In case you missed this: Referendum coming up and dirty tricks. . . a look back. Remember those deceitful "Dear Friend" letters?

The closer we get to the November 8th referendum to fix our roads in Lake Worth is one day closer to the start of dirty political tricks in this little City. Let's take a look back to what happened leading up to the elections last March:

Prior to election day last March a flurry of first-class letters were dropped in Lake Worth mailboxes like this one from District 2 Commissioner Chris McVoy (more on this below).

The false claims about the Lake Worth beach (remember the red and white signs?), untrue allegations of Sunshine Law violations (by McVoy), and other political nonsense was delivered to Lake Worth residents via 'personal' letters designed to confuse and mislead the public. The very same people involved in this effort (that ultimately failed in the last election) were also the ones who scuttled the "LW2020" bond vote in 2014 and who also succeeded at pushing through the under-whelming, now "null and void" heights vote in 2013.

It's unclear what occurred last March when Mayor Pam Triolo, Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell, and Commissioner Andy Amoroso were all re-elected in landslides. But this much we do know: Something happened to create a high level of panic in the leadership of the campaigns organized to defeat the incumbents.

Did they get a heads up about this in The Palm Beach Post?

And don't forget another Post observation: ". . . this is a testament to just how long previous commissions have ignored the city’s basic needs."

It was hard not to notice when a certain blog, another certain self-proclaimed 'journalist', and the leadership (aka, the "cabal") running the Frank McAlonan, Diane Jacques, Ryan Hartman, and Gary Antieau campaigns got very worried and frantic. There was an obvious and quick change in tactics. They went on a dis- and misinformation offensive pulling out all the stops. That is when the "Dear Neighbor" letters began arriving in mailboxes, handwritten envelopes complete with first class postage (see below).

Just like in previous election cycles, the cabal divvied up the City into sections and assigned trusted, high-level members who lived there to sign and stuff envelopes for bulk drop-off at the post office. Here are a few examples:

The text of the mass-produced, form letter is exactly the same; it's just "personalized" by a signature. Very clever. . . unless you understood the deception.

Below is another one using the same method from the 2015 election cycle. Again, these went out under different signatures, from different neighborhoods, in hand-written envelopes and were sent by the cabal to voters in their neighborhood:

A 2015 "Dear Neighbor" letter deceiving voters about 'selling the beach'.

Note the clever disclaimer.

Now to the "Dear Friend" letter sent by Commissioner McVoy

The letter below was delivered to mailboxes around the same time of the "Dear Neighbor" letters. The one big difference is the letter has no date. 

The "lack of transparency" was debunked. True: The Post did endorse McVoy in 2015.

Below is the bottom of the letter. Note the footnotes that merely direct the reader to the City's website:

What's important to note here is the disclaimer: "Paid for by Save Our Neighborhood, Inc., 2121 Collier Ave., Lake Worth".

Do the treasurer and chairperson of "Save Our Neighborhood, Inc." look familiar (see image below)? The chair of this PAC IS ALSO THE CHAIR of the PAC called Citizens Against Unfair Taxation (or 'CAUT'). That's right. The group that defeated the "LW2020" bond by 25 votes: 

Note this PAC had nearly no contributions in all of 2015. Then last March the contributions began to flow in. See for yourself: Use this link and scroll down to the bottom of the web page. Click on "G3 Amendment" under the "Save Our Neighborhood" PAC.

Below is from page 2 of the amended G3 report. Does that name sound familiar? Note the in-kind contribution of "copy paper".

"From the desk of" District Two Commissioner Chris McVoy. Remember this if he's on the ballot next March.