Bucks Political Parties Issue Statements on Cullen Tweets
It was a battle of press releases Tuesday as both major political parties in Bucks County fired off statements surrounding Joan Cullen, a Pennridge School Board Director and County Planning Commission member for Tweets she posted in 2019.
Bucks County Commissioners’ Chair Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia characterized the posts as hateful, ignorant, and unacceptable, last week.
The tweets came into the spotlight when a online petition began to circulate on social media calling for Cullen’s resignation as vice president of the school board f0r her tweets.
To date the petition has 1819, signatories
County Republican GOP Committee Chairwoman Pat Poprik in a statement Tuesday afternoon issued via the parties social media platforms, said:
In January, the Bucks County GOP decided against considering Republican candidate for PA-01, Andy Meehan, for endorsement in light of “discriminatory social media posts.” That was a surprising course correction from a County Party that has often trafficked in racial dog whistles in their campaigns. But their latest press release is a return to normal. It’s a shame to see this stunning reversal at such a pivotal moment in our nation’s history.
What appeared at the time to be a step in the right direction from Republican leadership, has been replaced by a deeply cynical move to shore up their base after Meehan’s strong showing on Primary day.
Now, Bucks County GOP Chairwoman is defending Joan Cullen’s right to free speech. And we agree, she has the right to hold antiquated, unfortunate opinions and to believe we live in a fantasy world where systemic racism, homophobia, and sexism do not exist. But that does not mean she can serve on a public board without scrutiny in 2020.
Ms. Cullen should take the temperature of what’s going on in the world right now: we’re in the middle of the Black Lives Matter movement, Pride Month, and live in a country where women still earn 82 cents to the dollar that men make (even less for women of color). The movements at the forefront in this country are setting the standard and that standard is basic human decency. I find it extremely troubling for any of our leaders to fly directly in the face of this baseline from which all progress is built.
We fully support Commissioner Marseglia asking for Ms. Cullen’s resignation from the County Planning Commission Board and we support the petition calling for her resignation from the Pennridge school board. It’s our First Amendment right to do so.
Cullen locked her Twitter account since receiving attention for the Tweets and issued a statement to another publication earlier this week through her attorney, Dean Malik.
Cullen, the report says, is demanding a ‘retraction and apology’ from Marseglia calling the County Commissioners statements deceitful, abusive and libelous’ the Bucks County Courier Times report says
Marseglia has refused to budge, the report said, and she is standing by her statement.
This Post Has 0 Comments