It has come to my attention that the township is having a contest to create a new township slogan (I don’t know if we’ve had one in the past). Since Republicans seem to get their way on everything in Tredyffrin no matter what they do, they will probably get their way on this one too. And that’s a shame, because the debacle of their silly yellow campaign signs demonstrates that they have difficulty coming up with catchy, reasonably truthful slogans. In addition, their reaction to this blog demonstrates that at least some of them are a little humor deprived. I can only imagine what they will come up with:
“Tredyffrin Township: No new taxes (at least until after the election)”
Or how about:
“Tredyffrin Township: We will ignore serious problems like stormwater management unless some irritating Democrat forces us to deal with it, so be sure not to elect any.”
Wait, I’ve got a better one:
“Tredyffrin Township: No public funding for libraries, but if you don’t contribute to our private fund we will out you and publicly shame you for our political purposes.”
I could go on and on, but you get my point. We all know that Tredyffrin is a great place to live and work. Our taxes are low and our schools are outstanding. We should try to come up with a slogan of our own. Believe me, it’ll never get adopted by the township, but at least we’ll feel like we’re part of the process. I’ll offer a few suggestions, then I’d like to hear some from you. Don’t be shy – we know you’re out there. We see the hit counter.
My humble attempts:
Tredyffrin Township: It’s not Philadelphia, and we like it that way.
Tredyffrin Township: Yes, there ARE that many Gulph Roads. So what?
Tredyffrin Township: One party democracy for over 300 years. Sort of like Venezuela.
Well, that’s all for now. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Leaders of §501(c)(3) organizations retain their personal free speech rights to endorse political candidates and support partisan issues, provided that the endorsement is done in their individual capacity and not as a spokesperson for their nonprofit.
--Richard A. Newman, Attorney, Arent-Fox law firm, in legal background paper “IRS Issues Guidance on Prohibited Political Activity by Nonprofit Organizations”
Here is an interesting case study in legal distinctions: Tredyffrin Library capital campaign co-chair, Rod Ross, had 2 letters of political advocacy published in the Oct. 23 issue of Main Line Life. They’re stacked, one above the other, in one newspaper column.
Essay question: Why did Mr. Ross write 2 letters for same-day publication in the local paper? How are they different? Compare and contrast. Extra credit for mentioning the paid political advertisement with the same text in the Nov. 1 issue of the Suburban and Wayne Times.
The first letter seems a heart-felt, personal appraisal of Ross’s friend and political candidate, Paul Olson. The second letter, co-signed with another fundraising co-chairperson, Anne McCollum, seems a piece of political hatchetry that perhaps Mr. Ross just signed onto. But there it sits. Blatantly inappropriate political bias from the two self-described “co-chairs of the Capital Campaign,” the charitable building-fund for renovating our Great Building library.
The McCollum/Ross letter singled out only Republican supervisors for praise, although both Democratic supervisors had most recently served as the board of supervisors’ liaison to the library and had actively advanced the library’s role in the community. The letter further smeared Democrats Paul Drucker and Mark DiFeliciantonio with the charge of not contributing to the library’s charity, even though Mr. DiFeliciantonio had supported the library’s Foundation and Mr. Drucker had long supported his neighborhood’s Paoli Library.
Tempest in a teapot. Except the teapot is a §501(c)(3) charity, and the tempest is a prohibited political activity.
Leading The Witness
You would have expected the library’s Board of Trustees to hasten toward clearing up the legal distinctions around their fundraising leaders’ political statements. One of their members, attorney Michael Broadhurst, left the November library board meeting with the charge to investigate the §501(c)(3) issues. Apparently he returned empty-handed to the January 22 meeting, because he gave no report on the legal ramifications.
Instead the board mostly examined Mr. Ross’s state of mind, with Mr. Broadhurst leading their “witness” along this path: So, you were writing as a private citizen. —Yes, I was.—Okay, there we have it. Case closed, we need to move on.
You can’t blame the library board for wanting to move on. There is always a tendency toward denial when a member of a community or family transgresses.
Exposed
Serious legal risk aside, there was the hope that some boundaries of courtesy and decency would be re-established through the library board’s examination. Instead, we’re left with the clear sense that Karl Rovian tactics have trickled down to the township level.
