I’d done all my research, written my notes, set up the studio, sent Debbie Lieberman the link to share for the livestream and 7 minutes before we’re supposed to go live- I get this text:
Good morning. I see my opponent paid you $7500 on her most recent report. I don’t begrudge you making money however the deceptive piece you produced for her is not ok. It’s not only misleading but probably an election violation. The “Democrats for Mcdonald” pac didn’t pay for the piece. Only a few people contributing to that Pac. Misleading piece for sure. The Republican speaking points of lower taxes and fighting crime…really? I’m not going to sit and talk about the great work I do and how well our county is doing only to have you trash me. I’ve tried to be kind to you over the years and actually enjoy talking to you even though you have criticized me every chance you get. I would think by now you could see I’m not one of “them” and truly do the work I do to make a difference in the lives of people and our communities. You clearly have a conflict of interest on this one. I can’t participate today.
I went live anyway. Read her statement – and my notes.
Yes, I had done printing/mailing for Mary McDonald. Nope, didn’t write, design, or have any input on her campaign. I was going to disclose what my ties to McDonald were. But, this is all beside the point, this is actually an example of why it’s time to replace Ms. Lieberman on the County Commission. This is a group that meets during the day, while their constituents are at work, and which stopped putting their meetings out on video- because they didn’t want people to see the community members who come to speak. The last meeting on their Youtube channel was Feb 6 2024 [1]. Not that they had a lot of views- most are less than 100.
This video has been up less than a week- and it already has 125 views.
But, that’s really not why Lieberman shouldn’t be re-elected, for that, we need to go back to this post on Esrati.com from Mar 15, 2020- When the wrong answer and no response spells corruption and coverup [2]. It was something I wanted to ask Debbie about and she knew the question would be coming.
It’s one of those TL/DR posts that took months to do. I got tips, I did public records requests, I got 2500 pages of responses, I dug through them, I asked questions- and what came out was pretty clearly a case of the “Culture of Corruption” in Montgomery County- one that no one would prosecute, because, well, the actors aren’t Black. And Lieberman is in the thick of it.
Her long time assistant, who is now the treasurer of her campaign, John Theobald, steered a no-bid contract from the Public Health Department to a local ad agency “The Wilderness Agency.” Now, two things, he had no business being involved in Public Health’s contracting process, and thanks to my tipsters, I knew that he was working for The Wilderness agency – and had a company email.
Wilderness also did Ms. Lieberman’s website and campaign materials- but, that’s no big deal. What was a big deal is that the “Founder” of Wilderness, Richard Kaiser, had been in Hawaii trying to get sober, and was in need of $200K by the end of the year and conveniently, the contract was not only for that exact amount, but paid in 3 installments with invoices with absolutely nothing listed as to the performance of the contract. There were people in Public Health who questioned why Theobald was involved- and why this was a no-bid contract.
This was one of the articles of mine that other local news organizations ignored. So did the public. Seven months after I exposed this- Theobald quietly resigned from working for Lieberman, and announced he was the new Chief Financial Officer and later “co-founder” of the Wilderness agency. How convenient. Theobald was also almost instantly named to the Montgomery County Veteran’s Service Commission- a gig that pays about $10K a year for 2 meetings a month.
Now, this is where it’s going to get interesting. My firm, The Next Wave [3], a certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned business, has been working for the MCVSC for over a year. We’ve redone their print ads, fixed their website and now host it, supplied promotional products, printing and most importantly, started a bi-monthly email blast that’s been growing a subscriber base entirely organically so far- and helping inform veterans in the County what benefits are available- and spreading the word about veterans groups and events. We’ve also got a bid in on an RFP for helping the county with their marketing [4]. It’s entirely possible that writing this piece could be the end of both. But, we’ll see. Here’s their poorly written RFP [5]– asking how much a TV spot costs (ad agencies don’t set the price- the stations do, and the County has standing purchase orders in place for media buys already)
As ad god Bill Bernback (founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach, DDB) said- “‘It’s Not a Principle Until it Costs you Money'” and this may be a litmus test of that maxim.
In the time that Theobald has been at Wilderness, the agency has struggled thanks to the declining mental health of Richard Kaiser who Debbie Lieberman’s husband, Dennis Lieberman, has bailed out of several serious criminal charges. Theobald and others have Temporary Restraining Orders against Kaiser- and he’s threatened a whole bunch of people (including me) in bizarre ramblings online. On the day Debbie’s father died, he even threatened her.
It’s unfortunate. I’ve known Richard for over 20 years, when he was an ambitious, handsome young buck at Wright State. When I found out we were both from Celina- his response about our hometown was almost on par with Trump’s claim that Haitians are eating the pets in Springfield. I was taken aback.
Debbie and I have had multiple conversations about how to help Richard- and were both relieved when he was pink slipped into MVH. However, that didn’t last that long- and he’s back out, trying to sell off his possessions since being evicted from his home/office over by the Front Street complex.
I’d tried to write him anonymously via email, suggesting that even Don Draper from Mad Men, reinvented himself, with a new name in a new place, and maybe after he’d burnt all his bridges here, it was time to move on. Kaiser’s response was that he knew it was from me- and I’d better not write about him: “Keep my name off your blog or I’ll find you when this is over.”
