On October 4^th (Wednesday), Appen Media will host a debate among the candidates running for Milton City Council in the 2023 elections.  I urge citizens to attend.  The debate will be live-streamed, so you can watch it at home.  However, I would encourage voters to attend in person.  The Appen debate will be a real give-and-take debate with opportunity for rebuttal.  No topics will be off limits, including Rick Mohrig’s record. 

Attendance is not just about becoming a more informed voter . . . attendance is (more importantly) about taking a firm stand for clean, transparent, and honest politics and government.  If you have been regularly reading this blog, you are already aware that Council Member Rick Mohrig and his cronies recently organized a phony debate.  It was a not-so-clever trick to avoid a real debate.  One of the fake forum’s rules—you really cannot make this up—was a prohibition against questions about Rick Mohrig’s record . . . using weasel words, the sponsors stated that “any question targeting one candidate will NOT be asked.”

So who will be attending the Appen debate?  Last I heard from Appen, Helen Gordon stated she would not attend, citing a previous commitment.  Thank Goodness for previous commitments!  Gordon’s performance at the phony debate was abysmal.  You would think an acting coach and drama professional could at least fake it better.  I can only guess at how poorly she would perform in a real debate.  Last I heard, Rick Mohrig had not responded to Appen’s invitation to the debate.  I hope I am wrong, but I doubt Mohrig will show.  He cannot and will not defend his poor record.  After all, that was the whole point of Mohrig’s fake forum . . . to avoid a real debate where he might have to explain his poor performance and misconduct as a council member.

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MOHRIG’S FAKE FORUM (PART 2): Investigation Reveals Even More Fakery

And speaking of the phony debate, on September 18th, I posted an exposé about the (September 27^th) fake forum.  However, through further investigation, I uncovered much more dishonesty and deception.  Read on . . .

The Concerned Citizens for Georgia (aka the Mohrig campaign) circulated flyers to advertise their phony candidate forum.  The flyer is attached.  The forum organizers have been incompetently trying to fool citizens into believing they are a legitimate and non-partisan group, when they are clearly just an extension of the Mohrig campaign.  This is typical duplicity for the Mohrig campaign and raises some potentially actionable ethical and legal issues (that I won’t broach here but may take up with elections/ethics authorities).  Of course, with my initial investigation, I blew the cover of the organizers and proved the illegitimacy of their CCGa.  So CCGa pivoted to a slightly different name in their flyers.  Concerned Citizens for GA substituted “for” with “of” . . . they became the Concerned Citizens OF Georgia.  The following was printed at the bottom of the forum flyer in tiny font.

Unfortunately, the slight name change did not work either.  There is . . . or (more accurately) was . . . a Concerned Citizens of Georgia.  However, Concerned Citizens of Georgia was administratively dissolved by Georgia’s Secretary of State on September 9^th.  You really can’t make this stuff up!

Concerned Citizens of Georgia still has a Facebook page (with 14 followers), but the last posting was in March, so there is no mention of CCGa’s phony forum.  Furthermore, there are no postings or other information that would indicate that CCGa has ever organized political debates, as the forum organizers asserted.  So the second name was also a bust . . . another swing and a miss.

The CCGa did proceed with their phony candidate forum at Saint Aidan’s church.  Rick Mohrig signs lined Cogburn Road on the approach to the church . . . a clear sign of the organizers’ partisanship.  Interestingly, in the run-up to the debate, Mohrig’s internet trolls tried to pressure Mohrig’s opponent Phil Cranmer into participating in the debate . . . he and Cookerly did not take the bait.

Karen Dubin’s Plan B did not work . . . so onto plan C . . . yet another name change.  This time, the phony forum organizers opted for a more radical and corny name change . . . drum roll . . . Concerned Citizens Horse Country.  It is just one more transparent but failed attempt to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy for the organizers.  However, an internet search provides just one result that provides no information about this political group.  (Note: It does seems this CCHC group did organize a debate for the Congressional 6th District in 2022. However, it is unclear who they are and their actual affiliation with organizers of this debate. No information is provided at the one site I found. This lack of transparency is typical Mohrig.) Following is a photo of the sparse crowd just as the “forum” was breaking up.

Oh, and Karen Dubin, who organized this phony forum under another of her names (Karen Gwyn) has once again changed the name she is using. She is now Karen Zlotnick. She posted the following at Nextdoor. And when she posted this, Ms. Dubin/Gwyn/Zlotnick knew that Ms. Cookerly had already declined (because she was attending her mother-in-law’s memorial service out-of-town) and Mr. Cranmer had not responded. Never let the truth get in the way of a good lie . . . or even a bad, transparent lie. Zlotnik’s announcement that Cookerly and Cranmer were attending was just a ruse to goose attendance. It did not work. Attendance was sparse.

This is the deception and secrecy we have come to expect from Mohrig’s political comrades . . . fake names, fake organizations, secret Facebook groups, anonymous publications, etc. It is the same deception and backroom machinations we have witnessed from Mohrig on council.

Citizens, this is just how Mohrig operates.  It is 24×7 treachery . . . and as you can see, he and his cronies are not very good at deception.  Their dishonesty is only exceeded by their incompetence.  It is so easy to expose Mohrig and his comrades that it is not even fun anymore.  For 2+ years, they have been caught countless times with their dirty hands in Milton’s cookie jar.  Mohrig’s campaign mirrors his never-ending misbehavior on council.  So far, we have witnessed Mohrig and/or his minions using governmental authority to suppress his opponent; meeting secretly with poll workers and then inventing a hacking story to cover up the meeting; using internet trolls to harass and bait his opponent; and orchestrating a phony candidate forum.  I believe that with these tactics, Mohrig and his associates might have engaged in actionable ethical and legal violations . . . and this includes the organization and conduct of the phony campaign forum.

Following is a link to my original post, which has the above story (Part 2) appended to it, so you can read the full story at one blog post: Busted!!  Deceptive Candidate Forum . . . A Clumsy and Transparent Political Set-up (Parts 1&2)

As always, I am providing all of my source materials, so readers can judge these matters for themselves.  I am confident that you will arrive at my conclusions.

Advocating For Campaign Integrity,

Tim

Note 1:  In fairness to Ms. Dubin or Ms. Gwyn or Ms. Zlotnik (or whatever name she is using this week), in the past, Ms. Dubin has organized (I am told) at least one legitimate candidate forum/debate.

Note 2:  I strive not to name or even reference private citizens in my blog posts.  This is because I do not want to dissuade average citizens from participating in local politics and governance.  However, Dubin is critical to telling the story of Milton’s election fiasco.  Furthermore, Dubin is a partisan activist leader.  Accordingly, Ms. Dubin is political figure and thus is fair game.  The same is true for Lisa Cauley.