The Inky Drops Another Bombshell On Montco Dems

Describing the leadership of the Montgomery County Democratic Party as a “political machine,” the Inquirer reported on Monday (May 1) that county commissioner candidates Jamilia Winder and Kimberly Koch have a symbiotic relationship with Michael Clarke, a partner in the law firm of Rudolph Clarke.

Winder is the only candidate the Montgomery County Democratic Committee (MCDC) endorsed for county commissioner. At its endorsement convention on February 16, the committee voted by a substantial majority not to endorse a second candidate for commissioner. However, a few days after the committee threw its support behind her, Winder announced that she was forming a slate with Whitpain Supervisor, Kimberly Koch.

On Monday, the Inquirer revealed that “Clarke and his firm helped Kimberly Koch — the fundraiser’s beneficiary — and her fellow Democrats take over the Whitpain Township Board of Supervisors in the 2019 elections. The new board then hired Rudolph Clarke as the town’s lawyers. Now, Clarke and his allies are supporting her campaign for county commissioner.

The Inquirer also reported that [Matthew] “Bradford, the House majority leader who holds a side job at Rudolph Clarke, served on the party committee that selected her. He also profits from legal work his firm does for the Norristown Area School District, where Winder served on the board from 2017 through 2020 and voted annually to reappoint Rudolph Clarke.” 

On February 15, the day before MCDC’s endorsement convention, the Inquirer dropped its first bombshell on the Montco Dems., reporting that an MCDC Screening Committee “was initially prepared to recommend Danielle Ducket to replace Val Arkoosh, who resigned as commissioner in order to take the position of Pennsylvania Secretary of Human Services. But after telling Ducket that she had won the job, the Screening Committee reversed course. Instead they recommended Jamila Winder. Winder was officially appointed as a commissioner by the Court of Common Pleas on February 1.”

According to the Inquirer –

After Democrats won control of the Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors in 2021, Clarke and another attorney got lunch with Duckett and her fellow supervisors.

“I said, ‘So if it’s all right with you, I’d like to make my pitch. And I made my pitch about how we’re good Democrats,” Clarke recalled.

Clarke told the supervisors about the firm’s experience advising municipalities on matters such as antidiscrimination ordinances and contracting rules favored by labor unions.

A few days later, Clarke sent an email thanking the supervisors for “indulging me as I ‘made my pitch’ a few times during our lunch.”

But Duckett and her fellow Democrats broke from local tradition — they reappointed solicitor Neil Stein, who had been hired in 2020 under the previous Republican majority in a bipartisan vote.

Salus Responds. According to the Inquirer –

Salus said the decision not to select Duckett had nothing to do with the solicitor’s appointment. He noted that Duckett had risen to become vice chair of the county party “less than three years after becoming township supervisor.”

“Any such connection is spurious speculation, and those who advance that unfounded idea are intentionally damaging Ms. Winder’s and our Screening Committee’s reputation.”