Into my inbox popped the following email undated message originating with Mayor Sue Low:
“Dear friends and family,
Sue Low
“Yesterday it was brought to our attention by several people that Alderman Andy Glab, out campaigning for my opponent, has been attempting to discredit me in several ways, both with incorrect information, but more important, by attempting to hurt my family and discredit me. So after a very stressful and sleepless night, we decided to address these issues with you so that you hear the correct information from us.
“The first issue we would like to address is in regard to the fact that we had to file personal bankruptcy last year. This is true. As you know, Tom is an Insurance Agent who insures primarily commercial contractors. Due to the poor economy, many of his customers have seen a drastic decrease in their businesses, consequently a drastic decrease in insurance premiums. We tried to save Tom’s business by using our personal credit, we probably tried too long, and eventually it became apparent that we would not be able to do so. We had over-extended our credit trying to make payroll, and pay the overhead of running a business. After consulting with our attorney and our accountant we were advised that the correct avenue for us to pursue was to file personal bankruptcy and sell the business. Tom’s business partner bought him out, and retained him as a commercial account executive, and for the past year we have worked very hard to re-establish our credit and our good name. This was an extremely painful time for us as it wasn’t something we ever thought we would have to do in our lifetime. I hope that many of you can understand the dilemma we faced during this difficult economic time. We are honest, hard-working people. Under my leadership the city has always maintained a balanced budget and is financially sound, so I don’t understand what one thing has to do with the other, but according to Alderman Glab ‘they are going to come out with something near the election that will get rid of me.’ This has been a very difficult year for us, and I would welcome the opportunity to answer any of your questions about this issue. If you can no longer support me because of this I will understand.
“The second issue has to do with the Riverwalk. Alderman Glab has stated that the day after I get elected I ‘intend to turn River Place into section 8 housing and there will be black people fishing from the pier’. His disgusting words, not mine. He also said that I have wasted 9 million dollars on downtown redevelopment. Whether you’re a fan of the Riverwalk or not, the fact is that the Fox River is one of the busiest waterways in the state of Illinois, and making our downtown accessible by water is one of our greatest opportunities for economic development. Our goal is to bring more residential opportunities close to town, not to turn it into section 8 housing. Again, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you.
“This kind of hurtful, slanderous, negative campaigning doesn’t belong in McHenry. If Alderman Glab and the candidate he represents think that this is how to win an election, I think they’re wrong. I will run on my own 10 year record of serving as your Mayor. I will not stoop to these tactics, but I felt the need to explain our situation to you personally because I feel that Alderman Glab has questioned our integrity. Tom and I have spent our entire adult lives volunteering in our community and we intend to continue doing so.
“I love the City of McHenry. I seek to continue holding this office because I care about the future of our community. I work hard everyday and I will continue to do that.
“We hope that you know us well enough to know that we would never deliberately attempt to cheat anyone. We are victims of a tough economy and we hope you understand. Please don’t hesistate to contact us if you have any questions. If you would like your name removed from the ad of support that I am going to be placing in the Herald please let me know and I will remove it. We will completely understand.”
Sue and Tom
I contacted Alderman Andy Glab for his take and here’s what he told me:
Andy Glab
“There’s nobody other than the candidates for Mayor out there working harder than I am.
“Needless to say, I’m hurting her campaign, so the only thing she can do is try to discredit me.
“With sixteen years as an Alderman, I’ll put my record up against hers any day.”
He said he had worked several subdivisions and continued, saying,
“It’s amazing how many people say, ‘It’s time for a change.’
“After Thursday’s debate, lots of the Mayor’s signs started popping up in the right-of-ways.
Steve Cuda
“It looks like kind of desperation tactics to me.”She has also started to put ‘current’ stickers on her her signs. I guess people in McHenry don’t know who the Mayor is.
“Two weekends ago, I had stopped in a cul-de-sac just to flip through my papers and two hours later I had two squads show up at my house questioning what I was doing there.
“Today, Steve Cuda [Sue Low’s challenger] was stopped by an officer while going door-to-door questioning what he was doing stopping at houses that had no solicitation [signs].”
Thanks for providing this information.
I am undecided on who to vote for in the McHenry Mayoral election.
Alderman Glab is just absolutely inappropriate all of the time.
With his dirty techniques and difficult personality, it amazing me how he still holds a position.
If these are the same tactics that Mr. Cuda uses, I think I’ve made up my mind..
Scary article in so many ways!
He said/she said, police and squad cars?
Let the voters elect you based on past accomplishments and future potential?
At the candidate’s forum Sue Low admitted that I had nothing to do with commenting about her financial difficulties.
But read her email closely.
Nothing is directly attributed to Mr. Glab.
It is all based on unnamed hearsay which is very difficult to defend.
My supporters are asked to discuss the issues I have raised in my campaign literature and as far as I know that has been done.
No one has contacted me and complained about anything my supporters have mentioned while on the campaign trail or otherwise.
Take a look at “Citizens for Steve Cuda” on facebook for more information about my candidacy.
Maybe someone with a no solicitation sign called the police, not knowing who was knocking on their door.
Maybe the police responded to the citizen’s call and spoke with Steve Cuda.
Maybe the conversation with Steve Cuda was pleasant, lasted 30 seconds, and had nothing to do with either candidates campaign “tactics”.
Maybe Steve Cuda continued passing out information.
Maybe this shouldn’t be twisted into something it’s not.
Maybe all these maybes aren’t maybes……ask me how I know.
In the article, Andy Glab states “Today, Steve Cuda [Sue Low’s challenger] was stopped by an officer while going door-to-door questioning what he was doing stopping at houses that had no solicitation [signs].”
It seems to me to be appropriate if there were no solicitation signs on any of the houses he went to.
If there were no signs, he is a lawyer and should be able to handle this on his own without any assistance from Mr. Glab.
Also, Steve Cuda responded to this article and stated “Take a look at “Citizens for Steve Cuda” on facebook for more information about my candidacy.”.
There is no facebook page entitled “Citizens for Steve Cuda”.
If Steve Cuda is this inattentive to his own campaign, I don’t see how he will be good for our city and I will not be voting for him.
I googled it, just type: “Citizens for Steve Cuda” on your web search.
It came up right away for me.
bau
The reason I said Steve Cuda was very inattentive about his campaign was that his response states “Take a look at “Citizens for Steve Cuda” on facebook for more information about my candidacy.” and if I go to facebook and search for “Citizens for Steve Cuda” I get “no results found for your query”.
If I put in “Citizens to re-elect Steve Cuda” I do get the facebook page.
For me, that is being very inattentive and not very vote worthy.