When I received a “Dear Friends” email last night from an at-large City Councilor endorsing Jake for Congress, I had a similar reaction to my friend (undecided before the email), but he put it in writing back to that Councilor:

I appreciate that as a City Councilor, you are entitled to publicly endorse any candidate you wish. However, in my specific case, you have my email because I am one of your constituents, and my expectation is that you will use my email for communicating “matters of city business” to me and the other members of your ward. We do not have any relationship other than that of resident and their implicit connection to their City Council.

I would request that you keep a different email distribution for your political endorsements and matters that do not pertain to your role as my councilor.

I hope this request resonates as a fair approach and our desire as citizens to avoid giving candidates unreasonable advantages by allowing members of our city government to use their “standard communication” channels to also provide personal endorsements that are in no way related to the city of Newton.

To which I would add, why would any Newton City Councilor take sides between two of their colleagues in this race, knowing that at least one of the contestants will remain in the Council chambers after the voting takes place? How does that encourage comity in future debates and votes?