OK, he's not exactly Jesus Christ, but he sure as hell is getting crucufied.Julian Stolz is 21 year-old conservative political activist, college student and blogger who managed to get himself elected to the East Penn School Board. Like most kids, he tends to speak first and think later. This gets him in trouble as a blogger and clearly drives his fellow elected officials cRaZy. To be fair, Julian has been an effective open government advocate. Twice, he's persuaded peers to reverse course over arguable Sunshine Act violations. But Julian is learning the hard way that politics is a dirty business. He's being crucified over at Pennsylvania Progressive by another youthful political wannabe, Joe Haas.
I first met Joe this summer at the Slate Belt Farm Show. He was working for then congressional candidate Sam Bennett, and his job was apparently to make sure she didn't step into pig shit. I say this because Joe tends to look at the ground when he speaks to people. I noticed that again when I met with him a few weeks ago for 3 1/2 hours.
Joe, who refers to himself as "SherlockJr," must think he's something of a detective. But this confused conservative turned Obamaphile is actually more like Judas Iscariot. This is where things get weird. Let me tell you the story.
Young Sherlock, Stolz, and Mark Prinzinger, yet another school board member, were at one time buddy buddy, three conservative peas in a pod. Mark's main claim to fame is his brilliant affirmative action bake sale at Kutztown University, designed to let Kutztown's three black students know they did not belong there. Those must have been the good ol' days.
Naturally, when Prinzinger decided to run for East Penn School Board, Stolz supported him, even to the point of publishing a favorable SherlockJr LTE that failed to make it into The Morning Call. Little Sherlock, by then a little Democrat, served as Prinzinger's treasurer.
But then something happened. Sherlock was annoyed that conservative Julian had no use for Obama. Prinzinger began to resent Julian's grandstanding and taking credit for things that both had worked on together.
You see, a mere school board seat is not enough for this recent Kutztown University grad. Prinzinger also has his eyes on the seat currently held by Lehigh County Comm'r Percy Dougherty. So he's running for that seat as well as his school board seat. Whee!
Sherlock the Obamaphile and former Bennett campaign worker is Prinzinger's campaign manager in a battle to paint Percy Dougherty as too damn liberal. You see, Dr. Dougherty actually listens from time to time to Democratic arguments. He tends to approach county issues in a fairly nonpartisan manner. That's not conservative enough for Prinzinger, who is using a Democratic campaign manager to ... well, that beats the hell out of me.
Then there's that school board race. Julian is getting in the way. He's doing all those things conservatives love - burning ants with magnifying glasses, alienating school board members, promoting charter schools and Stop Teachers' Strikes movements. He wears double breasted suits with elephant boxers to bed.
Well, there's only enough room in the East Penn School District for one right wing ideologue. So Prinzinger and Young Sherlock started looking for dirt. Fortunately, they never found out about that night I spent with ... never mind.
As Sherlock, aka Joe Haas, puts it, "I did some digging. ... [T]here would be delicious irony if evidence showed that this supposed fiscal conservative and transparency watchdog was as corrupt as he had so frequently and recklessly accused others of being. While at Lehigh County Voter Registration a few weeks back, Prinzinger and I requested to see Stolz's finance reports. We were shocked by their incompleteness, shoddiness, lack of coherence, and general sloppiness. Frankly, they demonstrated a reckless disregard for the law."
I met young Sherlock a few weeks ago and looked over those ancient campaign finance reports from 2006 and 2007 for an unpaid state committee seat and the school board. Shocking! What they reveal is that Julian is an idiot who does not know how to add. They also reveal who contributed to him and how he spent his money, so he always kept the public in the loop. His violations are de minimis.
After a 183 comment war between Julian and Sherlock, Jr on Topix, Julian called me and told me he was amending his reports. Good for him. He asked to meet with me to go over things, but I decided to ask Sherlock to join us, too. That way I could see if Julian really was a "corrupt" politician. Intense cross-examination would probably crack him. And 27 year-old Sherlock brags he'll be graduating any day now, summa cum laude, from KU. But Sherlock refused, even though I offered to buy his brunch. That tells me a lot. He has no interest in seeing that the right thing is done, but is just focused on smearing Stolz.
There are now no less than three blogs penned by Sherlock at Pa Pro nailing Julian to the cross as "corrupt." A ridiculous StolzWatch blog has suddenly appeared, too. All over a school board and state committee seat, neither of which pays a dime.
This story tells me much more about Julian's enemies than Julian himself. They're vicious people who even slammed community colleges in their effort to take out Julian. "It is disconcerting that a community college student is in the position to affect the education of the children of the EPSD. Julian's educational status reflects poorly on his aptitude and work ethic, and gives some explanation for his ignorant and erratic behavior as a school board member."
Well, la de da. Pardon me, do you have any gray poupon.
