It has not been very pleasant. I have been traveling a lot across the world, and at each airport stop once arriving back into cell phone coverage, I have been flooded with text messages and calls wondering why I still defend the Lakota school board member Darbi Boddy and do not have the same kind of sympathy with current school board president, Lynda O” Conner, and member Isaac Adi. I understand the concerns, but neither Lynda nor Isaac are conservatives, and you know what I always say. I love all Republicans until they show me that they aren’t. There isn’t a situation where Lynda and Isaac give the illusion of a conservative school board. At the point I’m at now, I’d instead remove the illusion and let the Democrats have it so we can hang them on all the problems later. Playing this game with Lynda and Isaac is lying to ourselves, and I see no point in doing it. All it does is cause further brand damage to the Butler County Republican Party brand. My view on these silly disputes is that they are small-minded, who in their right mind cares about power on the school board except for people who don’t bring much value to anything else in their lives. Watching what Lynda has been willing to do to achieve such silly power has disappointed me. The school board is a part-time gig at best. It should never generate the kind of political games from Lynda’s camp, and I cannot support her or those propping her up. I have given them a chance. I’ve worked with Lynda, and that picture Isaac Adi has with Jim Jorden is one that I took. I have tried to help all of these people. But only one hasn’t lied to me, at least that I know of yet. And that is Darbi Boddy. The rest of them have been horrendous, and if that’s the best we get, we might as well vote for Democrats.

I’ve heard a thousand times, that Darbi lied to everyone during the vetting process, and represented herself as a calm, collective, friendly person willing to play ball. I’ve heard from even friends of hers that Darbi engages in personal outbursts and is very aggressive. I had experience with Darbi before she was elected, and I have had several complex discussions with her since; I can say that she has always been honest, even very Christian, much more so than I initially thought. She has values and she defends them. And she has never been crazy or violent around me, and maybe she had a right to be. I always liked Darbi Boddy, but I like her much more now after two years in office than I did the year leading up to the election where she and Isaac ran together as an endorsed Republican Party ticket. Darbi has been my favorite among all the people I have dealt with on the Lakota school board over the last decades. I don’t think she misrepresented herself during the fundraising and campaign stage. I think what happened was that Lynda used her to get the vote for the school board president position then quickly turned against her when the mask debates were getting heavy during Darbi’s first month after being sworn in. And that betrayal hurt her, and it has only gotten worse since, not because of Darbi, but the behavior of the other school board members.

You might have heard in the news that Isaac Adi won his restraining order against Darbi Boddy in court, where Lynda was nearby blowing on the fire to help it burn. Lynda is the one who lied and misrepresented what she was up to. Isaac indeed misrepresented himself to me and I am excessively disappointed in him. Darbi has not disappointed me. Lynda has. Isaac has. And the rest of the characters fall somewhere along those lines. My policy in all things in life is that I’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but once I find out you’ve lied to me, it’s over. And it’s over forever. There is no forgiveness. So that is why I still support Darbi Boddy but am very much against Isaac Adi and Lynda O’Conner. Everyone knows that I do not like Julie Shaffer, one of the other school board candidates. Despising her is a more accurate term. I would vote for her before I would Lynda O’Conner because I think Julie is more honest, and at least I know what kind of Democrat radical I am dealing with. They all register as Republicans, but their actions always tell the truth about them. After watching that mess, which likely will be overturned on appeal, the protective order against Darbi from Isaac because his little feelings have been hurt by how aggressive she is, I’m willing to call it a day on the whole election for the Lakota school board. Think how absurd all this is; Sheriff Jones is threatening to arrest Darbi to help his buddies on the school board when he can’t even arrest all the people showing an interest in abusing children which caused all this trouble to begin with. All those who have helped Lynda will have to learn a hard lesson. Don’t call me because I will tell you I told you so. Out of all these characters the only one who has consistently told me the truth has been Darbi, which is why I still support her and have nice things to say about her. She has been very respectful to me, my wife, and conservative politics. And that is supposed to be what we are all fighting for.

Hey, everyone only has themselves to blame. Around 20 great young people wanted to run for political office, and the Republican party could have gotten younger with fresh people with long shelf lives.  What will Lynda do? Give Butler County 4 more years, of what?  And will Isaac be the future of the Butler County Republican Party?  He’s getting restraining orders against women!  People like Darbi make people want to go out and vote Republican, and several people like her would be good.  However, the Party decided to pick controlled assets they felt more comfortable with rather than people who would make the party better and represent the voters of Butler County.  Lynda and her gang have played the game of personal destruction and the damage left in the wake is her fault, and those who helped her along—trying to talk me into throwing Darbi in as an equal failure would be dishonest.  I think Darbi has every right to be upset at everyone who has been terrible to her.  People of value often find that their feelings get hurt, and she’s disappointed in other people.  Not the other way around.  With all that, it should be pretty simple why I support Darbi Boddy.  I would love to see a school board with four more like her.  But that won’t be the case this time around; Lynda is the one who went against the plan and misrepresented to everyone what she wanted.  And I’m not OK with that.  Darbi, in my experience, was a good person who was easy to work with until she was sabotaged with an effort a few months into her term to be removed from office.  And that kind of personal sabotage is just another form of election fraud.  The voters picked Darbi.  Lynda and others have worked to undo that election, and that is the worst of the worst in my book.  And why Darbi is not in the same boat as Lynda and Isaac.  And why I support her and not them. 

Rich Hoffman