In Our Opinion: Prasad’s Primary Challenge For Mayor Is The Height Of Arrogance

Words almost escaped us when we learned April 1 that ethically challenged Township Councilman Rajiv Prasad had filed a primary challenge against Mayor Phil Kramer for the Democratic nomination for mayor.

It took a few minutes, but the words finally came: chutzpah, arrogance, gall, tone-deafness, arrogance (did we say that already?) nerve … we could go on, but you get the picture.

Not even four months after being censured by his colleagues – and fellow Democrats – on the Township Council for bringing dishonor to his position, and weeks after learning that he would not be on the township Democrats’ party line in the November election, Prasad has the … well … chutzpah to announce he’s running for mayor.

Do we have to go through what this man has done over the past four years or so to discredit this township?

• Branding opponents to Catalpa Park as a “hate group” and racists.
• Asking the police chief to sic the FBI on those same residents, in case they consider “getting violent.”
• Baselessly charging on the day of the 2015 election that Republicans were “suppressing the vote” of people of color.
• Trying to ram through his “Peace and Nonviolence” statuary park, acting as a one-man governing body in his effort to get the monstrosity built on taxpayer-owned Open Space without any vetting.
• In the course of the statuary campaign, saying in writing to a representative of the Martin Luther King Jr. estate that he is being opposed in his plan for the statues by “Trump-emboldened Republicans” who do not want “colored statues” in Franklin Township.
• Appearing to try and influence the township’s presiding Municipal Court Judge on behalf of a township landlord in a tenant case.
• Asking Township Manager Robert Vornlocker to “fix” some parking tickets, a request Vornlocker – a former township police officer – quickly and forcefully rejected.

That’s just what we know about. Can you imagine what havoc he would wreak as mayor?

Prasad has been trying the past couple of months to cast his opponents as racists, and he’s been helped in that effort at Council meetings and elsewhere by his sycophants who believe he does no wrong. His idea for a “mediator” to talk about race relations in a town-hall meeting was a non-starter, for the simple reason that everyone who is paying attention knows that he’s doing it as a deflection from the real problem: him.

We can’t imagine there are enough Democrats – or non-affiliated residents who would declare themselves Democrats for the sake of the primary – who would actually cast a ballot for Prasad for anything, let alone mayor.

Democrats on the Township Council, save for Councilman Ted Chase and, to a lesser extent, Kramer, have been loathe to criticize Prasad in public, for reasons that frankly ring hollow. The demonstrated arrogance and self-centeredness in Prasad’s filing for the primary must change that mindset.

Prasad is unfit for public office, period. The Township Council must follow the lead of residents and demand Prasad resign from his Council seat; he must not be given any leverage in what can only be considered a spiteful attempt to strike back at the party and, by extension, the township.

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