PAYING ATTENTION!
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Israel Reyes
Breaks His Commitment…Again!
published
in Rumbo 10/01/00
Long Before the
September 19th primary election, Rumbo contacted Israel
Reyes to interview him about his candidacy for State
Representative. But before we could get to the meat of
any issues Reyes began attacking our reporters and
editors saying we were biased against him and that we
were "supporting Jose Santiago." "I’m
not going to be sand bagged by you or your paper by
answering any of your phony questions," he charged.
The horrible question I had asked him was "who is
supporting your campaign?" He never did answer the
question.
Reyes went on a tirade of insults and accusations because
I dared to criticize him in Rumbo for using the
Republican party to run for office wen he has publicly
admitted "I do not believe in anything the
Republican party believes in, I am really a
Democrat." I guess his commitment to the Republican
party means as much to him as his promise to Nick
Kolofoles in 1997, when he swore he would endorse
Kolofoles and then supported LaPlante behind his back.
Reyes was so convinced that Rumbo was out to get him that
he openly insulted our editors, our style of writing, and
wet so far as to ‘predict’ that he would never
see anything positive about his campaign in Rumbo,
"so talking to you is a waste of time," he
said. (Ever hear of a self fulfilling prophecy? You are
about to get a first hand look.)
So The editors and I had a meeting to see if there was
something we could do to show our fairness towards Reyes
as a Candidate. But we had a problem, after all, it is
hardly possible to write positive or even neutral stories
about a candidate who refuses to answer legitimate issue
oriented questions. We concluded that even though Reyes
was engaged in a campaign of personal attacks and mud
slinging, it was our duty to try and report on his
campaign as fairly as possible.
So my editors, Alberto Suris and Dalia Diaz told me to
keep an eye on the daily paper and "whatever Jose
Santiago does in the next two weeks, call Israel Reyes
and ask him for a response. Whatever he tells you write
the story and we will print it, whether it makes him look
good or not," Mr. Suris said. "We have to show
people that we are a fair newspaper." I agree.
OK, fair enough. Within a few days I noticed that Jose
Santiago had voted in favor of prisoners having the right
to vote while they are in jail. ‘Perfect’ I
thought, ‘I’ll call Israel and get his
reaction.’ After all this is a perfect campaign
issue that will draw a line between the candidates and
help people distinguish between them.
But Mr. Reyes went on another tirade when I contacted him
the second time, saying my questions were a set up and
that I was making the issue up, "that’s not a
legitimate issue," he said. (For the record ballot
question number three in November deals with the rights
of felons to vote while in jail.)
Not only did Reyes refuse to respond to the issues, which
I believe would have finally given him some credibility
in the community, but he then attacked Jose Santiago for
refusing to debate him. He whined and complained that
Santiago was afraid to face him and that he would debate
Santiago "Anytime, anyplace, anywhere."
"If I can persuade Jose Santiago to debate you on my
radio program," I asked him, "will you come on
the show and debate him?" His answer? "As long
as the questions are fair, I will debate him anytime,
anywhere, anyplace" he responded again. "But I
am not going to do it in Tommy Duggan’s living room
with a dozen Santiago supporters, I want it to be in a
public place so the public can hear our answers," he
concluded. I’m a little puzzled about his living
room comment but Reyes isn’t really thinking clearly
these days so I let it go.
"So I have a commitment from you, that you will come
on the show if Santiago is willing to debate you?" I
asked him a third time, making sure one of my girlfriends
could hear his answer through the phone. He repeated his
"anytime, anyplace" comment so I took him at
his word. Jose Santiago, coincidentally, agreed to debate
Reyes, not once, but at least four or five times at
different dates and locations if need be, one of them
being on the Paying Attention program on Saturday
afternoons. Santiago even accepted Reyes’ challenge
publicly on the Saturday afternoon program last week
saying "I would be happy to debate Reyes, if he is
man enough to honor his word and his commitment and he
actually shows up."
Apparently Israel Reyes is not.
But he had no problem misleading the public about the
debate issue on Ronnie Ford’s Hot Line program,
Monday September 25th. "Jose Santiago is afraid to
debate me." Reyes mislead the listeners. "I am
a man of integrity and I am a man of my word, Israel
Reyes produces when he says he is going to produce, where
is Mr. Santiago? He refuses to debate me because he is
afraid to talk about the issues."
