Pledge unnecessary in Mullins’ campaign
Last month, Republican candidate for Mayor, Barry Cohen invited me and candidate Paige Weinstein to what he refereed to as a “Unity Meeting.” This convocation took place at the West Haven Republican Headquarters on Morgan Lane.
In that parley, in which our mobile telephones were confiscated to prevent any secret recordings of the proceedings, Mr. Cohen and his then-campaign employee requested that we both Mrs. Weinstein and I sign a pledge stating that our respective campaigns would be conducted in an issues-only manner, eschewing any questionable tactics. In a nutshell, no personal attacks on Cohen, nor each other. Neither Mrs. Weinstein, nor I signed such pledge.
Speaking only for myself, I have and will continue to run my campaigns in the utmost noble and respectful manner. Any attack that I make on an opponent will be based on truth and not hearsay and rumors. That is my pledge not only to my Republican and potential Democrat opponents, but more importantly, the voters and the people of the City of West Haven.
However, instead of petty attacks, I will spend these next weeks and months informing the people of West Haven about what I will do to make lives better for them and how I will be an effective manager to insure that fiscal mismanagement and corruption are a thing of the past.
Going door to door, meeting with downtown business leaders and having community forums for the past couple of months, I will continue speaking about issues that the people of West Haven want to talk about. These issues are and are not limited to; public safety (particularly school safety), economic development, public works, blight, homelessness, quality of life and restoring faith, accountability and trust to West Haven City Hall. That is what the people of West Haven want to hear about.
The voters and taxpayers of West Haven do not have the time, nor the patience to read about little squabbles and personality conflicts between one candidate or the other. For years, I complained about that with the Democrats in town and I refuse to participate in such shenanigans within my own party.
Furthermore, I am rather disturbed that the details of our so called “private” “Unity Meeting” were leaked out to the West Haven Voice. In the last edition, the aforementioned contract pledge’s litany of demands were published in the editorial almost verbatim. That is a major breach of trust.
Steven R. Mullins
GOP Candidate