An Email from Anthony Williams

Family matters took up most of the past several days so I've been catching up with email this evening. Last week the Anthony Williams for Governor campaign sent me an email. In part it said:

I’m running for governor because I believe we need a Democratic candidate who understands that Democrats, like everyone else, want to cut taxes, want to balance the budget, want to make our schools better, want to get tough on illegal guns, and want to put our state back to work.

If you share these views, click here to forward this e-mail to five of your friends right now, today, and invite them to join us:
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The fact is, none of the other candidates in the race share those views. They like raising taxes, they like spending too much money, they support keeping kids in failing schools, or they oppose a woman’s right to choose.

The list of policies / issues in the first paragraph mirrors the last paragraph with a few exceptions. Cutting taxes, balancing the budget, and improving schools are mentioned in both. Though in the top paragraph he says "make our schools better" and in the last he says "support keeping kids in failing schools." Those are not equivalent statements. None of the education statements I read said anything about keeping kids in failing schools. He's just floundering there. But what really jumped out at me was the mention of gun violence in the top paragraph and the note that other candidates "oppose a woman's right to choose" in the lower paragraph. Those are completely unrelated.

What is even more perplexing is that the "vision" statement on the Williams campaign website mentions neither. There are links to articles on his work on the Gun Violence Task Force but it isn't mentioned in his biography, on the vision page, or on the issues page. Nothing. Nor is he defining gun violence. Both Dan Onorato and Joe Hoeffel have said they support mandatory reporting of lost or stolen guns. Even more perplexing is that nowhere on his site is reproductive freedom mentioned. Nowhere. Not a word.

So he is claiming he wants to get tough on illegal guns but crime isn't mentioned in his vision statement. And he implies, but does not outright say, that he favors a woman's right to choose, but that also is not mentioned on his site anywhere. Plus, one of the other Democrats running for governor, Joe Hoeffel, has been an advocate of women's reproductive rights for decades. That is skimmed over completely.

It always bothers me when candidates send out campaign emails that don't reflect what is on their campaign site.