One only had to hear the 3 Republican supervisors at the January library meeting proudly and smugly acknowledge bending the charity to their benefit. Warren Kampf, current chair of Tredyffrin’s board of supervisors, used almost 8 minutes of his 3-minute allotment with a long rambling discourse of justification. Mr. Kampf included the example that if he didn’t contribute to the fire company, but campaigned in support of the fire companies, he’d expect their leaders to malign him in the community. He said, “Anybody who signs up to run for public office is essentially exposing almost all of their lives to public scrutiny.”
Making A List
So, let’s follow Mr. Kampf and propose that he publish a new chart. In one column list the current members of the township board of supervisors and all the members of the public advisory boards. Next column, contributed to the Tredyffrin Library, yes/no. Next column, amount, if known. (If not known, confer with capital campaign co-chairs for financial details.)
With time we should be able to expand that chart to other charities on the Tredyffrin GOP’s preferred list.
With tax time approaching, it might be easier if you just make an extra copy of your Form 1040, Schedule A, and send it directly to Mr. Kampf.
Some comments from January 22nd library board meeting about the Ross/McCollum letter and paid political ad—
Rod Ross: “The letter came about as a result from something that preceeded it…. We thought that the assertions which came out by an anonymous blogger deserved a response and a quick one.”…
Paul Olson: “Mr. Tredyffrin, the blogger,…”
Rod Ross: “…That’s how we had the knowledge to respond and refute these false assertions.”
Warren Kampf: “…things being said by bloggers on the Democratic website that just weren’t true.”
You have in a nutshell the Republican defense for publishing an attack letter and paid political advertisement outing Democrats for not contributing to the Tredyffrin Library capital campaign fund: “Mr. T made me do it.”
Like school kids, they say they were provoked to respond to scurrilous “untruths” about the library from the anonymous Democratic blogger, Mr. Tredyffrin.
Turns out that Mr. T carries more credibility.
The irony is both the timeline and the truth are readily accessible. (Search Mr. T for “library.”) Any of our librarians—true information professionals—could have uncovered the following sequence of events with a few mouse clicks. It’s a shame no one asked them for research help.
Timeline
Mr T’s first posting to mention the library was on Monday, Oct. 22—a long truth-in-advertising piece that poked fun at Republican yellow lawn signs claiming the “real results” of Republican rule. The library is mentioned only briefly in a short paragraph at the end of the posting.
However, already on that Monday morning of October 22 Rod Ross and Anne McCollum, library capital campaign co-chairs, were having breakfast with a local newspaper reporter, hoping to sell their in-hand “story” about Democratic supervisors to him. Since he declined to write their piece for them, they offered their letter to the editor of Main Line Life. Their letter was posted on-line at MLL on Oct. 23 and printed in the Oct. 24 edition.
In case you missed: That letter uses their confidential knowledge of the library campaign donor base, including anonymous contributions, to smear the 2 Democratic members of Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors with the charge that they did not contribute to the library’s charitable effort and were thus bad citizens. This letter clearly says “as two of the Co-chairs of the Tredyffrin Public Library Capital Campaign Committee.” They made no effort to distinguish that they are writing as private citizens.
In fact, the letter lists a series of statistical bullet points about the source of campaign donations that display very much as an official report, claiming to present the “facts.” (This same letter with McCollum and Ross’s name printed at the bottom appeared in abbreviated form as a paid political advertisement in the November 1 issue of the Suburban and Wayne Times.)
One can only conclude that McCollum and Ross must be fortune tellers, having divined and been provoked by a “false assertion” in the future.
Ground Truth
Mr. T’s next discussion of the library was on Oct. 31 (a week after the Ross/McCollum letter). This was a mere twelve innocuous sentences, serving simply to call attention to a one-page flyer, “Ground Truth on ‘Saving’ the Tredyffrin Library” just posted on the Tredyffrin Democrats website.
