[Editor's Note: This is the Houghton County Democratic Party's response to the facts that have emerged recently concerning the March 6, 2020, phone call received by Jennifer Kelly, Houghton County Clerk and Register of Deeds, who is running for re-election -- as reported by Kelly in the guest article we published yesterday, Oct. 15. It has been confirmed that Kelly's Republican opponent on the Nov. 3 ballot, Justin Kasieta, who at the time was the constituent representative for State Representative Greg Markkanen, was on this threatening call traced to Matthew Smith of Genesee County. Confirmation was made by statements Kasieta made to the Houghton County Sheriff's office as well as a statement released by his attorney.]
From Houghton County Democratic Party:
HOUGHTON -- Elected officials, their staff, and those who seek to become elected officials, must be held to the highest ethical and legal standards. No reasonable and decent person would think a 1 a.m. phone call implying harm to someone's pets is within any bounds of morality or law. Issuing threats to one's opponent in an election goes against the fundamental principle of peaceful elections. A nation committed to those principles cannot reward such behavior by electing to office anyone who does such things.
Because of his actions, calls for Mr. Kasieta to withdraw from the race are coming from all sides, including The Daily Mining Gazette. As people committed to fair and free elections, the Houghton County Democratic Party joins our voice to the rest of our community in calling on Justin Kasieta to do the right thing and suspend his campaign.
Jennifer Kelly has served Houghton County in various capacities for 20 years. While these events have already been discussed at meetings of the County Board of Commissioners, we call on the Board to formalize its responsibility to stand by their colleague and issue a call for Mr. Kasieta to withdraw from his race.
We also call on Representative Markkanen to reaffirm these principles of democracy by condemning the actions of his staffer. To remain quiet in the face of such a perversion of ethics is to be complicit. Unless Mr. Kasieta has kept all of these events from his employer since March -- an act which itself would be disqualifying for continued employment -- Rep. Markkanen has known about this situation for months and has said nothing as long as it was possible to remain silent. But now the facts have emerged.
As his constituents, we have a right to know: did Rep. Markkanen know about these events and continue employing Justin Kasieta while he ran against the county clerk he participated in threatening? Does Rep. Markkanen approve of his subordinate's actions? If not, let him say so, loudly and clearly. We call on him to make a firm statement repudiating any attempt to threaten a candidate's political opponents, and to immediately suspend Mr. Kasieta from any office of trust he might hold in Michigan's state government, pending the resolution of this investigation.
Also alleged to be on this call was Jake Putala, district representative for State Sen. Ed McBroom. We also call on Sen. McBroom to issue the same condemnation of any kind of harassment, and if additional information comes to light confirming Mr. Putala's involvement, for him to suspend Mr. Putala pending the outcome of the investigation.
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