s office, she said.

Speaking for myself, I'm cautiously optimistic about future prospects for uniting the hefty majority of 3rd district voters who agree that "vision for the city" should not be incompatible with occupying a council seat, as is the unfortunate current reality with incumbent Steve "No Progress at Any" Price.

But let's not neglect the humorous side of Scharlow's probable entry into the race, one provided (unintentionally as always) by New Albany's own eternally nutty professor -- the so-called Erik, who lectures in voodoo economics and pseudo-history at Tooth Fairy U.

In a posting today, the trognonymous Vickster takes issue with Brenda Scharlow's political affiliation.

Which party has your loyalty now? And will the 3rd District take you serious as a candidate?

Bold, vibrant words coming from a man who is really a woman ... and from a woman whose past veiled delusions have included anonymous racial slurs among other bits of vituperative character assassination and unanswerable innuendo.

If these perpetually unsavory character traits weren't enough to confirm a measure of confused self-identity on the part of Freedom to Screech's chief attack dog, it's worth noting that the very same inveterate masquerader recently stood for an at-large council seat as a Democratic candidate whilst playing political footsie with the true object of her adoration, strident Republican operative Auntie V -- who, in turn, was resoundingly rejected yet again by local members of her own cadre.

In fact, seeing as neither of these inveterate schemers has taken political affiliation seriously when looking at their own mirrors, for "Erik" to question it as pertains to another citizen goes somewhat past ironic.

All the way to pathological.

There'll be reruns the next two days. See you next Tuesday.

Tribune reports: Brenda Scharlow to be Republican nominee in 3rd.

From the Tribune's web site:

(Brenda) Scharlow plans to run against New Albany's Price for (3rd district) Council spot