Jun 4, 2013 4 min read

I hope that state Rep. Jesee White does not interpret these remarks as a political attack from one of his enemies. I believe that he can learn from the events of last week and see the experience as an exercise in humility and not as the culmination of his political opponents trying to humiliate him.

I am a Democrat and not one of his constituents. I have adamantly disagreed with his position in the Washington County reassessment debate and believe it amounts to political showboating. The citizens of Washington County deserve to pay property taxes that are fair and equitable. His repeated attacks against the lawyers and school districts who seek to achieve this goal have been misplaced, personal and vicious.

Conversely, I have for the most part supported White’s efforts to look under the rug of the oil and gas industry in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, because of the recent disclosures, his work on this important issue has been badly damaged and his actions have caused irreparable harm to the cause, for all of us.

At the risk of making a point that goes without saying, there is a deep chasm separating the politician who seeks elective office to become a statesman, where there are two sides to every issue, and one who seeks elective office to advance an individual personality cult and/or to acquire a dedicated power base. The latter type of politician seeks to make enemies in order to carve out a following and make a name for himself, without regard for good governance.

Similar to the case before us, there are also lawyers who become emotionally attached to their client’s causes and journalists who are unable to stay unbiased when reporting on political events. In all these cases, professionalism is forgotten; unwarranted blame is assessed against the perceived “enemy” and little of worth is accomplished.

I would like to make a few observations on social media in this affair. I have written in the past that those futurists who predict that these new methods of communication will soon become the vehicle for local news and replace newspapers are dead wrong. Jesse White’s antics help prove my point. Facebook, Twitter, hidden email identities and the like are fraught with emotional knee-jerk reactions and outright falsehoods that belie accurate reporting. The Observer-Reporter was correct in canceling impossible-to-verify comments on its online site.

On the other hand, there is nothing unique in what White was attempting to do. Since the invention of the printing press, writers have used false or hidden names to advance their agendas. Heretical theologians did so to save their heads. In Paris before the French Revolution, everyone tried to guess the authors of the hundreds of political pamphlets circulating on the streets. What makes this episode more egregious is that it feels like an attack on our democratic principles when an elected official seeks to boost his political standing by secretly creating online fictitious supporters. Jesse White avatars run amok. A little like science fiction and a little like a trip to the graveyard to manufacture votes on Election Day.

It is difficult to believe that White could have gained much political traction through these self-serving and childish actions. When his older constituents, who make up a majority of the voters, read about the allegations, they will have little idea what all the fuss is about. Most of them have never been on Facebook or read an email response to an online letter. They know White through the newspaper, the last township meeting or the local bingo game.

In other words, his game-playing, if left undetected, would have had little influence on Jesse White the candidate. Somehow I think that Mr. White knew this. His online actions were about “being right” and “getting the enemy” not about getting votes.

Initially lying and blaming the investigation on his political opponents and then changing his story to “my opponents made me do it” was not sound damage control. He should have done a complete mea culpa and parked his ego in the closet. Even a loose cannon like former Congressman Anthony Weiner was able to be more contrite after his social networking exploits.

White can probably recover from this self-inflicted wound by taking some of his boundless energy and directing it in a more statesmanlike manner to the issues at hand. I hope that he does. A lot less sniping and a lot more legislating and measured discourse would be good for his district and for his political future.

Gary Stout is an attorney based in Washington.