MARTIN RELEASE ON DISMISSAL

The Ed Martin campaign released this statement late yesterday on the dismissal of the charges by the GOP. While he may have been gracious in his response I most certainly will not be. The GOP should be held accountable by their actions in this case.

Considering that the charges were brought about by a mentally challenged man in David Caldwell Louisville News and Politics: CALDWELL DISMISSES HIMSELF FROM CHARGES AGAINST MARTIN, with disregard for him, and the fact that the Vice Chairman of the local GOP himself Cordell Lawrence aided and abetted no this should not be forgotten or handled graciously.

Exerting political pressure with yet another insider suspect individual, attorney and LD chair Vincent Heuser Jr., while knowing the state of Caldwell was inexcusable. I work with and on behalf of those physical and mentally challenged individuals in our community, including my own godson, and I most certainly do not take this situation lightly accordingly.

Meanwhile, here is Ed Martin's response:

Ed Martin received notice Friday afternoon that Jefferson County Republican Party vice chairman Cordell Lawrence has voluntarily dismissed the suit challenging the Libertarian candidate’s right to appear on the ballot for the 3rd District Congressional seat.

The suit alleged that at least 115 signers of Martin’s petition for inclusion on the ballot were not registered in the district and that several signatures did not belong to the person listed on the petition.

“We believed this lawsuit was baseless and it looks like the Republicans have come to their senses.” Martin said. “Quite frankly, bullying a grass roots third party campaign through the legal system comes off kind of desperate, and that’s no way win the hearts and minds of the people. To their credit, I think they realized that.”

A similar suit against independent candidate Michael Hansen was also dropped.

Lawrence’s change of heart came just one day after Martin campaign chairman Ronald Seiter sent an email to the Todd Lally’s campaign asking that the Republican candidate publicly call for the suit’s dismissal.

The Lally campaign has denied any involvement in the suit.

Seiter said he was just glad to have the whole thing resolved.

“I have no doubt that we would have prevailed in court, but I’m glad we don’t have to deal with the distraction. Now we can focus our full attention on the issues and showing the people of Louisville that Ed has real solutions to the problems they face,” he said. “I think the actions of the Republicans prove that our candidacy is credible and legitimate. Now we are going to get busy demonstrating that to the people of the 3rd District.”