PAY-TO-PLAY SCANDAL UNCOVERED AMONG DEMOCRATIC MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMISSIONER CANDIDATES
Jamila Winder & Kim Koch caught in pay-to-play scheme by Inquirer investigation
I smelled a rat, but couldn’t explain why. Now we know.
Philadelphia Inquirer’s Andrew Seidman has uncovered a huge pay-to-play scandal within the Montgomery County Democratic Party. The scheme resulted in the endorsement of Jamila Winder (and her ersatz “running mate” Kim Koch) for Montgomery County Commissioner. Both are beholden to law firm Rudolph Clarke, and its managing partner Michael Clarke, who helped get Koch elected to her post as Whitpain Supervisor.
Clarke was also influential in rescinding an offer to Danielle Duckett, Supervisor of Lower Gwynedd, to be the interim Montgomery County Commissioner to fill Val Arkoosh’s seat. Duckett offered a legal contract for Lower Gwynedd Township to the lowest bidder, rejecting Clarke’s firm. The offer for the interim Commissioner post was mysteriously rescinded after Duckett declined to extend a contract to Clarke. The interim post was granted instead to Jamila Winder.
Please avoid voting for either Winder or Koch in the primary on May 16, 2023. My choices are Neil Makhija, an election law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has no previous relationship to the Democratic Party, and Noah Marlier, the Prothonotary who avoided hiring the Clarke firm when choosing a lawyer for his current post.
See more information about this scandal, below. (I am in the olive green shirt in the photo of February’s Montgomery County Democratic nominating convention, holding my hand up to vehemently vote for an open primary, which means that the Democratic Party doesn’t endorse - and, just as importantly, give money to - any candidate. I didn’t like how opaque and anti-democratic the selection process seemed, though I didn’t know the details this reporter uncovered.)
For Philadelphia Inquirer subscribers, here is the link to the article. For those of you who don’t subscribe, an abridged version is reprinted here: