During the holidays, I reflected upon the recent election and the future direction of our great city. First, I want to congratulate Mayor Vanessa Fleisch for winning her bid for re-election. While I am disappointed, I want to thank all the voters who participated in the election, especially the ones who voted for me. Democracy is a privilege.
I look forward to remaining a part of the conversation to make our community a better place to live, and offer my service if needed or called upon after saying many times that no one person has all the answers but in a conversation among neighbors, great solutions can be found.
My family and I truly love our city and believe one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who is collectively more invested in our community with our numerous business, financial, and real-estate investments that employ over 120 people, many of whom live in Peachtree City as well. All together we are one of the largest property tax taxpayers in the city and proud of it. More importantly, we plan to stay and contribute to our collective future success.
My wife is a third-grade school teacher at Peachtree City Elementary where both our daughters are students. Our kids are involved in variety of the wonderful recreation programs that the city offers, which is one of the cornerstones of our community.
The direction of the city affects all of our families and the future of our children. This is just one of many reasons I ran for mayor. As a businessman, I understand that successful businesses are built on a vision, integrity, and hard work. However, politics seems to be something entirely different to some in our community, and frankly it is disappointing.
During the election process my campaign web address was stolen and was potentially used in violation of federal law. This person registered our domain name, then hiding behind a privacy clause, tried to extort me for $10,000 to get my campaign web address back. This is yet another potential violation of federal law. These offenses are so serious they can carry a fine of up to $100,000 per occurrence.
It is difficult to think that someone, presumably in our community, would sink so low. All citizens of Peachtree City should find such actions appalling and a direct assault to our values and the political process. We should all be concerned to know who and why someone in our community would want to control the political process in a Peachtree City election with such actions and more importantly, what is their agenda? We all deserve much better.
I did not bring this issue up during the election as I believe it is more important that we focus on the facts and the platform of each of the candidates. I did not want to distract, or mislead the voters as others in elections often do, believing instead that it is imperative that our citizens have a right to hear all sides of the issues and solutions surrounding our community. Some seem to disagree. As a community, we cannot and should not tolerate such actions.
Some will write off these actions off as “just politics,” but I hope we can all agree that there is no place in our community for individuals who would seek to suppress the message of candidates they may not support or with whom they disagree.
Therefore, I am formally requesting that Mayor Vanessa Fleisch, [former] Councilman Eric Imker, and the City Council join me in condemning these sorts of tactics and to rebuke such acts in a formal resolution. I hope we can all drive toward the high standards that define Peachtree City.
Dar Thompson
Peachtree City, Ga.
[Thompson has mounted two unsuccessful runs for the mayoral post, one in 2005 and the most recent in November 2017.]
