Gale Hits Back – Claims He’s The Victim Of A Conspiracy
Here are the facts. You can decide for yourself what happened and who’s telling the truth.
Exhibit A: Joe Gale’s Facebook Post from Friday morning
Joe Gale is alleging that more than a dozen Philadelphia Democrats made campaign contributions to the Horsham Republican Party, and that the total amount of the contributions that those Philadelphia Democrats supposedly made to the Horsham Republicans, exceeds $11,000. Gale supports his claim with a link to a PDF of a Pennsylvania Department of State campaign finance report for the Horsham Republican Party.
According to the filing above, Kenney for Philadelphia (that would Mayor Jim Kenney) contributed $1,500; Citizens for Kenyatta Johnson (Philadelphia City Councilman) contributed $300, and Friends of Helen Gym (Philadelphia City Councilwoman) also gave the Horsham Republicans $1,500. Regardless of what the motives might have been of the Philly Democrats who allegely were giving some Montgomery County Republicans not what you would call “de minimis” contributions – If this really happened, then this is a big story. Helen Gym, not that long ago, was making news for endorsing a candidate of the Working Families Party in the upcoming Philadelphia City Council Race, and now we find out she gave $1,500 to the Horsham Republicans?
Exhibit B: Joe Gale Thinks He Got Screwed By The Horsham Republicans
And maybe he did get screwed. In the May 2019 primary (when Joe Gale was running with his brother Sean, hoping that the two of them would comprise the Republican Ticket for County Commissioner next month), the Horsham Republicans handed out a sample ballot that looked suspiciously similar to the official green ballot that the Montco Republicans always hand out. But the Horsham sample ballot only promoted the candidacy of Gale Brothers opponent, Fred Connor. Connor and Joe Gale wound of winning the primary.
Exhibit C: Now Joe Gale Thinks He Also Got Screwed By The Pennsylvania Department Of State
Yesterday on Facebook Joe Gale wrote, “Shortly after the Democrat donations were revealed, the records were scrubbed to remove these controversial contributions.” Think about that. What does he mean when he says “the records were scrubbed?” Does he mean that somebody changed, i.e. falsified official campaign finance records? That’s a serious allegation.
Exhibit D: The Report That Is On File At The Election Bureau In Norristown
The content of the hand-written document (above) that is date-stamped by the Montgomery County Office of Voter Services on June 20, 2019 – matches what now appears on the Department of State’s “corrected” report. Or if you accept Joe Gale’s theory, the hand-written document and the date-stamp on it, like the report now on file at the Department of State, are “scrubbed” (fabricated?) revisions of the real report that shows the contributions made by the Philly Democrats.
Exhibit E: Horsham GOP Chair’s Demand Letter To Joe Gale
Exhibit F: The Cover Sheet Of The Gale Report And The One On File Both Show Total Receipts Of $60
While everyone is going crazy trying to track down the Philly donors and expenditures, there is a $15,000 donation to the Growth & Opportunity Fund on all three reports. How many municipal committees have the wherewithal to donate $15K to some nebulous PAC when they have municipal elections to win and when other local municipal committees are starving for money? This must be some PAC for Scott Zelov to have donated $6,000 and Mike Oscar to donate $10,000. Did anyone ever track down where the money from that shady DC PAC that funded the anti-Gale mailers in the spring came from?
Here’s the Wikipedia explanation of “The New York Times Rule” that you are referring to: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964),[1] was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restrict the ability of American public officials to sue for defamation.[2] Specifically, it held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or person running for public office, not only must he or she prove the normal elements of defamation—publication of a false defamatory statement to a third party—he or she must also prove that the statement was made with “actual malice”, meaning that the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether or not it was true
If Joe Gale continues to circulate his campaign materials which claim that the Horsham Republicans took contributions from Philly Democrats, wouldn’t a jury have to be convinced that Gale really believed that to be the truth? And in order for Gale to really believe what he is claiming about the Horsham Republicans and the Philly Democrats to be the truth, wouldn’t it follow that he must truly believe that the Pennsylvania Department of State, the Montgomery County Election Board, the Horsham Republicans and some very high profile Philly Democrats; are all in on a conspiracy against him?
Anthony Spangler is not ” a PRIVATE Citizen ” Spangler is Chairman of The Horsham Republican Party . Thus Spangler is subject to The New York Times Rule and has NO CASE against Joe Gale .