Dwight Eisenhower

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday, October 2, 2006

Eisenberger accused of poaching Di Ianni’s ideas

We all know that election campaigns can bring out an unsavoury opportunism even in the most principled of politicians.

But you can say this about the self-serving low that mayoral candidate Fred Eisenberger seemed to hit the other day: He now has nowhere to go but up for the balance of his campaign.

A week ago, after Mayor Larry Di Ianni identified public safety as the No. 1 issue in his re-election bid, Eisenberger dismissed it as a George Bush-style scare tactic.

“It’s a Bush-like attempt to strike some fear mongering into residents,” Eisenberger was quoted as saying in the Stoney Creek News.

But then this Wednesday, Eisenberger called, on short notice, a media conference in the forecourt of City Hall to announce his own scheme to “improve public safety,” one that was startlingly similar to Di Ianni’s draft plan for hiring more police and installing more surveillance cameras downtown.

Mario Joannette, Di Ianni’s chief of staff who is managing the mayor’s campaign while on unpaid leave, makes no bones about what he believes happened.

He maintains Di Ianni’s draft was leaked to Eisenberger, who blatantly lifted the idea and rushed to get his announcement out to the media ahead of his rival. (Hamilton Spectator)