Commissioner Rodney Graham's ironic campaign ad

One could take it as a compliment when an incumbent politician uses a post of yours in a campaign ad, but when the point of said post is entirely missed by the incumbent politician, the irony gets noticed more than anything.  That's what happened when Davidson Commissioner Rodney Graham used a story from the early days of aShortChronicle in a paid campaign Facebook ad this week - accompanying it with tag line "when Rick Short actually supported me".

The post from aShortChronicle to wss titled "What's next in Davidson, stocks and pillories on the Green?"

To get to the irony, let's take a ride in the ol' time machine.

First stop, May 2012.  aShortChronicle had just started 3 months earlier and Commissioner Graham had just been elected to office 3 months before that.  Graham, a newly minted Commissioner who also happened to be a developer, had been the sole vote against loosening rules on the development process.  That vote and Graham's opposition to it earned him a shot from Mayor Woods during the meeting.  In classic Mayor Woods fashion, the "misinformation" attack was launched Graham's way.

Graham's current ad/Facebook post tries to point out that aShortChronicle "supported" him back then because of agreement with Graham's position on this particular vote.  A close reading of the aShortChronicle blog post however, shows that's not really the case.  While yours truly did agree with Graham's position, the reason for the post had nothing to do with that.  The reason for the post was to call out Mayor John Woods for attacking Graham's dissenting vote.

The irony here is that in the years since 2012, Graham himself has become the Davidson Commissioner most likely to take shots at dissenters.

Fast forward to September 12th of this year.   Most recently Graham's intolerance of dissent was on graphic display during the Griffith Street Hotel public hearing.  From his seat on the dais, Graham had direct conflict with not one, but two, of the speakers who were against the hotel project.  Graham got into a bickering match with one lady and a gentleman called Graham out for rolling his eyes...twice.

The closing line on the post Graham referenced included the following about people involved in local political discussion at Town Hall.  It was about Commissioners, but it should apply to everyone.

"They should be allowed to freely express their opinions to their constituents without accusations of misinformation and threat of public criticism from the dais."

After Commissioner Graham's display at the last Town Hall meeting, those words apply to him more than just about anybody.