TUF serves neither Republicans nor Democrats, TUF serves Franklin. We have no permanent allies and no permanent opponents, only permanent interests.

Below you will find the original non-party-partisan pledge. It is clearly out of date in that Phil Kramer is now a major player in the Democratic Party and Chip is now a registered Democrat. Because of that we no longer endorse candidates in partisan elections. Editing from the original pledge we now can clearly state.

In every Franklin Township Council election TUF plans to endorse candidates and will likely campaign for those candidates. In the 2003 election all of the candidates TUF endorsed were Republican for reasons stated on our web page and now in our archive at betuf.org. Because of that many believe TUF to be a Republican organization. This is unequivocally not true. Paraphrasing the 19th century British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston* "We have no permanent allies and no permanent opponents, only permanent interests".

We will support those who support our interests; primary among them is holding the line on spending. There is nothing that prevents us from endorsing, supporting and campaigning for Democrats or even a split ticket. If needed TUF may print and post our own signs advertising for members of both parties and possibly a third party candidate.

In short any Republican that assumes blind support from TUF will be grossly disappointed. Any Democrat that assumes TUF will not support them is missing an opportunity.

We shall keep this message posted and ask that it be entered into the Township Council minutes so that in the future anyone can "hold our feet to the fire" to insure that we follow this pledge.

In closing we state that TUF serves neither Republicans nor Democrats, TUF serves Franklin.

* Pertinent to this pledged we note that Lord Palmerston served in both Whig and Tory administrations prior to becoming Prime Minister.

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