[Vision2020] Legislative absences

[Donovan Arnold]

“I watched the debate a few days ago on V2020 about Rep. Tom Trail's excused 
absences from the legislature with some interest.  Mr. Arnold seems 
persistent in dwelling on Tom's health issues whether in good taste or 
not.”—Earl H. Bennett

There he goes again, misreading what people say. Just as he did when Rep. 
Trail said, “Vote No”, Mr. Bennett interpreted is as “Vote Yes”.

Mr. Bennett is fully conscious to the fact I never said Mr. Trail’s absences 
were unwarranted, which is what he is trying to portray. That is shallow and 
dishonest and this he knows it.

I find Mr. Bennett’s mischaracterization about a question as to why Mr. 
Trail missed three weeks of session as shallow as how Mr. Bennett has raised 
money for his campaign.

There was no debate about the legitimacy of Mr. Trail’s absences. There was 
a question as to why Mr. Trail missed three weeks in the legislative 
session. Debbie explained why, I agreed, along with everyone else, that her 
explaination were legitimate reasons for missing that much time. I also 
thanked Debbie for her explaining it to me and everyone else.

Mr. Bennett, since when was asking a question about a representative being 
absence a crime? You seem to fear questions. Moreover, since you seem to be 
up in arms about two Democrats being gone for 5 days, I don’t see why asking 
why someone missed 3 weeks would not be a legitimate question. Or, is it 
only when Democrats are gone that people should be angry Mr. Bennett?

My bet is that Mr. Bennett knows full well that I didn’t know why Mr. Trail 
was gone for three weeks, since I don’t live in Boise but Moscow, and is 
simply being intellectually dishonest to try and get some political points 
by misrepresenting what I asked.

If Mr. Bennett is so concerned about taste and character perhaps, he can 
explain why as of October 10, 2004, he is the only Latah Candidate whose 
vast majority of campaign funding has come from outside the County, and in 
many cases outside even the state.

Mr. Bennett’s latest filing is enough to scare any Latah Resident into 
asking who Mr. Bennett would be working for if elected.

Mr. Bennett’s latest filing with the State Department showed that he only 
received a meager $1200 from local residents and companies. Of the $1200, 
$1000 came from (surprise, surprise) the Bennett Lumber Company. The other 
$200 came from three other people that live in Latah.

Compare that to the more than $6500 he receives from people and businesses 
outside the state and county he is representing. The only person that has a 
similar fundraising record to Mr. Bennett was Gregg Vance who ran against 
Gary Schroeder using outside money as well.

In addition, many of the businesses that are supporting Mr. Bennett have 
horrible human rights and environment records.

Many of the companies pouring cash into Mr. Bennett’s campaign also have 
heavily lobbied to keep the corporate and capital gains tax cuts that have 
so badly damaged funding for the University and K-12 education.

To add insult to injury, Mr. Bennett has made an discourteous move against 
local Moscow and Idaho businesses. Rather than getting his campaign 
materials here locally, he has decided that he wants to take his business to 
California. Yes, apparently Moscow isn’t good enough for him. Got Print 
Printography in Burbank, California is where Mr. Bennett has decided to buy 
his door hangers, flyers, business cards, brochures and other campaign 
rhetoric.

Anyone that doubts my words may freely examine the information yourself at 
http://www.idsos.state.id.us/ELECT/Finance/2004/Oct10/06_Bennett.pdf

Perhaps Mr. Bennett should examine his own character before questioning that 
of anyone else. And if Mr. Bennett is so concerned about what Democrats in 
Lewiston are doing, maybe he should run for office down there since he is 
getting more campaign funds from Lewiston than he is from Latah residents 
anyway.

Take Care,

Donovan J Arnold

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