Using publicly-available information from the minutes of township supervisor meetings, that flyer presents the actual history of the all-Republican board’s plans to close the Tredyffrin Library in favor of a new location in Chesterbrook. The flyer ends with the astonishing claim that “In reality the Tredyffrin library was ‘saved’ by citizens, not politicians. In fact, our library has been saved twice by citizens—once in blocking the Republican supervisors’ scheme for relocating to Chesterbrook, and a second time in their very generous donations to the library’s capital campaign.” When Democrats tell the truth, why do the Tredyffrin GOP leaders find it inflammatory?
On November 4, two days before election day, Mr. Tredyffrin does get fired up. In this post he takes after candidate Paul Olson for sending out a last-minute attack post card against opponent Ellen Brotman-Austin. Olson’s card again uses the theme that a failure to contribute to the charity of Mr. Olson’s choice disqualifies one from public service. While Mr. T’s column expresses outrage, it is not uncivil. And of course, it is 2 weeks after the Ross/McCollum letter.
Planned Political Initiative
That is the true timeline and content for the Mr. Tredyffrin-blogger’s commentary on the library, its capital campaign, and Mr. Olson. The capital campaign co-chairs are like school kids caught in their own misbehavior, wanting to point fingers elsewhere.
Okay, that’s a lot of he-said-she-said for you dear readers. Point is, Mr. T is innocent. What about the letter writers and ad sponsors?
Their letter was a planned political initiative. They weren’t defending the honor of the library charitable effort. They intended smearing the honor of political opponents, including one who was not even a candidate. Along the way, they subverted all the good work of a committee of 18 citizen fund-raisers and hundreds of generous donors, and fractured the unity of a community around a beloved institution.
On January 22, politics and politicians came crashing into the Tredyffrin Library board meeting, normally a quiet preserve from partisan strife.
On the agenda was a discussion about the October 23 letter to the editor of Main Line Life from the library’s capital campaign co-chairs Rod Ross and Anne McCollum. That letter intended to “out” Dem supervisors Paul Drucker and Mark DiFeliciantonio for not contributing to the library building-fund.
This is a claim you can only make with absolute confidence if you have access to the complete database of contributors, including the anonymous donations. However, to trade on that insider knowledge would be a violation of the ethical standards for fundraising leaders. Oops.
Second oops: In the letter, which also singled out only Republican supervisors for praise, Ross/McCollum specifically represented themselves “as capital campaign co-chairs.” But the campaign is a tax-deductible “501C3” organization, and charity leaders are specifically forbidden to engage in political endorsements, except when acting unofficially as private citizens.
When the exact same Ross/McCollum words, but in a briefer edit, appeared in the November 1 issue of the Suburban and Wayne Times with their names at the bottom as a paid political advertisement from the “Friends of Paul W. Olson” it seemed pretty bold evidence of transgressing IRS guidelines.
Violating confidentiality and political advocacy by the fundraising co-chairs left the library board in a difficult, embarrassing position. When some citizens expressed outrage by letter and by public comment at the November meeting, the board had a mess on its hands.
Campaign co-chair Rod Ross was asked to attend the January meeting and did. Anne McCollum did not. Paul Olson attended in multiple roles—as fundraising co-chair, political candidate, and now township supervisor also serving as the Board of Supervisors liaison to the library board.
Also in the room were some Democratic committeepersons and a nice turnout of “civilians,” but the heavy hitters were the Republican big dogs—3 Tredyffrin supervisors, Olson, Bob Lamina, and Warren Kampf and Tredyffrin GOP chair John “C.T.” Alexander.
Library board president Yolanda Van De Krol asked those present to keep politics out of the discussion, and organized the meeting around hearing from Mr. Ross, then the library board members, and finally the general public, asking them to be brief. The 3 township supervisors each trampled those guidelines.
To Whose Pleasure You Serve
After hearing briefly from Mr. Ross and before the board got very far in their own discussion, Mr. Lamina interrupted to say that he was one of the “paid for” people sponsoring Mr. Olson’s ad with the Ross/McCollum letter. He said, “Politics is a full contact sport. I’m proud of the placement of that ad in the paper and stand behind it.” Just to make sure the library board understood they weren’t referees in this “sport,” Lamina concluded his remarks by saying that if the library board had any “policy questions” they should “bring it up with the Board to whose pleasure you serve.”
