Kikar is reporting that Moshe Montag, Bet Shemesh city councilman from the Degel Hatorah faction of the UTJ party, has filled out the necessary forms to run for mayor of Bet Shemesh in the upcoming municipal elections.
This is a very strange report and really makes me wonder about a few things.
1. Degel has decided that if they run a candidate of their own it will be Moshe Montag and not Shmuel Greenberg? Where are the rabbinic proclamations or the statements from whatever process they use to decide these things?
2. A short while ago I commented on a report that Montag is running coalition and electoral support negotiations on behalf of Mayor Moshe Abutbol, from Shas. At the time I thought it was strange that a councilman from Degel that has not yet declared support for Abutbol is running coalition negotiations for Abutbol. I confirmed it at the time with people "in the know" and despite the weirdness, the report was true. Now it turns out that Montag is submitting forms not just to run as a councilman but also as a candidate for mayor against Abutbol, yet he is running the negotiations for Abutbol. My head scratching just got harder.
3. Considering the above 2 thoughts and questions it makes me wonder if this would even be a real candidacy or just an attempt to take away Haredi support from Aliza Bloch. Supposedly she is getting a lot of support form the Haredi street and is leading Abutbol in [some?] polls for the mayoral race. While some Haredim around town might not want to vote Abutbol this time around for whatever reason, they might find it more difficult to vote for Bloch if there is a different Haredi candidate to support. Montag, in this scenario, would not get enough votes to actually challenge Abutbol but it might take away enough from Bloch to push Abutbol over the top.
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