Town Board Candidate Rejects Interfaith Group

While many political candidates are reaching out to religious voters, in Chili, New York, Democratic Town Board candidate Tim Lancaster is taking the opposite approach. In response to a request by the Interfaith Alliance that he sign the League of Women Voters Fair Campaign Pledge, Lancaster wrote that he does not want to associate himself with the faith-based social justice group. Today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports that Lancaster, an atheist, rejected the request, saying that "the Interfaith Alliance is a silly group", that some of its members have al-Qaeda sympathies, and that he does not respect "something that is superstitious and based on mythology like religion". The Democratic Party has sent a letter of apology to the Alliance and to the League of Women Voters.