As an elected official one of the unwritten rules is that when someone endorses you for public office, that endorsement should be reciprocated. At the Central Committee Meeting on Monday many of my colleagues on other councils and school districts voted to endorse John Campbell in his re-election bid. Unfortunately that number fell one short of the 2/3 requirement to earn the endorsement.

One vote in particular surprised me after I heard about it, and that was the vote of Assembly candidate Robert Hammond who is running in the 69th Assembly District, who chose to oppose Campbell’s endorsement. I went to his website to check whether or not Campbell had endorsed him and indeed Campbell had endorsed Hammond. This is a total slap in the face to stand up and vote no on this endorsement.

Even if Hammond were to simply not stand up and vote Campbell would have received the endorsement, because the threshold for 2/3 would have been lowered by 1 vote. I am not saying that Hammond should become a robot that automatically blindly backs ever incumbent or member of the establishment bt in this situation he could have easily returned the favor.

As an elected official who is a Republican I will alway endorse somebody that has endorsed me as long as they are a Republican, with just one small exception. If multiple candidates running for the same office have endorsed me I will either stay out or dual endorse.

I would hope that either Robert Hammond changes his mind and makes a motion to reconsider at the next meeting or Congressman Campbell pulls his endorsement of Robert Hammond