Falsehood – “Politics has no place in this race”
The incumbent has said this over and over, when he wants to try to convince people that the campaign should not be political.
He is trying to make people believe that to Mr. Ledbetter it is all about politics, and for him it is all about service to all people.
Truth – The incumbent is the one who brought politics into the Coroner’s race.
Jay Ledbetter began focusing on the issues from day one. But the incumbent began playing political games almost immediately.
First, the incumbent began playing the news media like a violin. He was able to get Susan Greene of the Denver Post to write a “hit piece” on Jay Ledbetter almost immediately.
You will recall Susan Greene is the reporter who hates Carol Chambers, our District Attorney. That is significant because it was Carol Chambers who was one of the people who urged Jay Ledbetter to run for this position, and was the person who nominated Jay Ledbetter for this position at the Arapahoe Republican County Assembly.
Susan Greene’s writings have been an occasional topic of discussion by Peter Boyles on KOA, where he disassembles them line by line to demonstrate that they cannot be supported in fact.
Susan Greene’s original hit piece is full of untruths, even after she interviewed Jay Ledbetter and found out the truth on the matter. But it still appears on the incumbent’s website. This is the consummate playing of politics… by the incumbent.
Truth – The incumbent seeks political advantage at every turn.
Very early in the campaign, a trusted source gave Mr. Ledbetter some information, and it was put up for a short time on the website and appeared in a campaign handout. It was quite the “issue”. The problem was that the information was wrong.
Pretty soon, Jay Ledbetter found out that the information was in error (at least overstated), and he spend the entire day recapturing that fumble. Jay Ledbetter instructed the webmaster to take it down from the website. Jay Ledbetter contacted reporters to be sure they didn’t spread that information. Jay Ledbetter rewrote all his campaign literature. Jay Ledbetter emailed the Sheriff, the DA, the Attorney General, a number of senior attorneys in the DA’s office, and Republican party officials about the error, and copied them with the lengthy email written to the incumbent repenting for the error, and demonstrating all the efforts to remove it from the public eye. Jay Ledbetter asked that the incumbent direct to him anyone who had seen the erroneous report, so that Jay Ledbetter could spend some extra time setting the record straight. Jay Ledbetter even tried to call the incumbent to speak to him personally about his efforts, and to have the incumbent hear his heart on the issue. The incumbent’s office was closed, and all Jay Ledbetter could do was to leave a voice message.
The good news was that literature containing this error had been available for pickup at only one campaign event, and the only people who picked up the literature were operatives for the incumbent’s campaign.
When Mr. Ledbetter saw the incumbent at a campaign event again in only a day or two later, Mr. Ledbetter asked to speak to him, so that they could have a heart-to-heart conversation on the subject. Mr. Ledbetter wanted the incumbent to understand his heart, and his desire to set the record straight.
The incumbent wasn’t interested in the conversation, and simply told Jay Ledbetter “You have stepped on your d--k, on this one.” The incumbent then turned on his heel, and walked away.
Although the incumbent wanted the District Attorney to prosecute Mr. Ledbetter, she realized that the error was inadvertent, and that Jay Ledbetter had done all he could to minimize the damage.
The good news is that this matter had remained very quiet, and this error was known to only a very few. No harm had really been done.
But that wasn’t sufficient for the incumbent. He was willing to sacrifice the dignity of the other doctor in the office, just to make a political point.
The incumbent contacted the Attorney General’s office, and filed a complaint. Then the incumbent contacted news outlets (Denver Post) to have them write an article supporting him on the subject – which they gladly did.
Then the incumbent made a point at every candidate forum and debate to tell the people that Jay Ledbetter “is under investigation by the Attorney General”.
Now, if that’s not playing politics, nothing is.
The deep irony of this whole thing is simply this: The incumbent is actually doing (knowingly putting out false information to sway voters) that he accuses Jay Ledbetter of doing.
Truth – The incumbent is very involved in politics, and strongly endorsed Carter Lord in the primary in Douglas County’s Coroner race.
Carter Lord is a well-known professional witness who regularly testifies for the trial lawyers who seek to establish liability upon gun manufacturers for crimes committed by people.
