To the Editor:

My father told me that he did not favor cross-endorsing political candidates because by doing so one would eliminate the first purpose of an election  — the chance to vote for the candidate of your choice.  He was correct about that.

If we cross-endorsed all of our public officials, starting at the grassroots level, such as here in Knox,  and continued to do so all the way up the political chain to the office of the United States president there would be no need for elections and none of  us would be allowed to participate in selecting our political leaders. Democracy, as we know it, would no longer exist.

Elections of our local officials are important to those of us who reside here regardless of our political leanings. I like to believe that we all look forward to voting for candidates of choice.

On Oct. 2, the Knox Republican Party held its caucus for the purpose of selecting a nominee for the office of town councilman.  Though the Republicans have a party enrollment in excess of 300, they chose a Democrat to be their nominee, who by law could not attend their caucus.

The following evening, the Knox Democratic Party held its caucus. Vasilios  Lefkaditis, who is enrolled as  a Democrat, attended the caucus with his Democratic supporters, and attempted to have the Republican nominee also chosen as the Democratic nominee.

Lefkaditis was attempting to have his choice for town councilman on both party lines — a cross-endorsement, thereby depriving the voters from having a choice. It is puzzling how he could finagle the Knox Republicans to field his choice rather than have them name a fellow Republican to oppose the Democratic nominee in November.

Since Lefkaditis assumed the office of supervisor, it seems that he frequently flies off the handle at town board meetings whenever the town council members do not agree with him. Shouting and cursing in an attempt to belittle them or intimidate them is not an uncommon occurrence….

In a recent letter to this paper, the suggestion was made that all four members of our town council step down because they do not work well with Lefkaditis. However, when someone tries to rig the election process to only further his purposes and continues to act like a tyrant, while the members of the town council set the example of patience and politeness, perhaps the one to consider stepping down is Lefkaditis.

Ed Nicholson

Knox

Editor’s note: Ed Nicholson works for Knox as an assessment data collector.