As many of you know, Appleton’s first National Coming Out Day happened as the result of a disrespectful and inaccurate response to a simple query: why hasn’t Appleton done anything substantial for Pride month and the 50th anniversary of Stonewall?
Appleton City Hall: “there’s a “day’, a “week’, a “month’ for almost anything and everything. How should we pick and choose what we celebrate and what we don’t?
What you support might be something someone else doesn’t and vice versa. We can’t please everyone.”
That is, the communications manager failed, badly, at doing his job. That communications manager is Chad Doran, and he’s now running for mayor of Appleton.
Above and beyond his dismissal of LGBTQ people, however, is that he has used his position as communications manger to his advantage in his campaign. As a friend of mine note, “I had no idea what the guy looked like until he was running for mayor and now there have been pictures of him on What’s Your Question Wednesday.”
He’s also an instructor of Appleton’s Appy Academy – a hands on civics class for Appleton – in which, again, he represents the city and not himself, which has, in turn, misled some of those who have taken the class into believing he is more in alignment with Appleton and Mayor Hanna than he is.
He has a photo of himself with Mayor Tim Hanna on his campaign page when Hanna has not endorsed any candidate.
I am not the only one to see his actions as communications manager and Appy Academy instructor as a soft ethics violation – in spirit if not the letter of the law.
My complaint with Doran goes far beyond that, however. He has repeatedly stated that his personal politics have little to do with how he would govern Appleton.
To my mind, that is the most horseshit response I can imagine. So to be clear:
Chad Doran is a conservative.
I am not sure why he’s pretending to be more centrist than he is but here’s some of the evidence.
- His wife has told people they don’t believe in birth control – which is an extreme anti-choice stance. (Look up abortifacient if you don’t believe me.)
- When asked by a supporter on his campaign page whether he was for APD working with ICE, he said yes.
- When asked if he believed in arming teachers, he also said yes.
- He is against Appleton being a sanctuary city.
- Finally, Rep. Ron Tusler who is famously conservative, way out there right wing, maxxed out his donation to Doran’s campaign. This detail was reported in the Post Crescent.
- Anti vaxxers are bipartisan but they absolutely support Doran under the guise of “medical freedom”.
Again, I have no idea how he can so plainly express what are extreme positions and simultaneously argue that these views won’t influence how he’s going to govern Appleton.
There are three other candidates running who make no bones about their conservative views – Eric Beach, Mark Todd, and Jim Clemons – so I don’t know why Doran is pretending otherwise.
The only reasons I can imagine is that he’s trying to run as some kind of centrist. Maybe he thinks Appleton isn’t smart enough to work out how much his personal views will influence his role as mayor.
Chad Doran is not a centrist.
Chad Doran is a conservative in centrist clothing.
The days of a Tim Hanna and compassionate conservativism are over. I, for one, wish they weren’t, and hope for a day when the right wing is not so inundated with hate.
Instead, we are at a moment in time when federal protections and policies on behalf of our most marginalized are waning. LGBTQ people, immigrants, refugees, women, those with disabilities, Latinx/Hispanic people – are all struggling to live with dignity and we have to rely on our local governments – city and state – to provide what we’ve lost on the federal level.
Chad Doran is a conservative who has unethically taken advantage of his role in Appleton’s city government to woo voters while hiding or dismissing his values. Go ahead and vote for him if you’re a conservative, but if you’re anything else, please don’t.
(This message has been brought to you by Helen Boyd and only by Helen Boyd, as a private person. I speak for no one but myself in expressing these opinions.)