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Former mayoral candidate takes issue with Ron Smith

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After publicly distancing himself from this 2008 hit piece, Lancaster councilmember Ron Smith later fessed up to being the “graphic designer” behind the mailer, former mayoral candidate Arnie Rodio claims. The mailer is designed to closely resemble The Godfather movie poster, and its intent was to associate sitting councilmember Ed Sileo with organized crime and to imply that Latanzi, Mann and Rodio were Sileo’s puppets, Rodio claims.
After publicly distancing himself from this 2008 hit piece (left), Lancaster councilmember Ron Smith later fessed up to being the “graphic designer” behind the mailer, former mayoral candidate Arnie Rodio claims. The mailer is designed to closely resemble “The Godfather” movie poster, and its intent was to associate sitting Lancaster councilmember Ed Sileo with organized crime and to imply that Latanzi, Mann and Rodio were Sileo’s puppets, Rodio claims.

By Lancaster resident and former mayoral candidate Arnie Rodio

When I ran for Mayor against [R. Rex] Parris in 2008, a hit mailer was put out against me, Ken Mann and Denise Latanzi, who were running as a slate.

At a City Council meeting, Denise [Latanzi] called out Ron Smith on it.

Smith stated in public that he knew nothing about the hit mailer until he had received it in the mail.  You can go back to the City recordings to confirm.

I, later along with Ken Mann, sued for slander.

In that action, Ron Smith produced a declaration under oath that he had created the mailer – a direct written proof that he had lied to the citizens of Lancaster in his official capacity as a council member.

I have the declaration and have previously supplied copies to the AV Press and others.

To Ron Smith, in politics, anything goes.

A person who feels that lying, cheating, slander, secret hit mailers purposely designed to hide the real senders and voter manipulation is good for our city should never have any place in our city’s government. View a copy of Ron Smith’s declaration/confession here.

Editor’s Note: We found video of the 2008 Lancaster City Council meeting, where the hit mailer was discussed. During a contentious back-and-forth with hit mailer target Denise Latanzi, Smith says “I’ve seen a copy of that mailer,” before denying that his address was on the mailer. While Smith appears to imply that he had nothing to do with the mailer, he never expressly denies it. View the video below:

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The AV Times.

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Filed Under: Opinion, Politics

3 comments for "Former mayoral candidate takes issue with Ron Smith"

  1. This is exactly why we need to take our city this and this district. We need make sure from now on we take this trash out. This is why no one wants to move here, this some real whacko stuff. Join together Jonathan and Oscar we can elect you one by one. We have to take out the city council one at a time. It’s on us to do it. McKeons gone, Strickland is a stepford husband. McCarthy shut down the government and went to the movies, WOW, way to work for us. If you want to make millionaires into billionaires, you can’t work for me.

  2. I’m surprised Rex doesn’t have the local elections on Easter Sunday to coordinate with the LBC.