The following is a letter received by the Prince George's Monitor. We have published it in its entirety. We have added the date and highlights in the body of the letter to draw the attention of the reader. We have reserved our editorial for the comments section. (You know it's killing us to do it!)
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Dear Prince George's Residents,
Last night more than a hundred concerned Prince George's residents from all over the county gathered at the Bowie City Hall to hear from three candidates who had confirmed their attendance. In planning this event we believed it would be the final debate and straw poll before the September 14th election.(click here) It appears that those thoughts weren't correct as another event had already been scheduled but not publicly announced on the same day in south county. As a result after learning that Pastor Tony Lee and others had been working for months on pulling together a forum to speak to issues specifically important to their community, I reached out to Rev. Lee while he was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard to find a solution to the impasse. Sadly enough we were not able to reach a comprise to allow both events to go on. After conversation with some of the organizers of the debate and straw poll (Prince George's County Young Democrats, Governor Oden Bowie Democratic Club, Surratts-Clinton Democratic Club, and the Bowie Blade-News) we changed our previous event from 7-9PM to 7-8PM in an attempt to allow candidates to meet with both groups and shared the information with Rev. Lee as well as all of the candidates. Rushern Baker, Michael Jackson, and Henry Turner all confirmed they would seek to attend both events. Only candidates Gerron Levi and Samuel Dean expressed they likely would not be able to make it.
Today I am shocked to see that Sheriff Michael Jackson and his Communications Director have engaged in misleading statements about their campaigns intentions last night. When Michael Jackson's campaign first confirmed their attendance through his scheduler we were informed that "Mr. Jackson had not received the invitation from Pastor Lee" until after they had received our invite. That shocked me because after accepting our invitation a few of the other campaigns had already informed us of the other event in south county. In fact Jackson's scheduler went further to say "Mr. Jackson is very interested in hearing from young people and declined their invitation." As the debate moved closer we confirmed many times with all of our confirmed candidates they would be in attendance. Even more Sheriff Jackson's campaign engaged in an aggressive push as shown by the attached facebook screen shot to get their supporters to attend the forum. In fact key leaders in the Jackson campaign all rsvp'd for the event including Kendel Wade one of his main outreach coordinators. It is both sad and disappointing that Sheriff Jackson who is running to be the leader of our county would intend to mislead voters in this manner. Our coalition groups was not informed of his most recent decision until only 90 minutes before the forum but apparently reporters at papers such as the Gazette were informed as much as five hours before...ironically that was around the same time someone reporting to be another scheduler for the Sheriff called to confirm the start time and address of the venue. This cancellation also came after a conversation with Jackson's Communications Director on Tuesday night going over the rules for the forum and a personal conversation with the Sheriff himself no less than a week ago.
Finally I have to take issue with Rev. Lee's assertion that this forum was a "Bowie" event. While the forum was hosted in Bowie it was not a "Bowie" forum. In fact as the chair of the organizing committee I live in Cheverly. The President of the Prince George's County Young Democrats lives in Lanham. The Surratts-Clinton Democratic Club is based in Clinton. The Greater Marlboro Democratic Club is made up of members from Upper Marlboro and Clinton. This forum was a countywide forum as evidenced in the wide attendance we received last night. Attendees included people from as far north as Laurel and south as Fort Washington.
The issues at place in this years election are way too important for people running to lead us to play games with the minds of the voters. As a person who once supported the Sheriff I am personally offended and expected more.
Joseph Lynn Kitchen Jr.
*The statements in this address are mine only and do not represent the feelings or position of the Prince George's County Young Democrats, Governor Oden Bowie Democratic Club, Greater Marlboro Democratic Club, Surratts-Clinton Democratic Club, or the Bowie Blade-News. Furthermore all statements made can be backed up with emails and phone records of those conversations.
