Posted: 12/6/06
Final Draft - by Cliff Buchan
Will the Rev. Samantha Wood vote on Dec. 12?
It will be interesting to see if a Rev. Samantha Wood votes in the first Scandia City Council election next Tuesday. It may be just as interesting to see if Dr. Samantha Wood even exists.
We are now leaning to the conclusion that Ms. Wood ó the writer of a letter to the editor last week ó may not exist, at least as the person claiming to have knowledge of what goes on in Scandia and a person who indicated who she would be voting for on Dec. 12.
There are only so many ways you can spell it or say it but we now believe we were ìdupedî in our Nov. 30 Open Forum column. Ms. Wood was the author of a letter that challenged the integrity and honesty of the current members of the New Scandia Town Board.
The letter was submitted by e-mail and included the writerís name, Scandia address and telephone number. We confirmed the letter with an e-mail reply and felt comfortable that the writer was legitimate. We pointed out to Ms. Wood that the charges in the letter may well lead to a rebuttal from current members of the town board. (See Dennis Seefeldtís response in this issue.)
We did not reach Ms. Wood by telephone.
Late last week calls to our office started coming from Scandia asking about the writer. One questioned if she really did exist.
We now face the reality that small town politics may again have reared its ugly head in a local election. Last weekís slam by the so-called Ms. Wood may well be a political dirty trick aimed at fooling the sincere voters who want to do right by their new city in its first city election.
The letter and the subsequent information led us to wonder about the writer. Hereís what we have learned about the Rev. Ms. Wood.
According to Scandia records, there is no Samantha Wood registered to vote there. There are no phone book records for the person. We know there are people named Samantha Wood living elsewhere in Minnesota, but not in this area.
One of the callers last week alleged that Ms. Wood may be one Jan Hogle, a sister of one of the candidates for the city council on Dec. 12. She has not been a fan of the town board and earlier this year was removed from the park and recreation committee.
In her letter, Ms. Wood listed an address of 21507 Lofton Ave. N., Scandia. A cross check of other Hogles in Scandia shows the address of 21509 belonging to Jan Hogleís parents, Don and Marilyn Hogle. Marilyn Hogle said last week she thought Samantha Wood lived in Scandia but did not know her, even though she must be a ìneighborî if the address is to believed.
Based on the fact that Don and Marilyn Hogle live on a large acreage, there is no way that Samantha Wood can be a ìneighbor.î County tax records and U.S. Postal Service addresses show both numbers on Lofton Ave. belonging to Don and Marilyn Hogle. Don and Marilyn Hogle and Jan Hogle share the same 433 telephone number.
We have tried calling the cell phone number of the Rev. Samantha Wood several times but did not receive a response. We also strongly suspect that the cell phone number also belongs to Jan Hogle.
What are the lessons to be learned here?
For the newspaper it is to never be too trusting of those who submit letters and to be more diligent in verifying letters. We thought we had in this case but in the invisible world of electronic mail, we were fooled, sadly. One should be able to trust a minister, right?
It is unfortunate that the good names of town board members Dennis Seefeldt, Nancy Madden and Mike Harnetty have been tarnished. All are candidates in the Dec. 12 election.
How harmful is the attack? The full result wonít be known until after the election but the impact has been felt. Seefeldt told the newspaper last week several Scandia residents have asked him why the new female associate pastor at Elim Lutheran would write a letter criticizing Seefeldt and other board members.
There is a new female pastor at Elim but it is not a Rev. Samantha Wood and the Elim leader has written no letters, criticized no one, but being new to Scandia, she is now being confused and associated with the fictitious Rev. Samantha Wood.
And so the falsehood of the Wood letter is perpetuated.
We sincerely hope our readers in Scandia will be able to sort out fact from fiction and make their ballot box decisions based on the real issues of the day and not the claims of a mythical Open Forum writer who would apparently stoop to any lows to achieve some kind of political victory.
This is not how local politics should work and we hope Scandia residents will reject the negative attacks on Tuesday, Dec. 12.
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605