To Lentz, Too Late

My apologies for not writing about this sooner.

On Thursday, July 27th the Delaware County Times ran a copy of a letter from the chairman of a veteran's museum in Media to Bryan Lentz, Democratic candidate for the 161st state house district. The writer focused on a visit to the museum by Max Cleland, former Senator from Georgia on May 30th. Cleland was accompanied by Lentz. The museum director stated that the tour was turned into a political event and rally, which endangered the museum's 501c3 nonprofit status.

Before the May 30th event, I was sent information indicating that Cleland and Lentz would tour the museum and a rally would be held at the neighboring Iron Hill Brewery. I was able to attend the event at the brewery and wrote about it in this blog entry. I arrived early, parked my car next to the brewery and did some window shopping. This entailed walking by the museum, crossing the street, up one block, across to the opposite side of the street, back past the museum (passing a very interesting looking bookstore), and across the street again to the brewery. At no time did I hear anything that sounded like a rally. At no point did I see any crowds or gatherings. After checking the parking meter status again, I went into the brewery, found a growing group of people, took a seat and a glass of water and waited about 5 or so minutes until Lentz and Cleland arrived. I don’t recall seeing a crowd come in with them. The rally didn’t start until after a reporter interviewed both of them. If there was a political event at the museum there was no evidence of it from the outside and no mention of it from either Lentz or Cleland. Since the reporter interviewed them in the brewery I assume no interview took place in the museum. All the photos I have seen of the event were taken at the brewery.

What I found most interesting was that no complaint was mentioned until 2 months after the event. It is also interesting that the incumbent state representative for the 161st district is on the honorary board of the museum.

Being involved with local nonprofit organizations is tricky. I’m on the board of one and have been an active participant for a number of years. Our bylaws also state that we do not endorse candidates, etc., but we all know how the game is played and most everyone on a board has been squeezed in one way or another. You hit your elected officials up for support and money during election years because they probably aren’t going to pay much attention to you in off years. (I do have to issue a disclaimer that my state reps have been pretty attentive even in off years, but there have been extenuating circumstances.) If they want to do a big pr event with one of those oversized cardboard checks during campaign season you smile and go along. We all pretend it’s an incumbent doing their job not a candidate trying to win votes. Have you ever noticed that you see more of those things in the months before election than during all of the off year? Amazing how that works out.

At one point I found myself in a very awkward situation. Candidates A & B were running for office. Local official Z wants to have a big kickoff event to celebrate a project that I had been very involved with, but was not completed yet, and would not be completed until after the election. Candidate A had played a pivotal role in a previous incarnation of the project years earlier. Official Z wants candidate A to speak at the event. I and some other folks balk as it could appear to be a campaign event. Z says A speaks or there’s no event. I talk with candidate B’s people who tell me that if A speaks and B can’t we are showing favoritism and there will likely be repercussions if B is elected. There is mention of our nonprofit status being at risk. Z won’t delay the event until after the election. We were between a rock and a hard place. I can’t help but wonder if the museum director wasn’t in a similar spot; if, say, there hadn’t been a few pointed phone calls coming his way.

This scenario is played out any number of times during every campaign season. I also see letters like the one in the Delco Times near the primary and general elections. Someone was in a parade they shouldn’t have been in. Someone wore a uniform they shouldn’t have worn. Any time a challenger talks in public it is called a campaign speech and deemed inappropriate. Incumbents handing out goodies and getting their pictures in the paper say they aren’t campaigning, just doing their job. It is a shame that local organizations are used in this way but it is a fact that they are. If you wonder why people are wary of volunteering their time for projects and groups, this is one reason. Now being older and wiser I’m not sure I would accept another board position for anything that crossed paths with politicians. You just become more cannon fodder.

The museum director has my sympathies. To be honest, though, I can't see anything wrong with Cleland and Lentz touring the museum together and a veteran of Cleland's stature doing so is surely newsworthy. It is an election year and if he weren't here supporting local candidates he probably wouldn't have been here to tour. The museum was aware Cleland was coming. He was a US Senator, an elected Democrat. Any time someone of that importance is visiting you should expect local officials and candidates to be present. From what I could tell, though, all the politicing took place at the brewery.

Just my take on things.