Thinks ‘coffees’ are really campaign stops

So Schaumburg Township Assessor Lawson announces that he is going to start a new program whereby people can host a “Coffee with the Assessor” under the guise of “educating” homeowners on how to reduce their tax burden.

And a week later he then announces that he is going to run for state representative. This is very interesting, what a remarkable coincidence.

“Coffees” have long since been a common tactic used by candidates running for public office to get people together so the candidate can express their views, seek votes and contributions for their campaigns. Now it seems that Lawson feels he can use public funds and public programs to run his campaign by utilizing these “coffees.” This is a clear and blatant violation of campaign rules and clearly a misuse of public funds.

He says, “My goal is to better educate the homeowner and to have more of a one-on-one contact with my constituents.” He just forgot to add — and to use public funds for his candidacy to get contributions and votes.

He also said this has never been done before. That’s because it is against the law to use public funds to run a campaign and a good candidate wouldn’t do this. A rose by any other name is still a rose.

I suspect one of his campaign messages will be he wants to change the way things are done in Illinois. Can we trust this man?

It is so ironic that the teabagger/Republican party is in a tizzy that Obama’s Midwest tour is a campaign tour but they are silent when one of their own blatantly uses campaign tactics disguised as helping the people. Hypocrisy in action!

Roger J. Bianco

Elk Grove Village