Although Gary Bell announced his withdrawal as a candidate in the Richmond City Council race in August, recent mailers indicate that Gary Bell is still the recommended BMW (Richmond Black Men and Women Committee - headed by Nat Bates) candidate.

There are some very cynical motivations behind this. The two mailers, portions of which are shown below, will be target-mailed only to parts of the community with predominantly African-American voters, and adding non-candidate Gary Bell may result in some voters supporting Bell rather than African American candidates Corky Booze and Jovanka Beckles.

In fact, the ploy could also result in taking away potential votes from any City Council candidate other than the BMW endorsed Harris, Finlay and Bell.

Just remember this:

• Don’t vote for any candidate endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce
• Don’t vote for any candidate endorsed by the BMW
• Don’t vote for any candidate endorsed or supported by Chevron.

 

Follow these three rules, and you will get an independent City Council with the people of Richmond as its first priority.