Letters: Andrew Ginther playing part of Darth Vadar in attack on 'death star' Joe Motil

Is Joe Motil really a death star?

Surely Mayor Andrew Ginther is not Darth Vadar, and his Democratic Machine is not the Empire, but I couldn't help but make that connection when I saw the TV ads attacking mayoral challenger Joe Motil.

The Motil campaign has barely two nickels to rub together and cannot come close to matching Ginther's spending power.

But the Democratic Machine is loaded with enough money that it can toss it around to trash any opposing candidate who dares to challenge it.

The attack ads on Motil would be akin to a death star attacking a rebel planet except for one thing: the attack is a pop gun, not a space laser.

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More: Motil questions Ginther's support for neighborhoods; Ginther cites millions invested

The attack ads say that Motil cannot be a good leader if he calls the mayor's gun buyback scheme ineffective in stopping the rampant gun violence in Columbus.

The problem with this line of attack is that gun buybacks truly are ineffective in stopping rampant gun violence in Columbus. I am voting for the rebel Joe Motil because he speaks truth to power.

Lou Jannazo, Columbus

Ginther is the right leader for Columbus

I just had to write in response to a recent letter to the editor questioning Mayor Andrew Ginther’s leadership and to reenforce my personal support for our great city’s mayor.

This Mayor has been the right mayor at the right time for our city.

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I have had the opportunity to witness firsthand as he led us through a global pandemic and a reckoning with race, all while reducing crime across our city through numerous initiatives involving neighbors in the process.

Ginther has fought for investments in all our neighborhoods, stating time and again that everyone living here should have every opportunity available to succeed.

Ginther truly cares about our community and the people of Columbus. That’s why I am urging my friends, neighbors, and family members to re-elect Mayor Andrew Ginther on November 7.

Kimber Perfect, Columbus

More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch

Ginther using Trumpian tactics

My recent mail contained yet another attack ad from "Friends of Ginther."

If its intent is to inspire confidence, voters should seriously consider the lack of ethics of city hall's current leader.

The ads attempt to frame our mayor's opponent, Joe Motil, as anti-police by cherry-picking individual words from Motil's public statements.

When the mayor poured police into the upscale Short North last spring after two shootings, Motil said that the action, which included a police helicopter, was "excessive" given the fact that the city had not responded similarly to address multiple shootings in lower-income neighborhoods.

He further pointed out that the mayor directed this massive police presence—only coincidentally, I'm sure—on the same weekend that the National Council of Mayors was gathering at the convention center, a few steps from the Short North.

The blatant misrepresentation of the public record and the casual dishonesty of these and similar TV ads is both unethical and contemptible.

Our Democratic mayor and Democratic city council deftly hijacked the ward representation system that voters approved in 2018 by fashioning a process that dilutes individual district power by allowing voters citywide to elect each district's council representative.

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If these Trumpian tactics are how the Democratic Party and its mayor respond to valid questions about his policies and practices, what shredded version of democracy are they actually offering to voters next Tuesday?

Steve Abbott, Columbus

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Democratic Machine uses Trumpian tactics on Columbus mayor's opponent