Good afternoon, Netizens...

If you look here http://www.inlander.com/spokane/switch.php?str=Elton&x=29&y=6&control=gsearch.c&c=all you will see where candidate David Elton has withdrawn from the political race for County Commissioner according to The Inlander. That would be newsworthy were that truly the case, but contrary to Inlander reporter Kevin Taylor, the press release is inaccurate.

I spoke with Mr. Elton this afternoon by phone and he has not withdrawn from the political race for the Spokane County Commissioner, District 3 at all, and moreover, Elton made the assertion to me that he is supporting Bonnie Mager, one of the candidates whom he purportedly is challenging for the Third District Commissioner's seat. I quote Mr. Elton: "Along with Don Barbieri and Steve Corker......Bonnie is a democrat I admire. She does a great job.....and she is my opponent. I am a lifelong Republican...but I never deny the truth.....That truth is that Bonnie Mager does a helluva good job. I admire Bonnie Mager!"

This comes hard on the heels of the Elton being termed “a civic gadfly” by Thomas Clouse writing for the Spokesman-Review ten days ago. To this I rebut, "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because my role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." (paraphrased from Socrates)

I will leave the judgment to others of whether Elton is a gadfly or whether the irritation he sometimes causes in certain social and political systems in Spokane actually serves as a civic function far beyond being an irritant; that instead of simply serving as a gadfly, Elton is actually in search of the truth in his own obscure and sometimes unintelligible way and thus serves a higher and more noble cause.

Of course, your thoughts may differ.

Dave

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