What’s in a name, really? To some, not a whole lot. But in politics, name recognition is a huge plus.
Most people know this lifelong Niagara-on-the-Lake resident as Karen Taylor-Jones.
But as a candidate for town council in the upcoming election, she is listed and will appear on the ballot as Karen Jones-Taylor.
To those who may be wondering why the discrepancy, it came about following the suggestion of town staff, says campaign manager Jennifer Jones.
The Town of NOTL, however, told The Lake Report when it comes to how candidates fill out their nomination forms, it doesn’t offer advice on the process.
Karen’s legal name is Jones, while her maiden name is Taylor. So, while she is Karen Jones on all her government and identification documents, for many years, she’s been publicly known as Karen Taylor-Jones, said her campaign manager — she operated a business under the name Taylor-Jones Painting & Wallpapering for several years, for example.
So, once Taylor-Jones decided this summer to run in the election, she wanted to make sure to incorporate Taylor into her name on the ballot.
On Aug. 21, when Taylor-Jones was at NOTL Town Hall in Virgil filing her nomination paperwork, she discussed with town staff in the office how to include her maiden name. They suggested she write her name down as Karen Jones-Taylor — placing Jones before Taylor would position her higher alphabetically on the ballot, Jones said she was told.
“Not anticipating that this might cause confusion or create inconsistencies with the name she’s been known by for years, she followed the recommendation given to her,” Jones said.
“There was certainly no intention to misrepresent her identity or create any confusion. She simply followed the guidance she received while excitedly completing her paperwork for the election process.”
Jones added that she doesn’t want to suggest town staff insisted Taylor-Jones write her name down as such.
“What I can say is that the recommendation to put Jones first did come from town staff, according to Karen, and she followed it in good faith,” she said.
The town said the name issue doesn’t really matter.
“The way a candidate’s name appears on the ballot does not create any logistical or administrative issues for the town or affect the election process,” said town spokesperson Quinton Ascah.
“Should a candidate be elected, the declaration of results and subsequent administrative processes are based on the candidate’s official nomination and election records.”
It should be noted that The Lake Report identified the candidate in articles before the election campaign as Karen Taylor-Jones. However, in the Sept. 24 story “NOTL council candidates condemn Trump,” she is identified as Jones-Taylor in the body of the article, then Taylor-Jones in the article “No softballs for council hopefuls at residents’ debate” from Oct. 1.
Going forward, the candidate’s name will be written in future articles as the name she’s been going by for many years, Karen Taylor-Jones, followed by a note that she appears on the voter ballot at Karen Jones-Taylor.
