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Montco Dems Call for Leach To Resign

The Montgomery County Democratic Party is the latest group to call for state Sen. Daylin Leach’s (D-Montgomery) resignation in response to a series of sexual assault allegations and the aftermath from it.

In a letter written by party leadership late last week, which included signatures from county chairman Joe Foster, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery), and a number of state representatives and delegates, they thanked Leach for his service to the party and lauded his record for being a “champion for liberal causes” but said they believe the situation has reached a “crisis point.”

“With a very heavy heart, we, the leadership of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, are calling for your resignation,” the letter begins. “To be clear, you have been a champion for liberal causes for twenty years and stood for far reaching progressive ideals at a time when very few would. No one could or should deny that.”

“Nonetheless, we regret that we find ourselves in an untenable situation; we have reached a crisis point,” the letter continues.

Leach’s district covers parts of Montgomery and Delaware County.

In 2017, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Leach behaved inappropriately toward young female campaign staffers and volunteers on multiple occasions between 2008 and 2016. Multiple Democratic state representatives called for his resignation after these allegations, which the state Senator continues to deny.

Earlier this year, a woman said she was 17 in 1991 when Leach allegedly coerced her into performing oral sex while her mother was his legal client. The Senate Democrats hired an outside law firm to investigate this allegation. Leach filed a defamation suit against her.

The letter from the Montgomery County Democrats explicitly avoids assertions about the underlying accusations. It emphasizes party harmony instead.

“As to the accusations, that is for others to decide,” the letter states. “Over the past fifteen months, your reactions and behaviors to your set of circumstances has created a divisiveness that threatens Party harmony and undermines our cause at a time when we need to be united.  Without exaggeration, Party members have described your lashing out, lack of judgement, and tone-deafness, as examples of behavior not becoming a state senator and leader of our Party.”

Gov. Tom Wolf, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, and the Delaware County Democratic Party previously called for Leach to resign.

Leach responded in a letter of his own, obtained by the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, denying the allegations. He reiterated that he will not resign and defended his record as a progressive lawmaker.

“Recently, I was the subject of false accusations of literally the worst kind,” Leach wrote. “I have made it clear publicly and repeatedly, as well as to Joe Foster personally, that I will not resign, under any circumstances. I was elected to serve a 4 year term overwhelmingly by the voters, and that’s what I will do.”

Leach also wrote that he apologized for his behavior as a result of the allegations, but believes “nobody is at their best when they feel attacked.”

“And I am truly sorry for the occasions when I reacted angrily,” he wrote. “And while this is not an excuse, my anger was the result of deep personal hurt. However, I would urge everyone to think about how they would handle falsely and publicly being called a “rapist” or an “assaulter” day after day.”

The Montgomery County Democratic Party ended its letter with stating its position is definitive.

“What has been done, cannot now be undone,” the letter says.

5 Responses

  1. If Daylin doesn’t resign and I think for State Representative Ben Sanchez and/or Montogomery County Commissioner can challenge him in the Democratic Primary.

    1. He is not that stupid. Just because he refuses to resign does not mean he is going to run for reelection in 2020.

  2. This is long overdue.

    Unfortunately, for the past year, the too many Montco Dems have been apologists, supporters and/or sycophants for Daylin. Last year, few were willing to stand up to him, including many of the “leaders” that signed this letter. (Wolf, to his credit, called to Daylin to resign a year ago.)

    Batman’s famous quote is: “Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot.”

    Well, no one accuses politicians of being superstitious.

    It was pretty clear that they feared retaliation, and veiled (and not so veiled) threats from Daylin. They bowed and scraped when he showed up at events, but few called for his resignation individually or criticized him publicly. And, some of the “sad truth” about politics, is that until recently, Daylin was a big draw for fundraising events, so he was tolerated, but now has outlived his usefulness as a resource to Montco Dems collectively.

    Newcomer, Katie Muth, who ran for (and won) a Senate seat last year, publicly butted heads with Daylin. He responded with nasty words, calling her a “toxic grenade” and suggested that he might work against her candidacy.

    Well, like Wile E. Coyote, Daylin threw the pin and had his own grenade blow up in his face.

    Daylin’s bullsh*t defenses are very Trump-like. He deflects from the issues of his behavior, instead reciting his resume of progressive causes he’s fought for (like Trump cherry-picking some good economic numbers).

    Daylin’s second line of “defense” is to attack the #MeToo movement for making Dems eat-their-own at a whiff or rumor of impropriety. Well, this is more than a “whiff”. It’s a giant pile of manure. Daylin has been CREDIBLY accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by multiple women. It’s not a he-said-she-said, but rather a he-said-she-said-she-said-she-said-she-said-… The State Senate found it credible enough to launch an investigation.

    Daylin’s third line has been to attack and demean his accusers or accuse them of some agenda. (He even filed defamation suit.) I think at one point he tried to claim that Cara’s story was invented by a political opponent, despite her telling the story to friends and family for over 20 years, and her having no political connections.

    She claims that Daylin convinced her to lie on the stand in her mother’s trial. When she got caught and it went bad, Daylin channeled is inner Col. Jessup, and not only cut her loose, but helped the DA convict her of perjury. So, now that she has perjury conviction (from 25 years ago), Daylin tries to portray her as a unreliable felon who cannot be believed on ANY matter.

    (If this sounds familiar, it was pretty much the core mantra of all the Republicans who questioned Michael Cohen and his credibility, while actively ignoring all the documentation, like checks.)

    Daylin is vowing to finish his term and never to resign. He’s clearly not getting another term.

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