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Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware):
Green Party of Tennessee candidates Howard Switzer
and his wife, Katey Culver, use dirty politics
to get what they want. They both lied about the
nature of our working relationship in order to
keep the Green Party of Tennessee from agreeing
to work with Cedar Grove Design (contact
me if you'd like to hear my theories as to
why they did this) regarding our offer to create
a free website for the party as time permits.
Both Howard and Katey typecasted me [below]
as a volunteer for Howard's campaign but I told
him repeatedly I was not volunteering for his
campaign and reasserted it when submitting my
estimate of in-kind contributions. He purchased
a web site in April for $200 and got exactly what
he purchased. Knowing full well the terms of our
agreement, Howard continually requested changes
to his website that were outside of our agreement.
If the changes were minor such as adding text
or a link, I made them as I had time as part of
the agreement. Major changes to the design I refused.
So he recently sought another designer, the one
they mentioned below wherein they've requested
that I "transfer" their graphics to
accommodate the program of another designer. I
did not realize until I spoke to the programmer
that this would require "tailoring"
the graphics to fit it (free of charge) when I
agreed to "transfer" them. The audacity
of such a request is astounding. And of course,
I don't have time to do that. Now I'm absolutely
not going to do it. He bought the site, let him
find someone to do it for him that's willing to
work for free. Someone very well might be. It
is a political campaign after all. One would assume
one of his supporters may be skilled enough to
do it. But I no longer count myself as one of
Howard's supporters and his website was never
in my portfolio. I agreed with him on some points
of his platform (such as Instant
Runoff Voting as a way to avoid a Nader2000
scenario in the future) and so was willing to
do his website for $200 (as we have been running
a promotion) but based upon my experience of working
with Howard, I will no longer recommend him to
anyone either (not even though he supports IRV),
nor do I trust him to be fair and honest in his
communications (now that I've seen what he's capable
of). I'm certainly not voting for him now that
I've had a first-hand sampling of his ethics in
working with professionals, especially those outside
his party, such as myself (a Democrat).
The Nashville Scene recently featured a small
blurb entitled "Politics
in the Crapper" regarding Howard's Campaign.
Now that I know him all too well, I heartily endorse
that his politics are in the crapper in more ways
than one.
I will happily provide/forward
any and all the emails of exchanged between Howard
and I in order to verify the accuracy of my counter-argument
to his allegations. I posted many of them already
to the
Green Party of Tennessee's listserv. Feel
free to peruse them if interested or contact me
to have them forwarded.
It's telling that although I posted emails that
proved the claims made against my professionalism
were fabricated, the Green Party of Tennessee
let Howard and Katey take the day and declined
my offer. Congratulations to Howard and Katey
for their success at dirty politics. Next time
they sling mud at the other parties, caveat emptor
(buyer beware).
Cynthia Rosenberry
These are the lies they told
that were forwarded to me by a member of the group
considering my offer of a free website design
for the Green Party of Tennessee:
Posted by: "h4howard" h4howard@hughes.net
ecoarchitech
Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:58 pm (PST)
I would say it would not be a good idea
to get involved with Cyn. I don't trust her.
She just got done telling me she didn't have
any time to make changes on my site because
she is busy working on paying jobs. Not only
that she has repeatedly refused to fix certain
things, like putting "healthcare for all"
as my headline instead of that "math equation"
she's so proud of. I am looking for someone
else to help me with my site so I can get it
away from her. I have a site actually that allows
me to do all the content instead of having to
have her do it. Hugh Esco of the GP has got
me set up with it but the art work isn't there
and I have to enter the rest of my content but
it is a cool system designed for Green Party
campaigns. check out http://www.campaignfoundations.com/
It is designed to be used by a campaign
team so I wish I had a treasurer and a press
secretary. I'm thinking of asking Beth M. Bay
as she has written one press release and says
she will do some more. She has the East TN media
list, I need to get one for the rest of the
state. I have some but there are gaping holes
in my list.
Howard Switzer
931-589-6513
Posted by: "Katey Culver" newtribe@hughes.net
newtribe13
Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:47 pm (PST)
An added piece I just learned from Howard
is Cyn told him last week that she will no longer
be working on his site as she is too busy. She
knows Howard
does not have the time or the talent to do that
work. She volunteered her contribution to the
campaign for $200, we thought she would follow
through to the end of the campaign - heck that's
only 11 weeks away.
She takes weeks to get to any request for
updates Howard has asked for. Although the site
is attractive it is not as effective as a campaign
site as it could be, so we are in the process
of moving it to Campaign Foundations,
one of the designers I was referring to before
(affiliated with Cameron).
I'm leaning more and more to a 'no' vote
on this.
Kathleen Culver
Candidate for Congress
TN's 7th District
http://www.Kate4congress.com
Addendum: People don't "volunteer"
for money. That's called "hiring". Howard's
and my collaboration was also not as a result
of me volunteering my services (as in offering
them up to Howard particularly). I told the Green
Party list that I would work with green candidates
who supported my humanist values and were running
to win, not just make a point and spoil an election
for the Democrats. Candidate Chris Lugo emailed
me afterwards and stated flat out that he supported
my humanist values, said he wanted very much to
win, and asked for assistance with his website.
I agreed and I volunteered for his campaign. Howard,
on the other hand, never committed to support
of my humanist values and it's very obvious, he
has not been running to win, he hadn't even started
on a website by April, nor has he gotten any interviews
or airtime, he says the papers no longer publish
his editorials, and I doubt very seriously that
his "campaign" has even broken even
to this date. Howard approached me, praising
Chris' site and asking for a website "like
that" for $200. Which he received. The one
he got had the same tools that Chris' had and
that Chris has used all throughout his campaign
without complaint.
I feel that I should add, while speaking of Chris
Lugo, that it's been a pleasure to work with him.
He's a kind a gracious person and I trust him
to always try to do the right thing. Though winning
is a long shot against the other candidates that
are getting much more money and media attention,
Chris has made good on his vow to run to win.
On a shoestring budget, he's worked hard from
day one to run a clean campaign without mudslinging
at other candidates or parties and has been on
television and on the air several times, he's
written open editorials and is very active in
the peace effort in Tennessee. He's running primarily
to offer Tennesseans against the preemptive military
actions in the Middle East an alternative to endorsing
such actions at the ballot box. Every vote Chris
gets was a vote earned and a vote for Chris
Lugo is a vote for peace. Although I'm a Democrat,
I'm voting for peace in November. |
