Video: D2 Supervisor Candidate Brian Colbert And Spouse Flee Town Center In Fear of Asthmatic, Middle-Aged Reporter Armed With Simple Questions About Colbert’s Schlesinger Endorsement
"I feel that anything I say right now will end up on your Substack," complained Colbert. Okay, but... shouldn't politicians’ answers to relevant questions be reported?
On Friday October 25, I received a note from a reporter in Marin who said that they had tried to post the Substack article I published last week on Nextdoor. That article exposed San Anselmo Town Council cadidate Yoav Schlesinger's past work history as an AIPAC Director; his involvement in a serious assault on the First Amendment at the local library; and questioned how a virtual unknown had won so many major endorsements. Screenshots show that the article had been promptly removed by Nextdoor under the pretense that it was not a local issue. I wasn't surprised given Nextdoor's racial and political biases, but if Nextdoor was intent on censoring my article, I could still get the word out myself. The following morning I printed some flyers and rode over to San Anselmo to talk with residents, almost all of whom graciously took my flyers, with many sharing their thoughts on the matter of the expanding war in Gaza and Lebanon, and how it intersects with local politics.
And that's when San Anselmo Town Councilmember Brian Colbert, now running for District 2 County Supervisor, appeared just a few meters from me in the small square outside Town Hall. What luck, I thought. The San Anselmo Town Councilmember who continually declined to answer any of my email questions about his endorsement of Schlesinger had finally arrived and could answer my questions in person. But that's not how Colbert saw it. Colbert said that he was averse to answering questions because he felt that whatever he said was just going to end up on my Substack.
Yes, that's one of the most basic functions of reporting, I thought, and continued asking him questions.
But Colbert’s statement on video was an unintentional advertisement for this substack account. Sadly, Colbert is so accustomed to being pampered by local media that he sees the very function of reporting as somehow an imposition on his princely being. In this way, Colbert is fairly typical of elected reps and commissioners in Marin County. But like any diligent reporter, I kept asking as-yet unanswered, relevant questions of a public official in a public place. You can watch the video below.
Video:
Because I had no idea Colbert would be present, I hadn't prepared any specific questions for him about individual donors. As I calmly and patiently walked behind him, pursuing answers to questions he should long ago have provided, my questions remained somewhat generalized, including the question, "How much money are you getting from AIPAC?"
Note Colbert's non-response to that question. It would have been simple enough for him to say, "I have not received any donations from AIPAC." Or, "To my knowledge, I have not received any donations from AIPAC or people affiliated with AIPAC, nor have I accepted any endorsements from any ex-Director of AIPAC."
In this manner, Colbert denied himself the opportunity to clear the air. But he accords himself a different possibility through his non-response: By declining to state that he has not received any donations or endorsements from (or related to) AIPAC, he succeeds in proving himself worthwhile to those who matter most: lobbyists of many varieties!
Note also that Colbert's wife claimed that the civil questions I posed to Colbert about his endorsement of Schlesinger constituted "harassment". (I respectfully suggest that anyone who thinks valid and relevant questions from a reporter constitute "harassment" should be nowhere near public office.)
Note also the manner in which Colbert tries to assert that his wife is off-limits, when I was simply and calmly countering a false claim that she had made. Colbert, a politically powerful individual, was all too transparently trying to feign offense in order to avoid answering questions. This is very much a tradition within the County of Marin.
But even if I were not a reporter, I would still have every right and obligation to pursue answers from those in power. And I hope you will keep that in mind when you engage with your own local representatives: At the time of this writing, Israel’s rampage through Gaza and now Lebanon, conducted with our tax dollars and with the consent of our government, puts our own national security at risk, on top of the senseless, cruel, unconscionable mass murder of so many Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
Sadly, That’s Not All:
After I filmed this video of D2 Supervisor Candidate Brian Colbert, I received multiple requests to post it on Substack as soon as possible (including from Marin City, where Colbert has very little to no connections, and is not viewed as supportive or as an ally.) I'm happy to fulfill that request now.
But there's a lot more has happened over the last week, so I include a brief preview of what I’m working on:
1. Some alarming and sad news about DSA Marin's undisclosed relationship with former AIPAC Director Yoav Schlesinger, and additional information I gained from DSA Marin-partnered North Bay Labor Council;
2. Context missing from an article published yesterday in the Marin I-J about Colbert's opponent, Heather Sridharan. Both Colbert and Schlesinger have been endorsed by the Marin I-J, with no disclosure about Schlesinger's past;
3. A recent defensive email that hints supporters of Schlesinger appear to be in a panic about his recent poor performance at the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum, even though he was handed only softball questions;
4.A review of Colbert’s campaign donors which shows overlap with those who demanded cancellation of the library’s Middle East history presentation — a clear assault on the First Amendment rights not only of the Ph.D. presenter, but of the public;
5. San Anselmo Town Councilmember Alexis Fineman’s response to questions about her endorsement of Yoav Schlesinger, which included trying to claim that the FPPC required her to answer such questions on her private (non-official) email. Not only is that claim incorrect, but it appears to have been made to evade full accountability via CPRA (due to the difference in how official email and personal email is collected in the CPRA process.)
The details of all of that and more are coming up in a separate article. Thanks as always to readers of this Substack. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please do reach out through the Substack.
©️2024 Eva Chrysanthe