I was not originally planning to respond to retiring Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf’s recent letter to the editor claiming that I am telling people that he endorsed me, but some voters have asked me about it, so I thought I should tell my side of the story.
In short, I have never, ever said that Pete Schwartzkopf endorsed me, nor have I ever purposely implied that he endorsed me.
His letter was correct about one thing: I did run an ad in the Cape Gazette and letters aiming “to gain support from voters who have supported [him] for years.” He is retiring, and I am running for his seat, as are two other people, and we are all seeking support from the voters who supported him for 22 years.
However, the ad does not imply, in any way, that Pete endorsed me. The ad says that I will continue to support many of the same issues Pete has supported over the years, including standing up for the LGBTQ+ community, protecting the right to choose, advancing gun safety laws, raising the minimum wage and supporting vote-by-mail. That is not misleading. It is the truth.
Pete also says he took offense at my Facebook post congratulating him on his retirement the day after session ended. My social media posting that day actually began with a post congratulating my friend Rep. Paul Baumbach on his retirement. After that, I thought I should probably also acknowledge my own representative’s retirement. So, as is the custom on Facebook, I included a photo of myself and the person being congratulated, a photo that was clearly from 10 years ago.
It is true that Pete and I are not personal friends, although I bear no animus toward him over a political conflict we had nine years ago. Nor do I take it personally that he and I disagreed about many of the bills I lobbied for as executive director of Common Cause Delaware. That’s just politics.
Pete says I should not have congratulated him because I don’t really like him. Well, where I am from, that’s called good manners. However, once I learned that I had offended him, I deleted the post.
Finally, Pete claims he has been “stopped by many while out and about, claiming that Claire has been insinuating my support in her conversations with Democratic primary voters.” Let me be clear: I have never done that. If someone says otherwise, they are either misinformed or they are lying.
I understand that people will believe what they believe, but I just wanted to offer this response to set the record straight.
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