MAKI CLAIMS THE GROUP IS OUT TO ‘DECEIVE VOTERS’
On the evening of Wednesday, June 11, the candidates for Platte County Presiding Commissioner from both the Democratic and the candidate seeking to run as an independent in November sat down together at a single table, joined by the leadership of the Platte County Democratic Party and the leader of the Democrat in the Missouri House.
Jason Maki, a Republican candidate for presiding commissioner, said he views the meeting as “an apparent attempt to coordinate a single campaign strategy across competing ballot labels and to deceive voters about the true nature and values of the candidates on this year’s ballot — namely, the impression that the Democratic ticket and the “independent” ticket offer voters genuinely separate choices.”
The meeting took place at Stone Canyon Pizza in Clay County. Six people were seated together at the table: Dale Brouk, who had earlier filed as a Republican then withdrew and is now gathering signatures in an attempt to get on the November ballot as an independent; Brouk’s campaign manager Melissa Moran; the sitting Platte County Auditor Kevin Robinson, who previously had filed as a Republican but now seeking signatures in an effort to get on the ballot as independent; the Democratic candidate for Presiding Commissioner Mary McKenna; the chair of the Platte County Democratic Central Committee, Peter Coyne; and the Missouri House Democratic Minority Leader, State Rep. Ashley Aune of Platte County.
The meeting was documented in photos taken by Maki. Maki said he was coincidentally dining inside the restaurant when the group arrived.
Maki says there has been long-running speculation that candidates seeking to run as independents in this year’s Platte County races have been actively coordinating with Democratic leadership “rather than offering voters truly separate choices.”
Maki said: “The June 11 meeting is direct evidence of that coordination. It is also noteworthy that the meeting took place not in Platte County but across the county line in Clay County — away from the Platte County voters and local officials most likely to recognize the candidates.”
“This is a very dangerous moment for Platte County,” Maki said. “You have two candidates running for Platte County offices — an ‘independent’ and a Democrat — sitting down with the leadership of the Democratic Party — at the state level and at the county level — at the same table, in another county, away from the voters they are asking to elect them. This was not a meeting about protecting small businesses and taxpayers. This was a meeting about carving up Platte County for a progressive, insider, pro-tax, pro-data-center agenda built on tax incentives for developers — and it was meant to happen in the shadows.”
The Landmark reached out to the two announced presiding commissioner candidates who took part in the meeting.
Mary McKenna, the Democrat candidate for presiding commissioner, responded with an email.
“The Republican Party in Platte County, instead of focusing on solutions to real problems that face the residents of Platte County, prefer to create conspiracies that don’t exist. Republicans have held all the seats on the Platte County Commission for a number of years now, and clearly, my opponent seeks to continue to play political games,” McKenna said.
“This is why I am running. Platte County deserves a new voice in Platte City; someone who chases results for Platte County instead of headlines,” she added.
Dale Brouk, who is gathering signatures in an effort to be placed on the November ballot as an independent, declined the opportunity to comment.
Brouk needs to gather 813 valid voter signatures in order to qualify for the November ballot. Deadline for doing so is July 27 at 5 p.m.
