On December 21st, a letter was sent out by Kennett Area Democrats (KAD) to all Kennett Democrats that appeared intended to discredit me (click here for a summary of what we consider to be falsehoods, omissions, unsupported claims, and misleading statements in this letter). Since the publication of the letter, I reached out to the letter’s authors and other members of KAD’s Leadership Committee. I stated that I considered some of the statements in the letter to be false, misleading, or potentially defamatory. I asked members of the KAD leadership committee whether they stand behind these statements, and whether they would be willing to participate in an open and recorded debate about the statements that we each have contested. To date, only one of the four KAD leaders appears to stand behind their statements, and it is not clear that any are willing to participate in a recorded debate around the disputed statements (corroborating emails available upon request). The letter has since been scrubbed from social media, providing further evidence that the KAD leaders are no longer willing to stand behind their earlier statements.
At this time, it appears unlikely that other KAD leaders were involved in writing the letter and in deciding to disseminate it. It seems more likely that several individuals within KAD abused the authority and reach of the organization to advance views that were their own, and not those of KAD as a whole. The credibility of organizations like KAD depend on the belief that the actions benefit from a thoughtful and cohesive leadership board. If so, we believe that KAD’s credibility is best restored by sending a formal retraction of the 12/21/21 letter to all Kennett Township Democrats, posting the retraction on the KAD website, and undertaking a public review of KAD policy and leadership.