Apology from Kevin Husted

Husted

Medford School Board candidate apologizes and leaves race.

Husted chooses reconciliation.

Thirty hours after images of Kevin Husted's Instagram post of 2015 was revealed via the web to politically engaged Medford-area citizens, Kevin Husted posted a letter of apology and announced he was dropping out of his campaign for Medford School Board. 

His apology was unqualified and met the standards of a "good apology" as defined by the the classic study of public apologies, Sorry About That, written by Ed Battistella and published by Oxford University Press.  Doing a good apology restores the social order, Battistella wrote, and it re-establishes a path for the wrong-doer to return to good graces within it.

Husted named that his Instagram post was wrong, 

Took personal responsibility for it, 

Click: Battistella

Expressed regret for it and the harm it caused others, and 

Resolved to repair the damage he caused.

Husted did all of these. The letter is below. The offending Instagram post has been widely distributed but here it is again:  Click

First, a campaign strategy. 

Husted first approached this controversy as a campaign event, a matter that primarily involved his campaign hoping to unseat incumbent School Board member Karen Starchvick. He could survive the controversy if he got more votes than her. Since his reputation was damaged by his Instagram post, his opponent needed to be damaged equally or more so that this would be a head to head contest between them. 

That required that his behavior be minimized and she be attacked.  It was the, "Yeah, but what about the other guy" approach. 

Husted's designated spokesperson, Reagan Knopp, wrote me yesterday with that message, minimizing Husted's Instagram post, and pivoting to an attack on Starchvick, saying her policy priorities for the schools were wrong. 

Husted supporter Jim Horner, an incumbent member of the School Board, running for re-election, did the same. He responding to my inquiry about Husted with sharp criticism of Starchvick. Starchvick had done wrong things, he wrote, drinking alcohol with five other Board members watching election returns at Four Daughters pub,  a potential Meetings Law violation. "Wow," he wrote.

Horner dismissed Husted's Instagram post as the sort of mistake common to everyone, no big deal and something equivalent to what Starchvick might do herself.  He wrote, "I’m sure that most of us, including Kevin and Karen, try to take many steps forward but occasionally take a step backwards."  

This is hardball politics. Attack and divert. It can work.

This approach came from Knopp and Horner, but it was not the focus of social media comments, and I reviewed several hundred of them. Husted had his defenders, but they argued that Husted was a nice guy, really. They didn't try to bring Starchvick into it. People looked at the Instagram post and were offended, then shared it.

Husted's apology letter

Switch. 

Instead, reconciliation.

The problem with the campaign approach is that it abandons the goal of moral and political reconciliation. A great many people did not see this as a comparison. They saw Husted's post in isolation. Look at his post. This is wrong.  It was a reflection on him.

Husted had put onto Facebook the sentiment that School Board members should be positive role models and demonstrate respect. I presume this is a genuinely held moral value of Husted. 

That created a problem. The campaign strategy required him and campaign allies to defend, through minimization and linkage to Starchvick, his Instagram post, calling it just another of those occasional steps backward, as Horner put it. 

It required him and his allies to pull a female incumbent into his mess, rough her up, and define her as morally equivalent to him. If he won the campaign, he could say that the voters validated him.

He might have had victory, but not reconciliation. Husted would have been stuck having put his name and reputation behind the position that his post was OK, or at least OK-enough, and that it met his own personal standards, that it was consistent with his notion of respectful role model. It would have meant that the Instagram post was the real Kevin Husted, person and candidate.

It wasn't the real Kevin Husted. His apology shows he considered it a mistake, an error. He apparently didn't want to defend it; he wanted to say, "Sorry. My mistake."  

So he did.

In addition:  I had agreed to post Jim Horner's letter to me in its entirety. I do so below, except for removing the copyrighted photo from the Mail Tribune that was included in his letter to me.  

Peter,

Jim Horner

Thanks for your note, it’s great to hear from you.  Thanks also for your work with the Medford Schools Foundation.  The fund raising party you held last summer was wonderful and inspired a contribution from Kathy and me.  Also thanks for agreeing to post my reply in its entirety.

Kevin’s unfortunate image reminds me of the unfortunate image created when Kevin’s opponent, Karen Starchvick, then board chair, gathered a quorum of the board (not including Cynthia Wright and myself) at a local pub to imbibe alcoholic beverages and review the results of the CTE bond election.

[Removed: Photo from Mail Tribune of people sitting at Four Daughters pub.]

As I’m sure you remember, it appeared on the front page of the Trib. not just in a blog.  A number of constituents not only criticized Karen’s judgement of holding a school board meeting at a pub, but they also suggested the meeting was illegal.  Wow, talk about questionable mature judgement!

I’m unable to respond specifically to the rest of your question as it concerns possible board action regarding a district employee, not a four year old posting by a private citizen.

In my opinion Kevin did a good job as chair of the District Budget Committee and he has served as president of the Oak Grove PTO and has been on the Logos Charter school board.  I’m sure that most of us, including Kevin and Karen, try to take many steps forward but occasionally take a step backwards.

Regards,

Jim