Did a principal of a Wilmington, Delaware elementary school participate in electioneering?
The below picture just showed up in my email inbox. The alleged letter is from the Principal of Stubbs Elementary School in the Christina School District. The picture would suggest Stubbs E.S. Principal Jeffers Brown fully endorses Delaware Senator Bryan Townsend for Congress. What’s the big deal? He is acting as an employee of the Christina School District. The title states “From the desk of Principal Jeffers Brown”. Not Jeffers Brown, taxpaying citizen, but Principal Jeffers Brown. I do not know how or if the below letter was sent out to the public. I don’t know who received the letter. I don’t know if it was placed in students’ backpacks to be sent home to parents. I don’t know if it was mailed. What I do know, if Principal Jeffers Brown did allegedly commit possible electioneering, that is explicitly against Christina School District Board of Education policy and Delaware election laws.
This matter has been brought to the attention of the Christina School District but no response has been released yet. I would have to wonder, personally, how this letter came about in the first place. The letter does not state it was paid for by “Friends of Bryan Townsend for Congress” or anything like that and I would hope the Townsend camp would know that is a possible violation of Delaware law and possibly Federal law as well because this is a federal office. Is this something Principal Jeffers Brown did on his own or was he asked to do it? Was he the only employee of the district who put pen to paper with his signature as a school employee? Is there similar campaign literature coming out of the Townsend camp with similar wording? If so, please send to me at kevino3670@yahoo.com and all will be kept anonymous. While writing this article, I was informed there is an envelope with a P.O. Box on it but I have yet to receive a copy of such an envelope if it exists.
This article will most assuredly continue to receive updates as developments become more clear. If Principal Jeffers Brown wishes to contact me as well, I would be more than happy to hear his side of the story behind this letter. While I do not personally endorse Senator Townsend for Congress for reasons I have written about on this blog, I would be putting this article up no matter which candidate may have benefitted from a potential electioneering process as could be in the above letter.
Updated, 4:44pm: I received a copy of the envelope this was sent from. In the below picture it states “From the desk of Jeffers Brown” with an address of PO Box 1729. I did a quick search and found out where this address comes from:
But this… this is not good at all…
The Season Of Myths 
There is plenty of wiggle room in the language of the policy to allow personal statements by board members and employees regarding electioneering… The policy clearly states that if electioneering occurs after hours and off school property and is not tied tightly to official district policy, there is no problem. It is pretty clear from both texts you provided, that there is no violation here at all….
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It states “Principal Jeffers Brown”. Not Jeffers Brown. There is a clear difference between the two. C’mon Kavips, if this was a Republican you would be jumping all over it and you know it. Let’s be partial here!
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Trying to be impartial here… I would treat a Republican the same, because from the wording of the policy, malfeasance is not there. I can’t see it but from your comment, it appears it would simply boil down to ones interpretation over whether the use of the word “Principal” which is, everyone would agree how he is best known, implies he is speaking on the authority of the full Christina Board and the Superintendent in his statement. That would be very difficult to prove, again because it is very obvious that this is a personal statement..about a personal acquaintance of his.. Indicting him weird as it would be, would open up a precedent allowing others to go back through Transparent Christina, yours, Kilroy’s, and my pages to bring up comments from known members of the board who’ve spoken for or against certain office holders and/or candidates… This is exactly the same and if it was acceptable for them to do so, it follows there is no crime here.
You would also need to clearly define electioneering. By your loose standards, I would be doing it all my time every day of the past 10 years… 🙂 My definition of electioneering is to hand out someone else’s brochures; or harass them personally to vote for a certain candidate… All of which is legal for any school employee as long as not done on school property or during normal work hours.
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I would need to know where the letter was sent to. That would be the most important part in this allegation. I just updated the article with a copy of the envelope and where the P.O. Box belongs to. If that is the case, there are even bigger questions to answer here.
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The policy actually additionally has a clause that says even if you are after hours or offsite you may not identify with the district so the policy has been violated on face
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OK so as former compliance officer for FEC, unless they changed the law (which they didnt) he is in no way allowed to identify with his position in a school district or any other state, local or federal agency. It’s a violation and some young idiot failed to check the law. Sorry Sen. Townsend.
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So how does that work for the candidate? Is the candidate in violation because someone wrote a letter? And how does the PO Box on the envelope play into that? It has the same address as Townsend’s campaign. Is that an FEC violation as well?
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Hey Kevin – just making sure I clarify. So since the campaign mailed the letter without asking the person to remove the title, they are in violation. Again, not a major ordeal but definitely a stupid error. If the person mailed them on his own, then he would be the one violating the law.
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