As a former alderman in Belleville's Ward 7, I came home in 2009 to help Phil Elmore get elected. However, I forgot the creed: Once a Good Government Party member, always a GGP member. I tried to overlook that Elmore was a 1995 GGP alderman candidate who helped get the late Pam Ackerman thrown off the ballot. Elmore still lost to Ackerman, who was a write-in candidate.

Now I read he is running for mayor after he first met with Bob Sprague to be the replacement for Tom Holbrook as the Democratic state representative and was denied. Now I know why Elmore has voted every time to approve Sprague and Mike Flynn as city attorneys.

Mr. Elmore, please tell the truth. Is the rumor true that you are now Sprague's boy as he has left Mayor Mark Eckert, and Sprague will have the Democratic Machine back you, and that you will reappoint Sprague as city attorney?

Elmore voted for the wheel tax, the tax increment financing for Eckert's Orchard and other Mayor Eckert pet projects, which have him labeled GGP-lite. When I helped Elmore I thought he would be a true independent.

There is one true independent candidate for mayor, and that is Joe Hayden. In one year he fought to end the wheel tax, questioned TIF abuse and has made the reducing crime his top priority. Hayden has the education, experience and the wherewithal to stand up to the Machine.

Devin A. Kammerer Sr.

Lenzburg.