Dr. Rutkowski, Fountain Hills AZ Tea Party past president, in his letter last week accused me of “misrepresenting information.” In my letters July 5 and 24, I said local Tea Party folks had solicited help from the Koch brothers in the property tax vote last year.
Proof: It’s on record. Times article of April 25, 2018. “Tom Jenny, Arizona director for Americans For Prosperity, said the organization decided to become involved at the request of Rutkowski…Americans For Prosperity has lined up volunteers and will be making phone calls to Fountain Hills residents.” “We have a standing offer to our friends and operatives to join spending fights where they come up,” Jenny is quoted.
Rutkowski states he paid for “Vote no new property tax” sings and claims his “constituted most of the anti-property tax signs.” However, Cindy Perrins’s Apr. 19 Facebook post discusses a coordinated effort and meetings involving the FH Tea Party, Americans For Prosperity (Koch Bros) and her group, “Fountain Hills Friends Against the Permanent Property Tax.” She also states the AFP is “hosting a phone bank and supplying 250 signs! Rutkowski is providing 150 signs. Imagine Fountain Hills covered with 400 signs!” So who is “misrepresenting?”
In elections, people are often swayed by who gets their message out loudest. Unfairly seeking outside help to accomplish that in important, small town elections proved harmful in a community I have lived in for 35 years and love.
Lack of trust in government is understandable. So show up at town council meetings and use your voice. Vote intelligently. The Boston Tea Party was spontaneously demonstrating frustration from “taxation without representation,” throwing English tea shipments into the harbor. The FH Tea Party risks being remembered as “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”
