BY NORAH SHEPPARD-HUTCHINS
Daily Post Staff Writer
A Menlo Park City Council candidate’s ad is being criticized by a San Mateo County Democratic Party leader as “sleazy” and “misleading.”
The ad that is coming under fire was posted on candidate Laura Melahn’s social media pages that said she is endorsed by “Six former mayors. The Fire Board. The Democrats.” Melahn saying she is endorsed by “The Democrats” makes it seem like she got the San Mateo County Democratic Party’s endorsement, which is untrue, according to Maryann Moise, a vice chair of the county Democratic Party.
Melahn is running against Charlotte Reed to replace Betsy Nash to represent District 4, the Allied Arts and parts of central Menlo Park. The San Mateo County Democratic Party released a statement on Tuesday clarifying it has endorsed Reed.
“This is baseless and a distraction from important issues. I’ve always been clear about who my endorsements are from,” Melahn said Thursday (Oct. 22).
Melahn said she has never claimed to be endorsed by the San Mateo County Democratic Party, but does list an endorsement from the Democratic Municipal Officials, which is a national association of elected mayors, city council members and school board members.
‘Sleazy tactics’
Moise said she had never heard of the association before and believes the ad was intentionally misleading.
“Laura Melahn’s sleazy tacties to mislead voters that she got the endorsement both cheapens the SMC Dems endorsement and makes a mockery of our long and laborious process to recruit, invite, schedule, interview and choose the best candidates,” Moise said in an email to the Post.
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We pray that Maryann Moise can learn to use polite language when giving her statements credabilty by associating them with an elected body she was not elected to.
Moise’s quote that this “makes a mockery of our long and laborious process to recruit, invite, schedule, interview and choose the best candidates” made me laugh out loud. That’s about the farthest thing from the truth I could imagine.
Laura’s proposal for housing alternatives for downtown is also based on similar false premises and fake costs
Half of the city council candidates have endorsements from DMO and it’s simply not credible that Moise has never heard of it. Acting as though her organization owns the word “Democrat” or has exclusive rights to endorse candidates is peak entitlement. How wild that the Daily Post would give a platform for her outrage.
I went to the DMO website and only saw two candidates from San Mateo County on their list of endorsed candidates. What are you talking about?
The DMO social media lists candidates that have applied for and received its endorsement, including Laura Melahn, Wonman Lee and Charlotte Reed. News flash, all the council candidates are Democrats and have been endorsed by Democrats. Although it is a nonpartisan race.
Incorrect. Go to smc dems. org and on the very first page it lists the Democratic Party’s endorsements. It says that in Menlo Park, the party has endorsed Vamsi Velagapudi, Charlotte Reed and Wonman Lee. It doesn’t mention Laura Melahn. District 4 Voter, why would you lie and say Melahn had been endorsed by the county party? It just ain’t so.
The other lie is that the Party has endorsed all the Menlo Park candidates because they’re all Democrats. Again, not so. Drew Combs, a Democrat, didn’t get the party’s endorsement.
Did Melahn even apply for the endorsement from the County Democratic Party. If she did but didn’t get the recommendation from the interview committee, she could have asked one of her supporters (Ray Mueller) to rally support for her and ask just one member to pull that race and explain why she deserves the endorsement. None of that happened. Apparently, it’s much easier to ask your AI social media agent to generate some nonsense images to misleads the voters.
You are speaking of the SMC Dems endorsements. I was referencing the DMO endorsements, which is a different Democratic group that has endorsed Laura Melahn, Wonman Lee and Charlotte Reed. Laura Melahn never claimed to be endorsed by the SMC Dems. There are many Democratic affiliated groups out there and no one is lying about their endorsements. Nothing to see here, except that Maryann Moise is bullying candidates.
District 4 Voter, you got caught in a lie.
DMO hasn’t endorsed both candidates in District 4. Again, go to their website.
You’re throwing mud in an attempt to confuse people.
Your lies reflect badly on your candidate, Laura Melahn.
Terry, again, the DMO is a different organization than the SMC Dems. No one is lying about their endorsements. Many political groups endorse candidates. The DMO social media is @nationaldmo if you want to see their endorsements, which include Laura Melahn, Wonman Lee and Charlotte Reed in Menlo Park.
Just to add one more dimension, though perhaps appropriate for nonpartisan elections: the reality is the views and priorities of navel-gazing local Democratic Party organizations are in a different universe from those of most actual Democratic voters, who roll their eyes at these shenanigans. The Democratic Party clubs are blissfully oblivious that they survive on the colossal ineptitude of the Republicans, and not much more.
The County Democratic Party is not allowed to endorse more candidates than the number of seats up for election. After reviewing their list, the only DMO endorsed city council candidates running for the same district seats in California are in Menlo Park and Irvine. It’s possible that DMO will endorse anyone that applies or maybe they are simply not aware these cities have district elections.
Who, in their right mind, would want an endorsement from a Democrat?