I recently asked every Fountain Hills council and mayoral candidate a simple question: Did they agree with Jeff Tate's statement I believe was about my Easter letter. It appeared Mr. Tate called it a "Jesus conspiracy theory" on social media and added, "you can't fix stupid."
The question wasn’t about free speech. Of course, Mr. Tate has a constitutional right to express his views. The question was whether the statement reflected the civility he and his allies have promised to pursue.
The conservative candidates answered directly. They strongly disagreed with the statement. The candidates aligned with Tate — Kalivianakis, DeGennaro and Mirick — avoided the actual question. Instead, they discussed freedom of religion, freedom of speech, positive campaigning, collaboration, or the need for verification. In my view, those responses answered a different question than the one that was asked. Tate himself simply chose not to answer.