Mr. Olson was not as subtly intimidating, but he did erupt with some bizarre responses. One board member went through a careful review that the Ross/McCollum letter and political ad had thrust the library into a “highly-charged political situation” and should have been phrased differently—that perhaps the writers owed a clarification and an apology. To that Mr. Olson responded, “You’re a Democrat, and I’m a Republican. I’m not going to apologize for that” and said the suggestion was “beyond the pale.”
Does Not Serve Any Purpose
Those who hoped that the ethical issues would be sorted out with fact-finding and analysis had to be disappointed at the January 22 meeting. Interestingly, it was an attorney on the board, Michael Broadhurst, who led the members away from facts and the law, saying there was “no need to engage in a long-running debate on who did what, when and how. It does not serve any purpose.”
Mr. Ross had little to say. He asserted that he and Anne McCollum were “private, a-political individuals” and disavowed political intent. Both Ross and Olson acknowledged that they had “special knowledge” about the donations, but said they used that knowledge to “refute these false assertions” from the Mr. Tredyffrin blogger, the local GOP’s new all-purpose scapegoat. (More on the phantom “false assertions” in a later post.)
Mr. Ross’s assertion was quite sufficient for the library’s Mr. Broadhurst, who proposed a motion that the board’s only response would be to form a committee to write policy on guidelines for future political activity by persons representing the library. Some more discussion and a 5-4 vote carrying the motion brought that portion of the proceedings to an end. That left the patient public with the opportunity to comment on a case that was already closed. Faced with a fait accompli, many still spoke, but it was whining into the wind. Too late, too sorry.
I’ll admit it. I am one of the many Chester County Democrats who voted for Carole Rubley years and years ago. Back then there were no viable alternatives, and Carole was a true moderate politician. We Democrats liked to think that when she first entered politics she might have registered as a Democrat, if that had been a practical option at the time. It’s definite that a lot of her Republican colleagues in Harrisburg felt the same way. Rubley bucked at the reins of the Republican machine, and was often successful in driving moderate options in the face of conservative opinion.
Now, though, she has announced her retirement. And as she did so, she tapped as her favored successor another moderate Republican, Judy DiFilippo, the outgoing chair of the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors. Truth be told, Judy seems no where near as moderate as Carole. But she is apparently not nearly conservative enough for the Tredyffrin Republican Committee.
Our local Bush-Santorum Republicans (see previous post) decided to reject Judy, and voted to endorse a much more conservative candidate. As I said last week, the more moderate Republicans, like Carole Rubley and the majority of the Republicans in our township, have ceded control to the Bush-Santorum arm of the Republican party. DiFilippo is too willing to do what is right for her constituents rather than what is best for the Bush-controlled Republican party. So they decided instead to endorse Guy Ciarrocchi:
Tredyffrin GOP endorses Ciarrocchi
By Dan Kristie MLL 24 January, 2008
When State Rep. Carole Rubley, R-157th, of Tredyffrin, announced last month that she won’t run for re-election, she had a successor in mind.That successor was Judy DiFilippo, a friend who served with her on the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors and worked in her office as a part-time legislative assistant.
But the Tredyffrin Republican Committee has a different successor in mind.
At a Jan. 10 meeting, the committee endorsed Guy Ciarrocchi, a well-connected player in state and national politics, to run for Rubley’s seat.
Of the 32 committeepeople who voted, 20 chose Ciarrocchi and 12 chose DiFilippo.
Rubley was out of the country last week and could not be reached for comment.
Both candidates are from Tredyffrin — DiFilippo lives in the Chesterbrook development and Ciarrocchi lives in Paoli.
And both seem well-liked, even among the committeepeople who did not vote for them.
“I really like Judy,” said Wendy DiRicco, who supports Ciarrocchi. “But I voted for Guy for two reasons. First, his political philosophy lines up with mine. He stands for Good Government, low taxes and family values. Second, I just think the experience he’s had will make him effective as a legislator almost from the moment he steps into Harrisburg.”
Many of Ciarrocchi’s supporters said they are attracted to his political experience.
He serves as chief of staff for Congressman Jim Gerlach, R-6th, of West Pikeland. He spent a year as Mid-Atlantic Director of the Republican National Committee, and he served as Pennsylvania director of President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign.
