As a preface, Mr. Steve Smyk, my competitor, has been civil with me throughout our campaign for the District 20 House seat (Harbeson, Lewes, and Milton) in 2018.
Additionally, there have been no personal or divisive attacks on either side to date to my knowledge. Then (Not District 20) Republican Party operative Laurie Purdy submits her letter to the Cape Gazette which, allegedly, appears to be a “ghost-written” piece, playing the victim by negatively characterizing our volunteers’ poll behavior during the primaries. My reaction is to invoke the popular phrase Laurie may understand; it is ‘fake news,’ nice try.
Verbally attacking our volunteers in her divisive letter is without merit and attempts to open the door to piling on unfounded faux propaganda; simply put, it will not stand. Laurie’s partisan, spin-peddling letter warrants my personal response as it was mischaracterized, self-serving, and totally uncalled for. Republican surrogate Laurie, with malice, just crossed the line to negative campaigning for Mr. Smyk. Without naming him and by identifying her attack with telling terms such as “so-called volunteers” and “supporters of the Democratic candidate for State Representative” she has spoken loudly as a defensive surrogate for Mr. Smyk’s campaign, hiding behind this arm’s-length letter to the editor.
Clearly, Laurie interfered and, allegedly, was coached concerning District 20 local Harbeson, Lewes, or Milton political business. Yes, Laurie does work for the Republican Party in neighboring District 14. Knowingly, Laurie conveniently omitted the fact that Mr. Smyk (Republican) was engaging at the same poll station at the same time, validated by election district voters’ firsthand accounts. This is the Republican Party and Mr. Smyk’s campaigning right; no complaints here, we welcome the competition.
Regarding the literature information presented to exiting voters within the designated area, it was a selected factual list of Mr. Smyk’s ‘on the record roll call votes’ on issues vs. John Bucchioni’s view of how he would have voted on these issues. Look for yourself. I would think Mr. Smyk’s voters are happy with his actions; mine are not, let the election decide: https://www.bucchioni20.com/steve-smyk-selected-votes/.
Regarding the quality of our Bucchioni volunteers, they are professional, extremely enthusiastic, motivated, and operate at a very high level of energy. We love them all. Further, I am thrilled at the positive voter comments afterwards heralding how pleasantly surprised Democratic voters were on the large size and depth of the Bucchioni ground-game organization. This gives me great inspiration as our run for the District 20 seat is gaining more and more traction every day now.
In summary, Mr. Smyk and I do have wide differences on Harbeson, Lewes, and Milton legislative priorities for the future. Given my opponent’s selected ‘on the record’ roll call votes, we do see the future through different lenses. Ultimately, the voters will decide what future they want coming from their next District 20 state representative. See for yourself at our League of Women Voters-hosted debate at the Milton library Oct. 10, at 6 p.m.
John (Jack) Bucchioni
Candidate for District 20
Postal Milton
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