Mayoral candidate Mike Vogiatzakis says people connected to rival Kevin Klein’s campaign tried to get him out of the race by offering him a position, an allegation Klein denies. Vogiatzakis made the claim in a Facebook post Sunday, writing that “persons from Kevin’s team reached out to my team asking me to step down in exchange for a position at City Hall.” In an interview Monday, Vogiatzakis said the alleged offer came from Tim Diack, a longtime Winnipeg police officer who ran for mayor in 2018, shortly before Klein announced his candidacy. He said Diack first reached out through a friend, and that he told the friend to pass on his answer. “Tell Tim I’m 100% not interested in dropping out,” Vogiatzakis said. He said Diack then called him directly and told him that if he withdrew and backed Klein’s team, he would be made chair of the Winnipeg Police Board. Under the city’s police board by-law, the mayor or the mayor’s nominee serves as chair. Vogiatzakis said he recorded the phone call but can no longer find the recording because of a phone update. He described the alleged offer as a “backroom deal.” Klein rejected the allegation at a news conference Monday, saying Diack “has no formal role in this campaign.” Vogiatzakis disputes that. He said Diack attended Klein’s campaign launch and told him he was part of Klein’s team. Diack, reached by phone Monday, said he is not part of Klein’s campaign. He said he did not contact Vogiatzakis on behalf of Klein’s campaign and had no authorization to do so. Diack said he reached out to Vogiatzakis before Klein entered the race because he wanted him to understand that if both men ran, Gillingham would likely win again. He said he “reached out with some compassion.” “I just didn’t want his voice to be lost,” Diack said. Asked whether he told Vogiatzakis to withdraw, Diack said he recalled reaching out to him about a month ago and telling him “his voice didn’t have to disappear.” “I don’t have any authority to make any deals or anything else,” Diack said. Klein also said at the news conference that he was not part of any conversation between his team and Vogiatzakis’s camp. “Something like that would have to come from me, and it did not come from me,” he said. In a Facebook post Monday morning, Klein called the allegation “a smear campaign, built on claims that are untrue and without merit.” In the post, Klein said it was Todd Dube, Vogiatzakis’s campaign manager, who approached members of Klein’s team at a debate hosted by the Amalgamated Transit Union. “He made an offer. We declined it,” Klein wrote. At the news conference, Klein said he was told Dube asked his team to “pull out of the race,” though he said he was not present for the conversation. Vogiatzakis confirmed that Dube spoke with Klein’s team but disputed Klein’s account. He said Dube’s message was only that if Klein loses the election, Vogiatzakis would welcome him on his team because of his public safety plan. In his Facebook post, Vogiatzakis, who described Klein as someone he once considered a friend, also criticized his rival’s trustworthiness. “Good speaker? Yes. Good looking guy? Sure. Someone I trust now? Absolutely not,” he wrote. Incumbent Mayor Scott Gillingham, who is vying for re-election, was asked about the allegation Sunday at a campaign rally. He said he had not seen the Facebook post but said that, as it was described to him, the claims could violate election rules. “Those are serious allegations,” Gillingham said. Manitoba’s Municipal Councils and School Boards Elections Act makes it an offence to offer, accept or solicit a bribe to induce a candidate to withdraw. Klein responded to Gillingham’s comments Monday, accusing him of using the issue to attack his campaign. Winnipeggers vote Oct. 28.
