George,

I received a telephone call this afternoon from Alexandria Searls expressing her dismay at what she felt was my "assault" on her in my posting of May 8 regarding her campaign for City Council.

I explained to her that my comments were in no way intended as an assault on her personally - my intent was not an ad hominem attack on her but rather an expression of my opinions about the quality of her campaign. She expressed frustration about the constraints which she believed were put on her by the City party that precluded her being able to better define her candidacy.

I expressed sympathy with her frustration and indicated that I had not been sufficiently knowledgable about the constraints under which she had been campaigning. I also acknowledged that I, along with other City Democrats, had been complacent about the possibility of Schilling being able to muster the votes to win the seat.

Upon reflection, I now believe that I placed too much of the responsiblilty for her loss on Ms.Searls shoulders alone when we all contributed to the loss by our complacency.

Jeff Fracher (electronic mail, May 12, 2002)