UPDATE 5/1/2018: Nate Fontaine won the election for Mayor with a margin of 77%-23%.
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There is a township election next week in Lovettsville that deserves some attention. One of the candidates for Mayor is refreshingly different. Nate Fontaine, a member of the Town Council, is on the ballot.
Nate is an unusual politician. Eschewing the normal promises of lower taxes, reducing crime (there isn’t any in Lovettsville), and eliminating illegal immigration, he is focused on the issues that a small-town mayor can actually affect. He promises to increase the economic growth of Lovettsville without annexing new residential developments into the township just to increase property tax revenue. He promises to increase direct citizen involvement in the governance of Lovettsville with the creation of two new advisory committees. And he ignores the hot-button talking points that so many candidates use to excite the voters.
But most interesting is the fact that Nate’s campaign materials do not attack, much less even mention his opponent. When is the last time that you saw a political campaign that was run solely on the issues and did not demonize the opposition?
In this era of political polarization and divisiveness, Nate Fontaine is a breath of fresh air. Conservatives and Republicans should take note: this is the kind of candidates we need to recover from what is going to be an arguably Democratic landslide in November as part of the anti-Trump backlash.
Make no mistake about it. The days of the Tea Party and their Freedom Caucus successors, the sword-rattling anti-abortionists, and the alt-right white supremacy bigots are as numbered in the GOP as the long-forgotten John Birch Society.
If we conservatives wish to survive, much less advance our agenda, we need more moderate voices like Nate Fontaine.
Disclaimer: I am not a campaign volunteer or a consultant to Nate Fontaine. Unlike some other political commentators (I’m talking about you, Ben Tribbett and Lowell Feld), I do not participate in campaigns and then write complimentary articles about the candidate.