I doubt that it is slander (spoken) or libel (written) because it doesn't harm Bose's standing in the community and it is also an opinion, so true or not it doesn't fall under any sort of defamation rules. Unless there is proof, saying that politician X rapes dead babies would be a defamatory statement because it is a) untrue, and b) could actually cause harm to them financially, socially, etc. Just saying you don't think politician X cares about something doesn't meet the standard.
Not an attorney, but that is my understanding of the law.
I agree with eljefe. It seems like negative and deceitful campaigning from Jude Prather, rather than something illegal. The real crime would be if San Marcos rewarded this nastiness and voted him into office. That almost happened and scares me. This was by far the dirtiest campaign I have watched in this town. It's no wonder candidates with honor and integrity are reluctant to run against these sleazy tactics. They seem unwilling to get down in the mud and I don't blame them.
I agree with eljefe. It seems like negative and deceitful campaigning from Jude Prather, rather than something illegal. The real crime would be if San Marcos rewarded this nastiness and voted him into office. That almost happened and scares me. This was by far the dirtiest campaign I have watched in this town. It's no wonder candidates with honor and integrity are reluctant to run against these sleazy tactics. They seem unwilling to get down in the mud and I don't blame them.
I certainly hope you're not just referring to the Jude Prather campaign when speaking of being "dirty" and "nasty." It came from both sides (signs stealing, SPYING), but once again people tend to only focus on Jude's campaign. So many hypocritical statements made on this board....
Let me get this straight, Equal Voice. You are accusing Mr. Bose, who is 65, of stealing Prather campaign signs, or directing his volunteers, who are permanent residents with jobs and families in San Marcos, and who would be publicly humiliated if caught of doing it? A fact of campaigning; signs get stolen, removed, thrown in the trash, etc. It happens to every candidate unfortunately including Bose. He just didn't whine about it. About the SPYING accusation, please elaborate. I didn't pin Bose as 007 type. Maybe the folksy, honest, plain spoken gentleman appearance is all an act! Also, please tell us what negative last minute direct mail piece did Bose mail out as Prather did?
I'm not going to go into details because, frankly, I don't want to elaborate anymore than what's already been said about it. I don't think Mr. Bose had anything to do with his entire campaign in my opinion, but I do believe there were some people working on it that did immoral things. Calling out Jude's military history is uncalled for and irrelevant. Stealing signs, however often it happens in campaigns, is still a crime. As far as I know, Mr. Bose did not have any signs go missing in this campaign so the sign thing appears to be one sided. I just don't appreciate the assumption that Jude's campaign was nothing but negativity, sleaziness, and immoral and Mr. Bose's was squeaky clean and "fought the good fight." It's come up lately about why students feel as if they're treated like "second class citizens." Well this is proof of it. It's the double standard being put forth in this town. WE DID NOTHING ILLEGAL IN THIS CAMPAIGN. We had a negative ad because our voting base needed more motivation to show up and vote (proven true by the lack of voter turnout). If you don't like negtavity in a campaign then close your eyes and ears to BOTH sides. It happened on both sides and will continue to be that way forever. Please tell me how this is all our (students, young people, eager statesmen, etc.) faults one more time.
As someone who has worked in politics/government for over twenty years, I felt the Prather campaign rivals the 1994 Richards campaign as the worst one I have seen run.
You had a veteran, student, land owner. small business guy, with the backing of the big money folks and the mayor. How is that race close? Sheer incompetence. Why go negative with that resume?
The opposition research was either incomplete or know to be false, which raised more questions about Prather than your opponet.
Second the campaign way underestimated the students' intelligence and temperment. Tx St students are no more a monlithic vote than say rural voters. And they are educated and itelligent and can see through a ruse like the edited Bose council video.
Third you can't run as the candidate of change and have the mayor try and save your ass after a bad debate.
Do you guys even understand the mechanics of negative campaigning. You try targeting the East side and students and go negative? Students are generally overall an optimistic bunch, otherwise they wouldn't be here working for a better future. Negative campaigning generally drives down voter turn out except for pissed off middle age or old white guys, not your demographic.
Give me some time to go over the University Star and Daily Record Archives and I am sure that I'll find some more things ya'll did wrong, if you need me too.