This has led some local Republicans to believe Ciarrocchi would have a fund-raising advantage in an election that, because of national circumstances, might treat the GOP harshly. A consultant hired by the party estimated it will cost $300,000 to win the race, according to committee members.
DiFilippo’s supporters emphasize her knowledge of local government and of the 157th District’s communities. She has served for more than a decade on Tredyffrin’s Board of Supervisors, she is chairwoman of the Chester County Planning Commission and she has participated in a number of local committees.
With this in mind, some DiFilippo supporters have been portraying her as a public servant, while they’ve been portraying Ciarrocchi as a career politician.
Colleen McCauley, a Tredyffrin Republican committeewoman who supports DiFilippo, said, “I’ve worked with Judy on the Tredyffrin Tercentennial Committee and the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust. I know she’s engaged, committed, passionate, communicates well with people. And she’s demonstrated a lot of concern for a lot of the same things Carole Rubley has.”
The Tredyffrin Republican Committee’s endorsement is not official. Potential endorsements are made at the county Republican convention on Jan. 24.
The 157th District also encompasses the Phoenixville area, and Republican committeepeople there will make an unofficial endorsement Sunday night.
DiFilippo hopes to pick up some support at that event.
“Obviously, there’s some disappointment that I didn’t get the Tredyffrin committee’s endorsement,” she said. “But it’s kind of like national politics. I lost in Iowa. Now I’m moving on to New Hampshire.”
For his part, Ciarrocchi said he’s thrilled to have gotten the Tredyffrin GOP’s support.
“It was very rewarding, very humbling,” he said.
He said if he does get the official endorsement, he won’t rush to quit his job with Gerlach.
“I plan to stay in that position as long as I possibly can,” he said. “If you want to get a job done, give it to a busy person.”
When Rubley announced in December that she would not seek re-election, a number of local Republicans who for years had been waiting for a chance at higher office announced their interest in her seat.
Of that crowd, only three remain: DiFilippo, Ciarrocchi, and Richard Breuer, a Phoenixville lawyer who just last week announced his intention to seek the 157th District endorsement.
Breuer got no votes at the Tredyffrin endorsement event. This, some committeepeople said, was because he was a new candidate, relatively unknown in the township.
There’s a lot to talk about in there, but Wendy DiRico pretty much sums it up for her fellow Bush-Santorum Republicans. Guy, unlike Judy (or Democrats, of course) stands for Good Government. Sorry, Judy. That’s just how it is. You and we aren’t interested in good government. Yes, we prefer our government bad. What’s more, Judy isn’t for low taxes. And, worst of all, Judy and the rest of us aren’t concerned with family values.
Family values. Harrumph. That’s a whole other post. I won’t go there right now.
So it should come as no surprise that Guy Ciarrocchi has quite the Bush-Santorum pedigree. He worked as a staffer for many campaigns before making a failed run for the state legislature in 1992. Shortly after that he helped Rick Santorum win his first senate term in 1994: “For a while, my house in South Philadelphia was his home away from home,” Ciarrocchi recalled. He left his job directing public affairs at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia to become the PA Executive Director of the 2004 Bush presidential campaign. His boss in that campaign to re-elect Bush? Rick Santorum. As a reward for his loyalty, Ciarrocchi was appointed a Regional Director of HUD. He did not stay there long. About six months later he became Jim Gerlach’s Chief of Staff. And now it’s his time to try again for the state legislature.
Gerlach, Santorum, Bush… Could the local Bush-Santorum Republicans be more excited to have such a guy running for them? Could the local moderates be more afraid of this Bush-Santorum prodigy?
Not all Tredy Rs are in agreement, though. Even elected ones:
Letters From Readers
SWT and MLL 24 January, 2008
The following letter sent to the Tredyffrin Township Republican Committee was also sent to The Suburban for publication:
Like you, I read with interest the e-mail from Guy Ciarrocchi announcing his candidacy.Guy and I served on the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors during his time in office. Guy’s wife, Chris, and I met at a community breakfast sometime earlier. Over the years, I have gotten to know Guy and his family and they continue to impress me.
