I had heard that someone from Cary had written a letter to the Northwest Herald encouraging me to switch from blogging to running for office again, but I didn’t see it.

Yesterday, I received a missive from the letter writer Cary’s Herb Ives:

Dear Cal,

Enclosed you will find a copy of an article I wrote for the opinion page on the Northwest Herald. If you still read the paper, you may have seen the abbreviated version they printed on 5/26/07. I’m also including an email I sent to the opinion page editor expressing my distain for the manner in which they truncated by letter.

My motivation was not to push you back into politics, but to comment on one of the reasons you left. Maybe you can utilize your blog to get my message to the people.

I have no computer or access to the internet, having only an email station, so I can’t help there. We’ve never me, but my youngest sister was a classmate of yours at C.L.C.H.S. I hope you get some satisfaction out of what I tried to do.

Sincerely,

Herb Ives

Here’s what Ives mailed in:

Just a little thought from a long-time reader from Cary. Now that he doesn’t have Mack-the-knife and Mark-the-shark around to castigate him, why doesn’t he run for the legislature again? It would be more interesting than blogging, I would guess.

Here’s what the NW Herald published:

Just a little thought from a longtime reader from Cary.

Why doesn’t Cal Skinner run for the legislature again?

It would be more interesting than blogging, I would guess.

Herb Ives

Not particularly happy with the sanitizing of his letter by the removal of the references to Amy Mack and Mark Sweetwood, Ives sent this email to the opinion page editor:

This was the letter as I originally wrote it. Other than space constraints, or “politically incorrect” language, please do NOT publish it at all!! I am VERY disappointed and chagrined at the way my letter was truncated. Should it happen again I will seriously consider dropping my subscription.

I can tell you that the NW Herald is a bit more cautious these days than it was when Mark Sweetwood was managing editor.

When Sweetwood left to run the Kane County Chronicle, I called his replacement and asked him if he knew why the paper had taken a couple of hundred subscription drop after the November, 1998, election. He seemed interested, so I told him the paper had called me after I won the election and asked me if I had any comment.

Pulling myself away from watching Veggie Tales with the kids who had gathered at our home, I said, “Jeremy, cancel my subscription.”

That’s all he got and that’s what ended up on the front page.

And others followed my example.

In this rapidly growing county, of course, the NW Herald’s circulation has recouped that loss and continues to climb.

Mack now writes a column for the Daily Herald. I was told that Sweetwood is somewhere in Florida.