Jason Salus, the elected county treasurer for Montgomery County, the executive vice-chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Committee, and the area leader for the Colonial Area Democratic Committee, sent an email (view here) earlier this week that accused the recently announced “Protecting Colonial’s Future” slate of school board candidates of being a Republican front.

The five candidates who comprise “Protecting Colonial’s Future” are current school board members Susan Moore and Cathy Peduzzi, former school board member Beth Suchland, and first-time candidates Beth Patruno and Chris Epstein.

In their campaign announcement, these candidates stated that they would not seek the endorsement of either party and stay totally non-partisan.

In his email, Salus writes:

This weekend you may have seen information from school board candidates pretending to be “non-partisan”. You need to know that this is a campaign being run by the Colonial Republican Party, masquerading as “non-partisan” because Republicans are mostly unable to win elections in our area.

What Salus doesn’t share is that four out of the five women running as “Protecting Colonial’s Future” are registered Democrats. In past elections, two out of the five have been endorsed by the Colonial Area Democratic Committee (Moore on the school board and Peduzzi on the school board and as a supervisor in Whitemarsh Township).

What is interesting about Salus’ accusation is that for school board elections “non-partisan” is supposed to be the default position for all candidates. Candidates from either party can cross-file and appear on the other’s ballot.

Guess what the campaign of Felix Raimondo and Leslie Finegold, the Democrats Salus is backing for school board, named their umbrella organization? They didn’t even attempt to appear non-partisan. The name is “Colonial Democrats for School Board.”

Salus’ evidence for his accusation that “Protecting Colonial’s Future” is not really non-partisan is due to a Republican’s home address being utilized as the origin of a campaign email.

Salus then goes on in his email to provide further evidence of this Republican/Democrat conspiracy. This evidence consists of Sheldon Simpson, a Republican who is a former elected official in Plymouth Township, liking and sharing an article MoreThanTheCurve.com published about “Protecting Colonial’s Future.”

We found Salus attacking four female Democrats at odds with the jubilation over the recent success of female candidates in Montgomery County and Pennsylvania overall. We emailed every elected Democrat in Conshohocken, Plymouth Township and Whitemarsh Township, the county commissioners, and the school board members not up for election, to ask their thoughts on Salus’ email.

None responded. Not one.

Are they really that dependent on Jason Salus?

“Protecting Colonial’s Future” did respond to the accusation. You can find their response on their website.