YOU CROSSED A LINE, BROOKE
A letter from Susan Kuebler, member of the Devin Pandy for Congress Campaign Team
When the news broke recently that you were ordered to spend four days in jail for defying a court order, Devin felt a message of support for your well-being was in order and responded with what I believed to be a compassionate and respectful message for your situation. We all make mistakes, and he hoped you might have learned from and internalized the situation.
But Brooke, honey, from everything I have seen and heard from you since then, it doesn’t appear like you ever got or read the memo. In fact, you made the situation worse at the Lumpkin County Democratic Debate by comparing your arrest, not once but twice, to the arrests of the late Rep. John Lewis and other civil rights workers. You had already done so at the Georgia Public Broadcasting/Atlanta Press Club 9th Congressional District Democratic Runoff Debate that occured on July 19th, 2020. That crossed a line that I simply cannot ignore. Then you went even further and claimed that John Lewis was your friend and mentor.
While there is no way to set the record straight about your personal relationship with Rep. Lewis, a claim you never made before his death, the time has come to clarify some of the other claims you have made during this campaign.
Yes, I watched that debate, just as I was present for an earlier, pre-COVID debate between Devin and Dan Wilson. And I asked you a fairly non-controversial question to name the four candidates whose campaigns you claimed on numerous occasions to have worked for. You gave one full name, part of a second name, and couldn’t name the others.
Speaking of candidates you say you worked for, now correct me here if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure you said you were a Field Director for Barack Obama’s campaign in South Carolina. Ever heard of a thing called Google, Brooke? I easily checked out Obama’s Field Team in South Carolina in 2008. Couldn’t find your name listed anywhere. Just to be sure I hadn’t misunderstood what you claimed, I also checked Obama’s Field Team for 2012. Then, to be extra sure, I also checked his Field Organizations in North Carolina in 2008 and 2012. I couldn’t find your name listed on any of these org charts either as Field Director or Assistant Field Director. As Ricky Ricardo used to tell Lucy “You’ve got some ‘splaining to do.” Okay, maybe you’re too young to understand the reference, but you get my drift here.
Brooke, bless your heart, I’m quite a bit older than you, but I can still name every candidate whose statewide campaigns I worked for in Georgia, along with the two Democratic Senators from Georgia whose staff I was on in D.C., and the two Congressmen for whom I also worked. I’ve also voted in every single Presidential election since 1972 (except 2004 when I was at the ER with my mama). I’m telling you this because I’ve been involved in Georgia politics since before you were born.
Brooke, being arrested for committing domestic violence and then arrested again for defying a lawful court order in no way, shape, or form compares to the record of courage and sacrifice that defined the life of John Lewis and other civil rights leaders. Your arrest history is a matter of public record — one which our campaign has known about for some time now. However, it was never our desire to make this known because that is not the type of campaign Devin has chosen to run, until you crossed that line, Brooke.
The same court order you violated shows that you and your attorney requested an Emergency Hearing on the court order for June 18th, a request that the judge denied. Does that day ring a bell for you? It does for me. June 18th was the day you had agreed to debate Devin during the Gilmer County Democrat Party’s monthly meeting and I was there to support him. However, at the last minute you called them and said you couldn’t attend because your father in Florida had suffered a stroke.
If this has slipped your memory sweetheart, here’s a little reminder. This is the complaint filed by your ex-husband against you in March of this year.
Do you remember telling the 9th District Democratic Women’s Forum a little more than two weeks ago that, except for some personal issues that happened a long time ago, you had nothing in your background to hide? I certainly do, and I imagine the viewers from that day recall this as well.
Brooke, did you know that when you accosted Devin while he was sitting in his parked vehicle in Gainesville, and pitched a full-blown hissy fit, he was still on a Zoom team meeting with his campaign staff? Yes, we all saw and heard everything you said because you thought he was getting “special” treatment from the Hall County Democrats. Even as he patiently explained that this was not the case. That he wasn’t going to steal or trash your posters (flyers, really). Or that he had feelings on the subject of you claiming he had gotten an “improper” endorsement from the independent group “No Dem Left Behind’’ because “Democratic organizations shouldn’t endorse candidates before the primary.” We all got a chuckle out of that one Brooke — since it came after you called them asking for an endorsement.
