DelawarePolitics.net

Apr 8th, 2010 by David Anderson

An accusation was brought in a press release against Rep. Peter Schwartzkopf. Our policy is to always give the target the space to answer the charges with the same prominence as the original post. Thank you for accepting the invitation. It is now in the reader’s court.

UPDATE: After an extensive conversation with Rep. Peter Schwartzkropf, I believe that the 3 am call never happened. I believe that the call happened at 8 pm as he contends and the press release is inaccurate. The rest is a matter of interpretation. The majority leader says that he had absolutely no intention of coming off harshly. Considering that the call was made to a former donor, I can buy that. Considering that he was asking if someone in a particular law office used its computers to sponsor the website onlywhenpigsfly.org, I understand how that person could find that intimidating. I could make more calls and tie down the details, but why? I think this story is dead and the people who sent the release are no longer welcome to do so. At least for a time.

David,
I usually don’t respond to a blog but when the information being passed around is blatantly untrue, I have to speak up. Everything you have written about an early morning phone call is definitely not true. I did not call any attorney, or anyone else for that matter, at 3:00 in the morning. I did not berate or intimidate any attorney at 3:00 in the morning or at any other time of the day. I am not sure who you talked to but it could not have been anyone that I talked to because it did not happen the way you describe.

Let me tell you what I do know. Last Wed, I received an email from a supporter stating that an address linked to your website belonged to a local attorney’s office in Georgetown. I will not mention the attorney’s name here but I will say that he and his wife live in my district, actually right around the corner from my house. I am familiar with both of them and they have been supporters of mine for several years so I called him Wednesday night between 8:00-8:30. You say the local attorney who called you does not have a phone number in his name, that his home phone is in his wife’s name.

When I made my phone call to him, I looked his name up in the phone book and it is listed under his name, not his wife’s name as you claim- just one more false statement. It makes me think that you talked to someone other than who I talked to, someone who has made up a spectacular story and given it to you to spread around because those kind of tall tales get people worked up. One other thing, I never asked the attorney who was involved. That wasn’t the purpose of the call. I called to let him know that someone was listing his address on a website about me. If he didn’t know about it, he needed to know so he could take whatever corrective action he needed to take for the sake of his business reputation. If he did know and was ok with it, then that was his choice. The entire conversation took about 2-3 minutes and was a pleasant exchange.
If you want to discuss this further as to who I called and who called you, feel free to call me.

While I have you, let’s talk about your website. You mention all of the taxes that I voted to raise. Last May, we realized that the deficit had increased to almost $850 million and we only had two months to balance the budget. There aren’t many ways to balance a budget in that period of time except cut spending and raise taxes. We cut $400 million in spending, accepted over $200 million in stimulus money and raised about $200 million in taxes and fees. We were one of only a few states that balanced a budget on time avoiding a state shutdown. And, we did it in a way that maintained our state’s triple “A” bond rating which save us millions of dollars each year. Some of you may not like it and I understand your position but unless you smoke, there is a good chance that you were not personally touched by any of the tax increases that we passed. I am willing to talk to anyone, and I do so on a regular basis, about anything I do in my district or in Dover. I don’t hide behind anyone and I stand there and answer the tough questions.

Let me leave you with this thought. Do you think we liked raising taxes last year knowing full well we that would hear from a lot of upset people and knowing that it would be used against us in the next election? No we didn’t, yet we took the tough vote. The Republicans knew it as well which is why they only provided enough votes to pass each tax. They understood that we didn’t have much choice and they understood the necessity to do what we had to do. The difference is that they relied on us to take the biggest risk and they protected as many of their people as they could. I don’t blame them, that’s politics. Just remember that every time we raise a tax on you, we are raising it on ourselves as well. I know that by posting this message there will be a lot of responses both pro and con. I do not plan on responding to any of them but I will talk to you if you want to give me a call.

Posted in Comment Rescue