To the Editor:

I deeply regret having to write this letter, but to be silent, would be to let false and incomplete information and impressions stand.

The Polk County Democratic Party Executive Committee does not pressure our local officials to take particular positions or vote a certain way on any issue. If a majority of us are in agreement on a position, we do pass resolutions so the public will know our position. For example, we did pass a resolution stating we did not support forced annexation.

Last year when an accusation spread around our county that an official had accepted luxury golf items in the spring of 2007, I did voice my belief that our elected officials must always be accountable, ethical and impartial with their actions and decisions. To help achieve this, I presented an ethics resolution to the Democratic Executive Committee for discussion three months ago. &bsp;

That resolution primarily stated a position that Democratic candidates and office holders not accept gifts from persons who do business with the county or who bring matters before the Board of Commissioners.&bsp; At that meeting, Warren Watson asked that the resolution be tabled (put off, sometimes indefinitely). The Executive Committee adopted the ethics resolution at its next meeting, which Warren did not attend.

The only other time I have ever requested anything from a commissioner was at one commissioners meeting when I felt that one of the commissioners was personally attacking and humiliating the person that he was questioning at the lectern. During the break, I did ask the commissioner to stop the personal attack. &bsp;

If this is undue political pressure, so be it. I feel strongly that no citizen, county employee or elected official, no one, should ever be humiliated by an official in public.

These two incidences show that as the chair of the local Democratic Party, I have been willing to confront behavior in my own party that I did not think was right. This is what it takes to have a clean political system and my belief is that it must be done from within.&bsp; This has always been my guidepost as county chair, and I feel it is one reason why our local party has made great progress in the past few years.

Warrens accusations of corruption at all levels are unfounded. He cannot cite one incident of unethical or corrupt behavior by our local Democratic Party or by the remaining three Democratic Commissioners. I keep wondering why he never mentioned his concerns or why he did not use his position of leadership in the Party or his vote on the Executive Committee to address his thoughts.

Last October, Warren told a room full of people at the Democrats Fall Rally at the Harmon Field cabin that he would be running for re-election as County Commissioner on our ticket. Since then, he has not spoken once of any problems he has had with being a Democrat or with our local partys actions or direction. We all believed that he was going to file on our ticket on the last day of filing.

Changing affiliation and declaring to run as an unaffiliated voter just three hours before the filing deadline left us little time to fill the slot we expected him to fill on our ticket. This was a betrayal to the many Democrats who worked so hard to get him elected and whose support he has gladly continued to accept over the last four years. His actions were unexpected and are hard to understand.

How people go about doing things usually says more about them than their words ever do. I am sad that Warren has chosen to leave our Party. He had been a part of some fun times working together for good causes (like our chili cook-off to raise funds for the new Adult Day care Center). But most of all, I am hurt by how he chose to do it.

Margaret Johnson

My comments are intended to reflect no ones views except my own. Democratic Party rules require that I do not serve as County Party Chair while I run as a candidate in a race that will have a primary election.