Potter to Vitiello: Who exactly are the minions?

By Leon Potter

I am hopeful when a candidate runs for office that it is because the person has a heart for public service and is genuinely up to the task, even if he or she is a newcomer to politics. That includes Mr. Vitiello when he ran for City Council in 2014. Speaking from experience, we all have to start
somewhere.

Understanding this, I had a meeting with Mr. Vitiello to find out more about him. I asked him
about other candidates that were running at the time to assess where Mr. Vitiello was on issues important to Maricopa in relation to what other candidates were saying and doing in their respective campaigns. When I mentioned a name of another City Council candidate, and well respected community leader, Mr. Vitiello was quick to refer to the other candidate as a “hack.” The other candidate would go on to be elected to City Council.

Fast forward to June 2016. Mr. Vitiello is now running for the seat of County Supervisor District
4. Mr. Vitiello writes an op-ed proclaiming he is his own man and at the same time calling people “minions.” “I make my own decisions. And unlike the incumbent and his minions, the things I’ve written and discussed are based on fact, not rumor or falsehoods.”

Are the “minions” the voters in District 4 that happen to support Supervisor Smith for re-election? Is Mayor Christian Price a “minion” for recently endorsing Supervisor Smith?

When I observed Mr. Vitiello two years ago, it seemed like he was doing, and saying, what others told him a candidate “should” do and say. He didn’t seem to be running a campaign from the heart, his heart.

I wanted to give Mr. Vitiello the benefit of the doubt then, and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt now, that saying words like “hack” and “minion” are someone else’s words … but then again, that goes against what Mr. Vitiello says about being his “own man.”

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Leon Potter is a resident of Maricopa. He is running for Maricopa City Council.