All the best to the Hurlry Family!
So xcited for you!!!

Summit needs a balanced objective voice to fill seats on the Common Council. A voice of right wing ideology will do nothing more than polarize an already disfunctional Council. Read Mr. Hurley's past posts on the Patch and you will get a clear view of what he will bring to the Common Council if elected. His vicious personal attacks on the Summit Board of Education president regarding the Planned Parenthood issue and his nasty responses to those Patch commenters that disagree with him are not reflective of a rational and open minded candidate.

Tim, you are completely correct. We SHOULD all be able to read Mr. Hurley’s past comments. Unfortunately, the moment the Republican City Committee selected him, those comments were deleted. Shame on Hurley for not having the courage to stand by his vicious comments and outrageous rants. Shame on the Committee for nominating such a mean spirited and divisive individual. And, shame on Patch for allowing commenters to go back in – months after their postings – and re-write their histories. Voters should be able to see his true character. Shame, shame, shame.

Is this supposed to be an example of journalism or is this campaign propaganda? The bias in this article is incredibly blatant. Although if I were Hurley I'd want an article that had actually been proofread and spellchecked. I stopped counting after the fifth typo.

From now on I will limit my reading on Patch to the high school sports coverage, which is supposed to have a hometown bias.

Give Heather a break. I would rather she get the news out fast than wait until its been proofed 10 times. You can always fix it later if it bothers too many sticklers.

As for Pat Hurley, I've encountered him on several occasions and found him to be very reasonable and knowledgeable. I know he's worked well with many democrats in town and have heard them praise him, even though they don't always agree with him (ask around, rather than listen to some of the loons posting here). He seems committed to maintaining a wonderful quality of life in Summit and I think his election will be very good thing for us. We NEED someone willing to speak his mind and look out for Summit families.

Planned Parenthood is of course a sore spot across the political spectrum. The the effort to bring PP materials into elementary schools is something I strongly oppose - have to agree with Pat 100% on that issue. Just visit the PP website and you'll see they instruct those under 18 seeking an abortion how to get around parental consent (i.e., you can work with PP and claim abuse or neglect before a judge). They offer material down to the preschool level! No parents required.

It is interesting that some of Mr. Hurley's posts have been deleted from Patch. I'm assuming Patch either deleted them for being inappropriate or Mr. Hurley deleted them himself for some reason. You can read and get tone of his remaining posts at the link below. The context of the posts that have been deleted are on pages 2 and 3 once you get to the link below:

http://summit.patch.com/users/patrick-hurley/comments

You can see at the link above that Mr. Hurley's deleted posts appear to have been about very public issues like the murder of Abelino Mazariego, PD staffing and the BOE. I think the voters have the right to know more about these posts and why they were deleted as part of the process of evaluating Mr. Hurley's character and stance on local issues.

I hope Mr. Hurley gives the voters of Summit an explanation of the deleted posts. What did Mr. Hurley say in these posts? Did he delete them? If so, why?

I've read Mr. Hurley's comments and agree with nearly all of them. Seems he likes children, veterans, cats, dogs and public safety, and dislikes wasteful government spending, higher taxes and bombastic politicians. Count me in!

As for alleged deletions, not sure how that works, but they appear to be the oldest posts. Assuming they were, I must also assume those complaining have no problem whatsoever with Pres Obama sealing all his records regarding schooling, articles written while at the law review, voting records, etc., before running for office.

Hmmm....someone running for office trying to clean up a few things in the past...I am truly shocked!

Typical of intolerant liberals in this town - resorting to personal attacks and labels in an attempt to silence or discredit any who disagree with them, rather than address the issues. I prefer civil discourse and am not afraid to state my beliefs and positions.

Tim, TomU and "Dot Connector", instead of name-calling and spewing conspiracy theories about old posts that may or may not have been deleted, how about letting us know where you stand on the issues - where you agree or disagree with me or Mr. Hurley.

To start, you could explain why you apparently support distributing explicit Planned Parenthood materials to young elementary school children and bypassing parents. I'm sure many Summit parents would love to hear you comments.

TomU - You did not directly name-call Tom, but in my opinion what you did is worse: make accusations and cast baseless aspersions about Mr. Hurley's character.

