James Knowles is now running for mayor of Ferguson. We ask anyone who is considering voting for him to look over this material. There should be no place for sleazy, race baiting politics in Ferguson. And our elected officials should run honest campaigns based on the issues. James Knowles for mayor? We hope not.In 2009, Nick Kasoff ran against James Knowles for the Ferguson city council. Kasoff lost, in no little part due to a scurrilous race baiting flyer delivered on the eve of the election. While it may not be proven that the flyer was authored by or coordinated with the incumbent, James Knowles, it was identical in format and printing to his own flyer delivered that same day - even mailed with same post office permit. And while the flyer attacked Kasoff for editing a website which the anonymous author called racist, Mr. Knowles' own flyer was full of photos of him posing with African-Americans. Coincidence? You decide.The racism smear was an absolute lie - in fact, the Facebook fan page for Kasoff's website is filled with African-American readers.It gives us pleasure to let the readers of this site know that "they" did not get away with it. The Missouri Ethics Commission, the body which regulates the conduct of political candidates in our state, has found the organization which mailed this flyer guilty of two violations of state law. Amazingly, this "uncoordinated effort" spent $3,500 on this dirt, more than the entire budget of Kasoff's campaign.Click here to see the flyers Click here to read the Ethics Commission decision |