--
Prince George's County Executive Debate & Straw Poll
Organizing Committee
princegeorgesexecutivedebate@gmail.com
202.210.9616
Last night more than a hundred concerned Prince George's residents from all over the county gathered at the Bowie City Hall to hear from three candidates who had confirmed their attendance. In planning this event we believed it would be the final debate and straw poll before the September 14th election.(click here) It appears that those thoughts weren't correct as another event had already been scheduled but not publicly announced on the same day in south county. As a result after learning that Pastor Tony Lee and others had been working for months on pulling together a forum to speak to issues specifically important to their community, I reached out to Rev. Lee while he was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard to find a solution to the impasse. Sadly enough we were not able to reach a comprise to allow both events to go on. After conversation with some of the organizers of the debate and straw poll (Prince George's County Young Democrats, Governor Oden Bowie Democratic Club, Surratts-Clinton Democratic Club, and the Bowie Blade-News) we changed our previous event from 7-9PM to 7-8PM in an attempt to allow candidates to meet with both groups and shared the information with Rev. Lee as well as all of the candidates. Rushern Baker, Michael Jackson, and Henry Turner all confirmed they would seek to attend both events. Only candidates Gerron Levi and Samuel Dean expressed they likely would not be able to make it.
Today I am shocked to see that Sheriff Michael Jackson and his Communications Director have engaged in misleading statements about their campaigns intentions last night. When Michael Jackson's campaign first confirmed their attendance through his scheduler we were informed that "Mr. Jackson had not received the invitation from Pastor Lee" until after they had received our invite. That shocked me because after accepting our invitation a few of the other campaigns had already informed us of the other event in south county. In fact Jackson's scheduler went further to say "Mr. Jackson is very interested in hearing from young people and declined their invitation." As the debate moved closer we confirmed many times with all of our confirmed candidates they would be in attendance. Even more Sheriff Jackson's campaign engaged in an aggressive push as shown by the attached facebook screen shot to get their supporters to attend the forum. In fact key leaders in the Jackson campaign all rsvp'd for the event including Kendel Wade one of his main outreach coordinators. It is both sad and disappointing that Sheriff Jackson who is running to be the leader of our county would intend to mislead voters in this manner. Our coalition groups was not informed of his most recent decision until only 90 minutes before the forum but apparently reporters at papers such as the Gazette were informed as much as five hours before...ironically that was around the same time someone reporting to be another scheduler for the Sheriff called to confirm the start time and address of the venue. This cancellation also came after a conversation with Jackson's Communications Director on Tuesday night going over the rules for the forum and a personal conversation with the Sheriff himself no less than a week ago.
Finally I have to take issue with Rev. Lee's assertion that this forum was a "Bowie" event. While the forum was hosted in Bowie it was not a "Bowie" forum. In fact as the chair of the organizing committee I live in Cheverly. The President of the Prince George's County Young Democrats lives in Lanham. The Surratts-Clinton Democratic Club is based in Clinton. The Greater Marlboro Democratic Club is made up of members from Upper Marlboro and Clinton. This forum was a countywide forum as evidenced in the wide attendance we received last night. Attendees included people from as far north as Laurel and south as Fort Washington.
The issues at place in this years election are way too important for people running to lead us to play games with the minds of the voters. As a person who once supported the Sheriff I am personally offended and expected more.
Joseph Lynn Kitchen Jr.
*The statements in this address are mine only and do not represent the feelings or position of the Prince George's County Young Democrats, Governor Oden Bowie Democratic Club, Greater Marlboro Democratic Club, Surratts-Clinton Democratic Club, or the Bowie Blade-News. Furthermore all statements made can be backed up with emails and phone records of those conversations.
--
Prince George's County Executive Debate & Straw Poll
Organizing Committee
princegeorgesexecutivedebate@gmail.com
202.210.9616
1 comment:
First, we'd like to thank Rev. Kitchen for his letter, which clarifies a whole lot! We've been saying for awhile now, that Sheriff Jackson is a liar. We guess now, "actions speak louder than words."
All we can say to console the Young Democrats is that at least he has been a consistent liar. If you'd like to see Mike Jackson telling about 8 lies per minute on video go to http://www.viddler.com/explore/alwayswatchinpg/videos/1/
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