It didn’t stop him from writing about his entire “staff” (it’s never been a real agency- more of a collection of freelancers [6]) with this post on social media:
The agency roster dropped from 20+ to 5 almost instantly.
But, back to the Lieberman/McDonald race. Who should you vote for? Well, that’s a good question. McDonald chose not to make the time to interview with me. It seems a lot of Republican candidates aren’t much for talking to the League of Women Voters or even making appearances at candidates nights. McDonald does show up, but honestly, candidates forums are absolutely worthless for gaining insight into candidates minds- which is why I’ve been offering these long form livestreams to talk about their races. Lynn Cooper running for County Clerk of Courts came [7] and so did Michael Harbaugh running for Congress as an independent. [8]
Looking at the website for both McDonald [9] and Lieberman [10], you learn absolutely nothing concrete or actionable, although Lieberman has claims of what she’s done for the last 20 years in office.
Both have slipped into the gutter with horrid attack ads- telling us nothing good about either person- their vision, their commitment. Debbie’s friends on Social Media were incensed about this ad attributed to the Montgomery County Republican Party (but- approved by Mary).
Sadly, neither candidate has either spot online that I could find- so I had to watch WHIO news, record it on my TiVo, play it back and shoot the screen with my iPhone to get these (WHIO has embedded copyright protection on their broadcasts).
Here’s Debbie’s response:
I would have told both candidates these are bad ideas. But, they don’t ask me. It’s cheaper, easier, and more effective to tell the truth. Here’s an example of an ad I did for Denise Moore.
And Denise cruised to victory by a huge margin.
Considering that in 2022, Jordan Wortham ran a bare bones campaign and almost unseated Carolyn Rice, I believe that Debbie and her best buddy, Judy Dodge may not be in for easy victories. There are many voters who are just tired of lifer politicians, which fits Debbie to a tee. Before she was elected to the County Commission, she worked for County Auditor Karl Keith, and Dennis was the Dem Party Chair. They were the Monarchy of Montgomery County before- well, they weren’t.
Dennis was deposed by an insurrection led by Nan Whaley, Mark Owens, Karl Keith, the brothers Gehres, and Russ Joseph among others. What was already a backroom deals party became even more of a private club. Owen’s lost his scepter over attacking progressive dems Darryl Fairchild and Shenise Turner-Sloss, and ticking off a lot of folks [11]. Unfortunately, the replacements keep getting worse and now the party is being run by Mohamed Al-Hamdani- who is running for Treasurer against former Dem John McManus.
Debbie claims not to be part of the Monarchy now, but obviously, didn’t want to come and tell that to the world on camera.
Her campaign donations come from some strange places- like Republican operator Danny Hamilton giving her $500 early, and $5000 from developer Alex Dorsey of the Windsor Companies who’s developing the Grant Deneau tower [12] and the Fireblocks. Of course her former County Administrator and now CEO of Children’s, Debbie Feldman weighed in big, as did, surprisingly, UD President Eric Spina. Debbie was by far the bigger fundraiser- bringing in $34,430 in the last period. As always- following the money gives you some real insight.
McDonald, brought in about half that- $15,373. with her daughter, Alexandra Rivers, being the major donor with $10K. No big money folks weighing in on this race.
Mary McDonald became a former Dem after the the party went through insane gyrations to un-endorse her in a race between 2 dems. That meeting is a spectacle from beginning to end. [13] The Dems even challenged Mary’s ability to run as a Dem later- in a BOE case where Russ Joseph got in trouble for leaking legal documents.
Which leaves you with, which bad choice do I make?
As I always say, wait until election day to vote, you never know what may come up the day before. Kaiser made an appeal to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department on Facebook weeks ago- that he had the goods on his former partner, Debbie’s treasurer:
It’s doubtful that Streck or Heck will do anything, since as part of the deal between the two parties, both will be unopposed for life as long as neither does anything to attack the other party.
But, one never knows. Normally, you’d think the FBI might be interested- but- wait, these are white folks- and no one white is part of the “Culture of Corruption” in Montgomery County.
The sad thing is the other race, between Judy Dodge [14] and Kate Baker [15]is even more devoid of intelligent thought or ideas. Nobody mentions the fact that Judy was born before WWII was over- she’s 80, and she’s been in government for at least half her years.
Unfortunately, in the race between McDonald and Lieberman, I just can’t overlook the Theobald/Wilderness fiasco. Lieberman should have fired Theobald immediately upon the revelation- and the county should have prosecuted these folks. I don’t know if McDonald can make a difference without Baker swinging the votes 2-1 R- but, I do know that when I drove down Main in Trotwood in 2004 when I was working for the doomed re-developer of the Salem Mall, it didn’t look anything like it did after Mary McDonald was Mayor. McDonald made positive things happen in Trotwood- like no one else who had preceded her.
I’ve watched the County sit quietly on the sidelines on so many things under Debbie’s watch that I’m ready to say goodbye. The worst being the repeated pepper spraying of inmates in restraint chairs – and the number of deaths in the Jail. As a Commissioner, she needed to do better. Phil Plummer should have been thrown into the big house- not promoted to the Ohio House. Need a reminder- read this post and watch the video [16]– if you can.
I’ll have a complete post of endorsements tomorrow, if no one blows up my house tonight.
Sorry- no song- I wrote one, but couldn’t get the music right.
No song… the best part of this post… LOL