#atxcouncil: About this Cheap, Tawdry, SMEAR CAMPAIGN against Jimmy Flannigan

"He who is slow to wrath has great understanding,
But he who is impulsive exalts folly."
Proverbs 14:29

By now, we assume you've heard about the unflattering pictures that have been circulating around the internet for the past week.  If you haven't, you're welcome to search for them yourself.  No link here.

Unfortunately, the controversy refuses to die, and Flannigan was forced to issue a statement yesterday:

“For the last few days, I’ve been subjected to an online harassment campaign which include private photos of me,” Flannigan said. “These photos were taken before I became a public official. While I regret taking them, they were private. At no time were they publicly shared by me. They only became public through an anonymous twitter post. It is troubling that this private and personal matter is now being used for political purposes.”

That's fine; until we are given a good reason to do otherwise, we take Council Member Flannigan at his word.

We can think of three circumstances under which this incident could potentially be relevant to Flannigan's role as a public official:

• He sent the picture to someone who didn't want to receive it.

• He sent the picture to someone underage.

• He sent the picture on city time.

As far as we can tell, none of those conditions have been met.  In the event new information emerges, we reserve the right to change that view.  But that seems unlikely at this time.

Now, look, we have our issues with Jimmy Flannigan.  Jimmy Flannigan is a big fan of corporate welfare.  Jimmy Flannigan voted for the disgraceful MERCK deal the city passed in April.  Just last week, Jimmy Flannigan doubled down on support for the Domain subsidies.  We can only imagine what kind of godawful 'incentive' package [note: pun not intended] Jimmy Flannigan is going to push to attempt to lure Amazon.

But, unless and until one of the three conditions we listed above is violated, this website remains as uninterested in Council member Flannigan's personal life as we've always been.

Finally, we want to address the chatter we've been hearing about a recall election: This is one of the dumbest ideas we've heard in a long time.  Unless or until new information emerges, the voters won't care and such an effort would be a guaranteed loss.  This website will not participate in a fools errand over a single tacky photograph.

Bottom Line: This whole 'controversy' is stupid and we hope this is the last time we have to address it.