Even if the comments were deleted, who cares? I too have deleted old posts from sites that allow it, for a variety of reasons. There's nothing wrong with it. Perhaps in retrospect I overreacted, or my position evolved, or maybe I just wanted to clean things up so comments wouldn't be taken out of context years later. Personally, I think it's a very smart thing to do.

So I really don't get the smear attempts. If you disagree with Mr. Hurley on issues (which apparently you do), just say so. Make the case for your position and we can ultimately let the voters decide. I think that's the sort of civil debate Summit residents would appreciate.

Tom U: You're accusing Mr. Hurley of deleting old comments and implying there is something wrong with that. That is casting aspersions, and it is inappropriate. He still has 20 lengthy comments posted (more than you). If you have a problem with one, please enlighten us.

As for character, I note that Mr. Hurley was an honorably discharged Navy Pilot with several years of active service, including wartime. Maybe that means little to you, but it is more than enough for me.

I also noted that Mr. Hurley provided his phone number and email address for this story, and I don't think he's ever been one to shy away from answering questions or discussing issues. But apparently you would prefer to comb through old comments in this informal forum. That doesn't make sense, except for someone trying to dig up dirt, and apparently that was the first reaction of some upon seeing this article. Now they're angry because you can't do that.

That's the sort of "personal destruction" politics we've had too much of in Summit. Time for it to stop.

And yes, I choose not to post using my full identity for both business and personal reasons. I would rather people get to know me first, rather than make a snap judgement based on some posted comment. I am also concerned about unstable persons taking offense and causing harm to me or my family (those are also good reasons for deleting old comments). I'm sure reasonable readers will understand.

There is nothing wrong with deleting old comments if you don't want people to remember what you said while trying to get elected. I remember the deleted comments very well, since I posted my responses directly to him
Pat Hurley was beyond critical of the police department and "cast aspersions" upon specific officers baselessly accusing them, by name, of misconduct. Hurley claimed to have numerous interactions with the Summit Police, including an incident where his daughter was "followed" for doing nothing wrong. He insinuated that the Summit Police officers were doing something wrong while earning a salary of $100,000. Hurley also claimed to have been nearly killed in several crosswalks ( I recall him counting the number that he passed) on his walk to the train station. He directly accused the Police Chief of misconduct and demanded his firing. He claimed to have extensive knowledge of police work, from his days in the Navy, and finally promised to take action by volunteering for the Auxiliary police force.
I would be interested to see how many volunteer hours he has put in with them since then. I challenged Hurley's claims at the time, feeling that he fictitiously created them to bolster his argument against the Police Department, and justify the reduction of staffing. I felt he had an axe to grind with several Summit Police officers. If elected, he will finally get the grindstone he has been seeking.

But I certainly understand that he needs to have those posts deleted, since it is in direct conflict with his recent claims that he is supportive of Summit Police.

This is really getting bizarre. Since they can't comb through deleted posts for dirt, those who would smear are now telling us what they think they remember from those old posts. Sort of double-hearsay, evidence no longer available.

I can personally vouch for Mr. Hurley's support for the Summit Police. But that doesn't mean remaining silent when something needs to be made right, or when bureaucratic resistance stands in the way of public safety. I know more than one officer who was happy to hear Mr. Hurley's comments. They too often feel frustrated by bureaucracy.

By the way, I seem to recall some old deleted comment where Summithing2hearsay said she wished Summit could be more like Camden, NJ. But I could be wrong.

Why doesn't Mr. Hurley himself clarify this? Did he delete his posts or did Patch do so? What was the substance of the posts that were deleted? Since he is running for office, the voters have a right to know. The unverifiable claims by the anonymous "TomK" and "Summithing2say" carry less credibility than a posting from Mr. Hurley himself.

TomK, you are very wrong. None of my comments have ever been deleted from this site. I wouldn't know how, nor would I hide from what I've said in the past.
Mr. Hurley has the opportunity to deny my recollection of his posts. He should do so here publicly, so that the voters can get an understanding of the context of that stream. A candidate looking to restore public trust must explain what was deleted and why.
He shouldn't need non-sensical deflections by TomK to speak for him.

Summitthing2heresay: You obviously didn't recognize I was being facetious, but I'm sure most readers did (can you "prove" you did not make that comment?").