Later I received an e-mail from John Bravacos and Lou Amici. In that communication, they ask all of us to consider three questions. I’ve been considering the answers for several days and the conclusion that I have reached is that Judy DiFilippo is the best candidate to represent the 157th District.
As Guy said in his letter, we all owe Carole Rubley a debt of gratitude. Carole is supporting Judy DiFilippo.
Guy has stated that he is committed to public service and also building our party. Since Guy presently serves as Chief of Staff for Jim Gerlach, it would be in the best interest of the party if Guy would remain in his present position to assure Jim’s re-election. Jim is facing a long and hard fight to remain in office. Indeed he has faced stiff competition each election cycle. It could only serve to strengthen our party if Guy were to continue to use his exquisite prowess and guarantee a win in this pivotal election.
I have personally known Judy since the late 1970s when she was a member of the Tredyffrin Township Town Watch Committee. Judy volunteered her beautiful home to the Tredyffrin Township Police Department on a rainy, muddy day and watched calmly as 20-plus men tramped through her home.
As a Tredyffrin resident, Tredyffrin Township Police sergeant and fellow Tredyffrin Township Supervisor, I have watched Judy DiFilippo use her intelligence, hard work and dedication to benefit all citizens and employees of our township. She epitomizes the values of the Republican Party.
I may not have always agreed with Judy’s vote on all issues but I have been aware that she worked harder than any person that I have served with on the BOS. I hope that you will consider my thoughts and support Judy’s candidacy.
My position should in no way be interpreted as a reflection on Guy’s ability. It is based on what I have determined as best for our party at this time. We have two excellent candidates; let’s use them in the appropriate positions to better serve the party now. Judy should run for state office and Guy should continue to guide Jim Gerlach’s campaign. This would assure two Republican victories.
Bill DeHaven
Berwyn
Does this mean DeHaven can’t count on the TTGOP’s full support in the next election? Probably not. He should probably start double checking to make sure he’s donated to all the right charities…
Luckily, the Tredyffrin Township Democrats have found someone to represent the 157th who is more concerned about good government than government that is good for the Bush-Santorum Republicans. Former Township Supervisor Paul Drucker has decided to run for the seat.
For Immediate Release
January 26, 2008PAUL DRUCKER ENDORSED AS DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 157
(West Chester, PA) – Paul Drucker, the first Democrat to successfully be elected to the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors, today announced his candidacy for State Representative in the 157th District. Drucker was overwhelmingly endorsed for the position at the Chester County Nominating Convention, held today in West Chester.
The seat is open following the announcement by the current occupant, Carole Rubley, that she would retire when her term expires at the end of the year.
In his speech to 200 delegates from across Chester County, Drucker stressed his experience working on the issues important to voters during his time as a Tredyffrin Supervisor, including the effort to install sound barriers along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, storm water planning, responsible development and other environmental issues.
Drucker also said his long-time relationship with Andy Dinniman, the State Senator representing the 19th District in Chester County, would be important as he fought to ensure that issues important to the region received attention in Harrisburg.
“I can bring leadership to this position,” Drucker said, and he pointed out that he was proud of his lifelong work as a Democrat as well as his ability to work across the aisle when necessary to get things done.
Stressing his commitment to the region and to public service, Drucker said that he decided to run because our region and our state have many significant challenges to face, and the people who live in the 157th district must have a serious and dedicated public servant who will vigorously represent them.
Drucker was the first Democrat elected to the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors in its history when we won in 2005. He was widely viewed as a consensus builder and earned the respect of his colleagues for his knowledge of the issues and his skills in shaping policy.
He was narrowly defeated by 20 votes in November. Drucker said that he had heard from many people who supported him but didn’t make it out to vote two months ago, and he pledged to campaign aggressively this year to earn the support of voters.
# # #
Here is a man that reached out to make new friends among the Republicans in the community and on the Board of Supervisors. Paul was able to get the Township to pass a sound barrier ordinance, require a storm water certification with each zoning change request, and install an all-abilities playground at Wilson Park. Like Andy Dinniman, Paul knows how to work with everyone, drawing all together to get good things done. His voting record truly represents the moderate center.