Running a decoy candidate only makes sense in a municipal election because there are no parties. In a municipal election, a candidate runs on his/ her good name.
For a decoy to work, the decoy candidate accepts he/she has no chance in actually winning. The decoy's only job is to create so much fuss as to distract from real issues to gang up on a legitimate candidate and ensure that person is defeated.
Let's take Newmarket for example.
Incumbent Mayor Van Bynen, doesn't like his chances when he comes face to face with the following real issues:
1. seven consecutive years of tax hikes under his administration
2. unscheduled closings of a number of town owned facilities due to emergency maintenance repairs
3. bloated staff numbers with extravagant "perks" that the average Joe doesn't get through private sector employment
4. major traffic foul ups through VivaNext on Davis Drive and soon to be on Yonge Street too
5. major employers have packed up and left town for greener pastures
6. cost over runs with the Magna Centre construction and the Old Town Hall
7. the fiasco of closed door meetings - particularly with the Soccer Club bailout
8. York Region having the highest per capita public debt of any region in the country
9. water rates rising beyond affordability despite community conservation efforts
10. tense labour issues at the NPL, Viva, and York Region
Instead, he gets a decoy to set up shop and has him start to sling mud at every perceived threat to Mayor Van Bynen's incumbency -- namely Regional Councillor Taylor and Ward 6 Councillor Maddie Di Muccio.
The advantage of the decoy candidate is that Tony Van Bynen is one-person removed from any mudslinging going on. He believes the decoy will preserve his image that he isn't personally involved in the dirty politics taking place. In reality nothing is further from the truth as the decoy is very much under the thumb of his master.
At the same time, this decoy is very careful to make sure that none of the mud being tossed about actually sticks to Tony Van Bynen. The decoy refuses to make even the slightest sound of criticism of Mayor Van Bynen's record even though he shares the same side of many of the issues the decoy is critical of with the Mayor's opponents.
And to a limited degree, the task of the decoy candidate has enjoyed some limited success. In the case of Regional Councillor John Taylor, he immediately backed off announcing that he will not be challenging Tony Van Bynen at the next election.
Astute readers will note that the decoy's attacks on Regional Councillor Taylor have greatly subsided since the Regional Councillor has made that announcement. The reason for this is simple, it is not about winning the Regional Councillor election that has the decoy in the race, it is about making sure that Tony Van Bynen is re-elected.
I think Maddie Di Muccio is made of stronger stuff though. If I am reading the tea leaves correctly, Maddie is not likely going to back down so Newmarket residents can expect a fair bit of mud-slinging and dirty politics from Tony Van Bynen's corner. I personally believe if Maddie sticks to the script and keeps the focus on the 10 items above, no amount of mud will save Van Bynen's campaign.
On the weekend, the mudslinging turned nasty and it caused me to do some fact checking on the decoy's allegations.
Lets shed some light on the allegations being spread by Mayor Van Bynen's decoy candidate:
The Decoy Candidate tweeted: The Cybersquatting issue can be looked up and proven at anytime via whois. It is fact. Media reported on it with video
And also tweeted: She renewed the domains after getting caught cybersquatting and blaming her husband for it. Her baggage as bad as anyone.
And finally:
I took the decoy's advice and checked on Whois to see for myself. What I found was an abundance of domain names available for purchase. It seems the allegations that domain names were renewed is just a lie.
Here is a partial list of related domain names currently available for purchase by anyone interested.
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