South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Anthony’s column a ‘personal attack’ on Leicht

To the editor:

Your Oct. 14 editorial accused Julie Leicht of “waging a vicious, personal-attack campaign” against her opponent, John Campisi.

I would like to respond to your personal attack on her. In remarks at the South Countyichamberiforum, Julie made allegations about Mr. Campisi’s public record as councilman on several issues: Stealing water from a fire hydrant; non-payment of taxes; repeatedlyibreaking his campaign promise not to take contributions from de-velopers; and using his office for personal gain by encouraging local business people to frequent his restaurant.

Like it or not, this is Mr. Campisi’s public record and I think it speaks directly to his integrity as an elected official.

In a Call editorial dated April 22, Mike Anthony stated, “Perhaps, though, we haven’t done as good a job as we would have liked in holding candidates to their word, making sure that they actually deliver on the promises that they have made.

“Given that,iit’s our intent to report to our readers on the progress elected officials are making on the pledges they made toivoters, particularly those who attained public office through questionable claims and du-bious promises,” stated Mr. Anthony.

Based on the Call’s pledge to hold elected officials accountable, it’s ironic that your newspaper has looked the other way when Mr. Campisi repeatedlyibroke his campaign promise not to accept contributions from developers. The Post-Dispatch reported that Mr. Campisi took more than $20,000 over the last four years.

The Call finally wrote a small story onithe broken campaign promise after Julie issued a press release calling Mr. Campisi oniit. In the spirit of your editorial, why hasn’t the Call demanded that Mr. Campisi return the campaign contributions? His ex-planation that he didn’t take money from the developers but only from their employees is ridiculous.

I’m sorry, but if the developer benefits from Mr. Campisi’s decisions, then their em-ployees also benefit. Of course, they want to donate to his campaign.

Your characterization of Julie’s comments as a “vicious, personal-attack” is in-appropriate and unwarranted. Julie Leicht is an honest person whose integrity, leadership and professionalism will go a long way in restoring confidence in our 6th Dis-trict CountyiCouncil person.

Bruce Blunt

Oakville

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