By Jack Brammer
NKyTribune reporter
Matt Lehman, Democratic nominee for this fall’s Fourth Congressional District race in Northern Kentucky, is asking the Bracken County Republican Party to apologize for a post on its Facebook page attacking the new director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for being Jewish.
“The Jewish junta,” the post posted Friday said, “is getting stronger and more aggressive.”
Matt Lehman
Lehman, who is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Thomas Massie in the district that includes Bracken County, “called on the author or authors of the Bracken County Republican Party post to take responsibility for their actions, apologize for spreading hate, and take steps to learn why their words can lead to persecution of entire peoples.
“Reasonable Kentuckians of all political persuasions have no patience for antisemitism or attacking anyone based on their background or religion,” Lehman said in a release. “When we disagree on politics, we challenge each other’s ideas, not our identity.”
The Courier Journal in Louisville first reported the controversial post about new ATF director Steve Dettlebach. The newspaper said it was removed soon after one of its reporters contacted Bracken County GOP chair Karin Kirkendol about it.
She initially said she had not read the post and she did not respond to follow-up questions about the author of the post. She claimed the site was “hacked.”
The Bracken County GOP later posted a new post signed by Kirkendol that said the deleted text does not represent the party’s values and it would be investigated.
The Republican Party of Kentucky condemned the initial posting and Kentucky Democratic Party chair Colmon Elridge said the state GOP has “an antisemitism problem.”
He noted that three Republican legislators – Rep. Walker Thomas of Hopkinsville, Sen. Rick Girdler of Somerset and Rep. Danny Bentley of Russell – were criticized by Jewish groups for their comments in this year’s General assembly.
Thomas and Girdler each used the anti-Semitic phrase “Jew them down” during a committee discussion on state agency leases and Bentley made comments on the House floor about Jewish women’s sexual habits.
All three legislators apologized for their remarks.
Lehman said he wanted to comment on the Bracken County post “because it needs to be seen by decent people so that we understand that it’s here in our community.”
He noted that Massie last May was the only member of Congress to vote against a resolution condemning rising antisemitism.
Massie said he does not hate anyone based on ethnicity or religion but the measure promoted internet censorship and violations of the First Amendment.
Matt Lehman would bring a breath of fresh air to the 4th Congressional District, and restore some respectability to this region as a member of the House, He lives in NKY, the most populous area of the District, and would be attentive to the bread and butter issues that people are most concerned about- jobs, the economy, our environment and quality of life. We don’t have that kind of representation from our current representative who has succumbed to being a performance politician rather than focusing on the nitty gritty of governing. Time for Republicans to rise above party and vote on a candidate’s merits.