I would not expect a candidate for office to defend himself against accusations posted here, especially anonymous accusations based on your memory of deleted comments. Even your accusation is ridiculous - apparently you want to limit free speech with regard to criticizing the police.

And we still have Mr. Ucko is floating the specious argument that deleting your own old Patch comments is somehow wrong, when it is actually a pretty smart thing for a candidate to do. Summitthing2say is an excellent example why. She apparently interprets comments critical of specific law enforcement issues as "not supporting" or "attacking" the police. So either she didn't understand the intent of the comments (improve public safety), or she is deliberately misrepresenting them for partisan political purposes. My guess is the latter.

On the contrary, I am requesting his free speech. He censored himself. But YES, politically I would need to know his position because he is now a politician.

TomK writes eeeeerily like Pat Hurley did before he stopped posting. What's interesting is Mr. Hurley abruptly ceased posting comments when he was called out for his vicious attacks on Board of Education President Jack Lyness. Could Mr. Hurley have resurfaced as the now prolific Hurley apologist TomK???? And yes........where did those Hurley comments go? Something sound very strange here. Maybe some sort of clarification by the Patch editor is in order.

Pat Hurley's past posts on Patch, including those that attacked Board of Education president Jack Lyness, have been removed. The Patch needs to give an explanation to the public as to how and why this has happened. The posts in question cast a serious cloud on Hurley's temperment and suitability as a serious candidate. Restore those posts and let the public decide whether he is suitable to be on the Common Council. The Patch should print all public comments or none. Any other way is a mark on its impartiality.

No comments posted by Pat Hurley have ever been deleted by the editors at Patch. All users have the ability to delete their own comments.

So then Pat Hurley had any posts connected to his personal attacks on Board of Education president Jack Lyness pulled from the record as well as posts where he attacked other posters point of view. Why would he do that if he had nothing to hide? The printed record is bad enough but his subsequent cover-up is worse. Thanks to the Patch for setting the record straight.

This is a very funny string of posts. Can you imagine people trying to find "closet skeletons" in the form of municipal government blogs? Oh my, how exciting. I think Mr. Hurley typically highlights very thoughtful points in writing, when delivering speeches or in private conversation. It's doubtful Mr. Hurley ever personally attacked Jack Lyness in writing or otherwise as Tim mentions. Is it possible Mr. Hurley objected to certain BOE decisions of late and since Mr. Lyness is the head of the BOE, those objections were perceived as personal attacks? Soft union negotiations, obscene numbers of superintendent sick days designed to just boost total comp? The list goes on.... Mr. Hurley is a serious person with serious challenges to the status quo but certainly not one to wage personal attacks on public volunteers.

There is no issue with Mr. Hurley raising objections. He attacked Mr. Lyness personally. I know that to be the case because I responded to those attacks as being inappropriate. By the way, my response was removed along with Mr. Hurley's. Writers used to laughingly refer to Mr. Hurley's incendiary posts as "Mad Pat Rants". Any evidence of his past posts have been removed.

Just reading this now... what a crock this article is, and whoever called Patch out for the biased puff piece nailed it. Just look at the headline... 75 years of experience??? Because his wife's parents or grandparents or whatever lived here.

Hey, my house is 100 years old, which means I live in the same house now that people in Summit lived in 100 years ago... so presto, I bring a century of perspective to Summit!!!

Ooooo Baby.......I can't wait for the candidates debates when Pat Hurley is going to have to explain all those posts he deleted from the Patch comment sections. He might have deleted his vicious attacks on Jack Lyness, former Board of Education President and numerous others who have disagreed with him but copies of those posts are available. Its going to be fun watching him explain publicly why he wrote what he did and why he deleted the posts. Then Summit will see the real candidate Hurley.

Ooooo Baby.......I can't wait for the candidates debates when Pat Hurley is going to have to explain all those posts he deleted from the Patch comment sections. He might have deleted his vicious attacks on Jack Lyness, former Board of Education President and numerous others who have disagreed with him but copies of those posts are available. Its going to be fun watching him explain publicly why he wrote what he did and why he deleted the posts. Then Summit will see the real candidate Hurley.

You already posted that. Stop trying to get in it back onto the main page.