By EJ Montini (original article can be found here)
Scottsdale City Council member Tom Durham did something Thursday night that anyone who follow politics on any level would find to be shocking, even bizarre. It’s called … the right thing.
I know.
I had a hard time believing it myself when I read the article by The Arizona Republic’s Sam Kmack.
Durham is one of four candidates up for two seats on the council in the upcoming election. He believes that one of those candidates, Adam Kwasman, would not be good for the city.
So, he decided to drop out of the race and offer his support to the two remaining candidates, whom he trusts, Tammy Caputi and Maryann McAllen.
During a candidate forum at City Hall Thursday Durham said in part, “I am very much concerned that the election of Kwasman to the council would throw much of (the city’s) progress into jeopardy and threaten the future of Scottsdale. So, today I’m going to ask you to do something very unusual for a politician — I’m going to ask you to not vote for me in November. I would ask that you vote for (Caputi and McAllen).”
Durham wants to keep the council in the hands of people he believes to be competent, even if it means he is not among them.
He said, “I have no particular ego in holding onto this position. I want to do what’s best for Scottsdale.”
Kwasman pooh-poohed Durham’s decision, calling the him “unserious.”
He is a former member of the Arizona Legislature who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2014 and became most well-known for an embarrassing video of him during his congressional run confusing kids going to a YMCA camp for migrant children being bused to a state shelter.
Kwasman told Phoenix New Times, “I used to be more of a firebrand,” but added, “I am happy to be 10 years out from a mistake that I made and being able to show everybody what I’ve accomplished in the past decade. Raising a family, having children, starting businesses, hiring people and building in my community.”
That being true, I’d guess that while Kwasman might disagree with Durham’s point of view and his reasons for dropping out of the race, he could at least appreciate someone willing to do what he believes to be the right thing.
We’re actually seeing examples these days on a national level of people doing what the late Sen. John McCain often spoke about, something very serious: Putting country over party.
It’s just as good on a smaller scale, however.
Putting state over party. Putting community over party.
Putting the right thing over … yourself.