Oh, Really?
Before I could get home to call in, the public refused to
let him get away with another lie. "MR. Reyes,"
One caller started, "how can you talk about
integrity when you sit there and say Santiago won’t
debate you. He was on Tommy Duggan’s show on
Saturday and said he would debate you any time you want.
You said you would debate him and now it is you who won’t
debate, you have no integrity, your word means nothing.
How can you sit here and pretend it is Santiago who won’t
debate?"
Sometimes the voters are a lot smarter than the media
gives them credit for!
Eventually I called in to respectfully ask Mr. Reyes on
the record, if he planned on honoring his commitment to
debate Santiago on my show. But Reyes immediately began
to change his tune. "I don’t remember saying I
would do that," he said in a desperate attempt to
get out of it. "I said if there was a panel of fair
moderators I would debate him, but you do not qualify as
fair because you are a supporter of Jose Santiago."
Apparently Mr. Reyes doesn’t pay attention to
politics in between election years, or read the news
paper when his name is not in it. He obviously never read
about my personal blow out with Mr. Santiago last year
when Santiago offered me a job working for him at the
state house, and then called me a liar in the Eagle
Tribune when he started to get political heat for his
decision. (Oh Yeah, I’m a real. Jose Santiago fan,
Israel) But you see the difference between myself and Mr.
Reyes, is that I put my personal feelings aside for the
betterment of the community. Santiago was a guest on my
show and e was treated with the same courtesy and respect
as any other guest on my show. It’s called being
fair and objective.
So Israel Reyes, once again, refuses to honor his word
and his commitment. Folks, if a politician can’t
keep his word when they are seeking office, they sure as
hell will not keep their word when hey get elected! And
that is the reason Reyes will not come on the Paying
Attention program. He knows I will ask tough questions
and follow them up to make sure I know if he really knows
what he is talking about. He also knows he pull the wool
over my eyes because I have been in the business long
enough to know when someone is lying to me. And I have no
problem exposing them to the public when they do.
Israel Reyes has a long history of misleading the public.
His list of accomplished lies would make Bill Clinton and
Al Gore gush with envy. He promised Nick Kolofoles he
would support him in 1997, instead he supported LaPlante
behind his back. He promised the voters that he would
stay involved in the neighborhoods when he lost his city
council bid, the only time we see Israel is when he is
looking for a vote. He said he was a Democrat, but he
voted Republican, and then tried to run his campaign as
an Independent, only to find out that he was a man
without a party. So he promised the Republicans he would
run a campaign according to their party platform, yet now
he denounces that platform. He made a commitment to
debate Jose Santiago on WCCM’s Paying Attention
program, and now he has broken his word, again. He claims
in his campaign literature that he is part owner of a
business, but that so-called business is not listed or
registered with the Secretary of State’s office. He
promised the voters he would run a clean campaign,
"free of personal attacks" he said, yet he had
his mother file false police reports against Jose
Santiago just two weeks before the primary election.
Does Mr. Reyes have any concept of the word commitment,
honesty, or integrity? Only you can decide that on
election day. If I had one positive thing I could write
about Israel Reyes, his campaign, or his issues (which no
one knows about because he wont talk about them) believe
me, it is to the advantage of this newspaper to present
as many sides of a candidate as we can. Our advertising
pays for printing costs.
Until he comes clean and wants to talk about issues and
stops his deceit on the public I will leave you all with
this question, when Reyes portrays himself as a
"fresh new face" and a political outsider is he
trying to fool us or himself? Reyes is playing the same
game his political insider friends have taught him along
the way. Oh there’s a good reason why Reyes didn’t
want to answer my question about who was supporting his
campaign. The list of Reyes supporters reads like a
"who’s who" list of political insiders and
promise breakers. Governor Cellucci, Patty Dowling, Kevin
Sullivan, Barry Finegold, and a host of others who are
part of the Dowling-Finegold political machine. They are
all putting their money and clout behind Reyes because
they need one more puppet in our state delegation. They
need one more person to do their bidding. They know that
Santiago won’t play ball so the attack is on and
Santiago is on the big boys’ radar screen. It is
clear that Israel Reyes and his political pals will do
anything to get him elected, which makes it even more
clear that he (and they) will do anything to get him
reelected if he wins.
God Help the City of Lawrence!
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