So far in the 2022 election, we have managed to go several months with the kind of respectability that we called for at the beginning of the election cycle and to which 10 candidates currently running for office have displayed admirably.

Unfortunately, proxies for these candidates have unleashed moronic, misleading and sometimes disgusting personal attacks against their chosen candidates’ opponents.

We voters should not be surprised that the most vicious of these attacks are coming not from Sedona residents who can vote in our upcoming election, but from incompetent offenders from beyond our city limits who, while doing work in Sedona or operating a business in our city, falsely and potentially illegally claim that they have a right to vote in our elections.

“If this is what it takes to win public office in Sedona, these candidates do not deserve to serve one day representing us.”

These cowardly proxies post anonymous videos, flyers and signs, though many of us know who the offenders are because their poor grammar and word choice is like a thumbprint to smart readers.

Also, they brainlessly brag about these actions and post them on their Facebook pages first. It doesn’t take a lot of detective work to find the source. They also boast about how their support will effectively bribe their candidate to do what they say when elected.

Corruption used to be more subtle.

Also, from an aesthetic perspective, some of these attacks have the graphic design acumen of a color-blind preteen using a cracked screen to build a flyer in a Windows ’98 version of MS Paint in a foreign language. Sedona clubs offers free computer classes — take one.

We are unshocked that the most vicious of these attacks have been launched by outside interlopers who don’t understand the basics of election law, how to read a map, how to use Photoshop nor fill out a voter registration form correctly. These fools shouldn’t be allowed to taint in election, let alone vote in any election in which big kids are chosen to make big decisions.

Yavapai and Coconino county election officials also made it clear when we asked about registering a business address as a home address and then illegally voting in an election is a potential Class 5 felony. If you want to vote in our elections, it’s easy: Move from outside the city limits to the city. If you own more than one property and use one to profit off us by renting your properties to out-of-town Sedona tourists for hefty fees, change your primary address to our city rather than trying to cause possible issues with the IRS and Arizona Department of Revenue. If you know of lawbreakers violating election law, you have a civic duty to report them.

Personal attacks, name-calling, strawman arguments on candidates have no place in civil discourse, no place in any local elections and should have no place in the city of Sedona.

We, the residents and legal voters of the city, should have higher standards than the hateful vitriol that these outsiders want to bring to our community.

Officials expect respectful criticism from voters at meetings and on the opinion page of this newspaper for their decisions on council — that’s part of what comes with public leadership. What they don’t expect are nasty personal attacks on flyers, roadside signs, social media and online postings.

Attacks like these cause a “chilling effect” — and are the reason why many good Sedona residents who would be excellent public officials choose not to run. It’s also part of the reason why more than 60% of Sedona City Council members since incorporation in 1988 have not run for a second term.

If you see a proxy making a personal, underhanded, moronic attack on one candidate and the candidate they support does nothing, hold them responsible: Deny them your vote. They are undemocratic, underhanded wannabe tyrants who use organized crime tactics to seize power.

Even if you support that candidate on every other policy, if these proxies are the kind of twits that this candidate endorses, they don’t deserve your vote because this is how they will govern in office. Political evil doesn’t make a heel-turn like a wrestling match or a kids’ cartoon. Corruptible candidates don’t find honor at the swearing in ceremony. They will spur on the kind of hate and vitriol in local office that we lament in national politics.

We strongly urge candidates who have proxies violating the guidelines of fair play — and perhaps violating state and/or federal law — rein them in and do it immediately.

If they don’t, dear voters, reject this hate by rejecting their candidates. Vote for your second choice. Sedona is a small town and nothing is worth this. If this is what it takes to win public office in Sedona, these candidates do not deserve to serve one day representing us.

Reject their cowardice and cruelty at the polls on Aug. 2 and Nov. 8, every day in between and every day after. Make your voice heard that this kind of behavior is unacceptable for a liberal democracy. Period.

Whether you are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, independent or borderline anarchist, you should value free and fair elections first. Bribing officials with support, threatening other candidates, other voters or other businesses for not supporting their candidates is unacceptable. We have a duty to reject the candidates they corrupted. On election day, deny them the one thing they want: Victory at the polls.

Do not let them have it.

Christopher Fox Graham

Managing Editor