Jennifer McCall, a highly respected family lawyer in Gainesville, where both you and Devin now live, had the following to say,
“Brooke Siskin reassured constituents that there was no potential scandal that could disrupt her campaign, knowing that her contempt case with her husband and her March bank arrest, were both looming. I don’t judge Ms. Siskin’s personal life, but this is a very public undertaking, and it is my strong conviction that running for office in such circumstances would be detrimental to her and to the party.”
Brooke, I can understand and sympathize with people who suffer from mental illness. I’ve been treated for chronic depression and severe anxiety disorder for over 15 years now. In 2014, I suffered a serious accident that left me with five broken ribs, a hemopneumothorax (I was also on a non-reversible blood thinner), and a collarbone fractured in two that required a second surgery to get the plate holding the two parts together in place correctly. Even though I was under the care of a psychiatrist at the time, the undiagnosed PTSD I suffered led to my spending a week at a mental facility.
But Brooke there’s now this new thing about your Facebook account that was just published by The Atlanta Progressive News. Here’s the link to the article.
I know you told them your account had been hacked but did you seriously post that you were dead? And if you were hacked, why is the post still up? If you’ve deleted it since yesterday, why did you never respond to any of the replies to this post telling your followers that you had been hacked and reassure them that you were fine? I used to work with a guy who posted that he was dead, with the post supposedly sent by his ex-wife. So I can speak from personal experience, dearie, that this is some seriously messed up, um, stuff.
Devin informed the team of your recent visit to his office where you, again, accosted him, hurling unfounded accusations that he had something to do with what you presumed to be Mrs. McCall’s questions at the forum regarding your “personal business.” Like Devin can, or would, control what questions a voter chooses to ask while rightfully vetting candidates. Like Mrs. McCall could or would allow her credibility to be manipulated in that way. What you don’t know is that Jennifer is a good friend of my daughter, from their days at the University of North Georgia. Would you like for me to call her and get a more specific quote on this? Probably not, bless your pea-pickin’ heart.
Another woman from Gwinnett County also replied to Scout Smith, one of the executive members of the Democratic Party of Georgia, in the same public forum.
“This woman has been doing this kind of thing for ten years. All of us in Gwinnett have either tried to get her help or try to stay away from her. She has threatened candidates and elected officials. On a campaign I worked on recently, we had to not announce a canvas publicly because we didn’t want her to know where we and our volunteers were.”
When you crossed the line of comparing your arrests to those of John Lewis and other civil rights activists, you left me no choice but to speak out. You cannot continue to lie to the voters of the 9th District and to yourself that your “personal situation” has no bearing on this election. It is a matter of public record; and don’t think for a moment that a well-funded and ruthless Republican opponent will not use this information against you relentlessly. Nor that it will reflect badly on other down-ticket candidates.
I sincerely hope that you will thoughtfully consider this information, not just for yourself, but also for the good of the Democratic Party of Georgia and other Democratic candidates who are currently waging hard-fought campaigns to flip our state blue. Even though I am a member of Devin’s team, I am speaking out on behalf of myself and all the voters in the 9th District who consider honesty a prerequisite for anyone running for office to earn our votes. Luckily, as a decent judge of character, I tend to spend my time on candidates who respect me enough to get out of the way when I deem something needs saying.
Susan Kuebler is a Senior Advisor and Head Writer for Devin Pandy for Congress. A life-long resident of Georgia, she first became involved in Georgia politics when she served as a summer intern in Senator Herman Talmadge’s office after graduating from high school in Griffin. She worked for a Democratic candidate for the state office of Comptroller General, now the Insurance Commissioner. Before continuing in politics, she attended the Honors Program at UGA then transferred to George Washington University. Susan has been happily married for 41 years with a grown son and daughter, both of whom have achieved Masters degrees. She is now retired but has been actively involved in Devin Pandy’s campaign since December 2019. When she has time she enjoys riding her horse: Dude. She would like it to be known that she was once the 14th runner up in the 1969 Miss America contest, so there.
