This is in response to former Commissioner Ron Truex’s letter from Thursday, September 3rd, 2020. In his letter, Mr. Truex stated that Superior Court 3 candidate Tony Garza was among a “handful of attorneys who engaged in negative campaigning” during the GOP primary for judge last spring. This is a bizarre accusation and Mr. Truex didn’t say how Mr. Garza supposedly “attacked” the GOP nominee, Chad Miner, so I can only speculate about what he is referencing.
My guess is that Mr. Truex is referring to a letter to the editor Mr. Garza was a signatory to from a BIPARTISAN group of local attorneys. In this letter, the bipartisan group of attorneys evaluated the qualifications of each of the four attorneys running for judge and concluded that Chad Miner‘s résumé wasn’t as long as his GOP rivals. Because judges serve six-year terms (and rarely face opposition once in office), the bipartisan group of attorneys felt it necessary to share their expertise with the electorate before heading to the polls, so the voters could make the most informed decision.
Mr. Miner did not respond to this letter with “calm respect and kindness” as Mr. Truex claims. Instead, in a Facebook post from his official campaign account, Mr. Miner’s campaign stated, in part, “...I think it must be pretty awkward right now to even show their face[s] at the Justice Building ever again.” This is not how someone with “unimpeachable integrity” would respond.
Furthermore, Mr. Truex stated, “There is no reason to go negative when you have such a great candidate.” However, that’s exactly what Chad Miner did during the spring primary election. While judicial canon laws state that judges are supposed to refrain from directly attacking their opponents and/or showing partisan bias, Chad Miner did both in a since-deleted Facebook post. In the post, Mr. Miner questioned his rival’s commitment to the Republican Party and claimed that only he “draws significant opposition from liberal Democrats.” If Chad Miner is such a “great candidate,” why the need to make baseless claims against his opponents? It’s probably for this reason that none of Mr. Miner’s three GOP primary opponents have endorsed him for this fall’s general election.
I would like to finish on a positive note. Like Mr. Truex, I would like to see a positive campaign based on ideas. For this reason, I’d like to invite Mr. Miner to a debate this fall where the issues can be discussed in an open, and civil, manner.
Brian Smith
Chairman, Kosciusko County Democrats
Leesburg, via email
Editor’s Note: Brian Smith included screenshots of the Facebook posts from Chad Miner’s campaign in the email that included his letter.
