News
Time to read: about 4 minutes
President Ronald Reagan used to say "Trust, but verify."
But that was a long time ago. Now it should be "don't trust until you verify."
There is a campaign to discredit newly-elected San Ramon Valley Unified School District trustee Jesse vanZee. One of vanZee's competitors, Michelle Petersen, claims he pulled "dirty tricks" that cost her the election.
It's heavy on intrigue, but light on facts.
Maybe Petersen sought out a reporter who would not ask questions -- or for evidence -- because she is running for another office and needs to save face. Maybe she did it to distract people from the fact that she made a false claim during her campaign about being a retired firefighter.
What is certain is that judgments are being made about vanZee based on one-sided reporting and subsequent sharing of the unverified information.
Like many others, we received an email from a group called "East Bay Educators" on Nov. 3 stating Petersen put "Retired firefighter" as her ballot designation when she had actually resigned. They went on to say Petersen resigned before she was fired from her position at the San Jose Fire Department because of a fraudulent disability claim.
Instead of posting it, we called the candidate and asked about the allegation. She didn't deny it, only said she would answer our questions after the election. After the election it was a moot...
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