MEDFORD, Ore. – A Medford City Council candidate is facing backlash on social media after images were released of what appeared to be hateful comments coming from his profile.
Sunny Spicer, the executive director of Kid Time Children’s Museum, released two images that have been shared hundreds of times. They appear to show Medford City Council candidate Curt Ankerberg calling her names and using expletives to describe her.
Ankerberg, who is a certified public accountant, is one of four candidates running for Medford’s Ward 1 seats.
The other candidates on the ballot are Steve Dickson, David Dobrin and Alex Poythress.
NBC5 News spoke by phone Tuesday with Ankerberg. At the time he declined to comment. [update: Ankerberg’s comments can be found below Spicer’s comments] Spicer replied with the following statement:
“Early in July I saw a Facebook post from a Medford City Council Member asking people to spread the word about an opening on the Medford School Board. I had heard that Curt Ankerberg was running for the position and commented on the post that “I hoped someone would run because Ankerberg was running.
“Two weeks later, I received the direct message referenced in the article.
“The comments from Ankerberg didn’t stop (as noted in the other screen shot) until I deleted the original comment and blocked him, literally fearing for my safety.
“It’s important to note that I’m much less concerned about the personal insults than I am about the fact that Ankerberg directly threatened my organization. I run a nonprofit children’s museum that serves several thousand families in this community. Thousands of children each month rely on us for early learning services. That’s why the Medford City Council voted to partner with us on new venture that will locate our organization in the City-owned Carnegie building. Mr. Ankerberg, who is now running for city council, reacted with such vengeance to my opinion that someone should run against him in the school board election that, that he has decided that, should he be elected, he should use his power to destroy a vital community resource that serves children in need. “
After this article was published, Ankerberg sent NBC5 the following:
I’ve never met or spoken to Sunny Spicer in my life. NEVER. I don’t even know the woman. Before I ever wrote anything to her, I caught Sunny Spicer PUBLICLY trashing me, and name calling me, and mocking me on Kevin Stine’s Facebook page, unprovoked by me. I had not posted on Kevin Stine’s Facebook page. Sunny Spicer brought my name up out of the blue, unprovoked, and was defaming me publicly for sport. I read it, and I didn’t like it, so I wrote her a private email and asked her why she was smearing me, which then escalated to a number of emails back and forth. Why don’t you ask Sunny Spicer why she was trashing me BEFORE I had ever met or spoke to her?? She doesn’t even know me, yet she was trashing me. What would you say if I publicly libeled you and your wife on Facebook?
Afterwards, Sunny Spicer called the police on me for the emails. The police thought that she was a joke. Sunny Spicer is a joke. If Sunny Spicer was ever afraid, then the woman is absolutely mentally ill. No threats were ever made to her. She called me “Angrybird” on Stine’s Facebook page FIRST, so I responded by calling her a “hog”, and then she called the police for that. The woman is absolutely sick. She was also mocking me for previously running for the school board. At least I had the courage to run. The school district has a 42% pass-rate. Perhaps she should run instead.
I’m not Sunny Spicer’s punching bag, and when she defames me publicly, then I have every legal right to respond to her in-private, which is what I did. The fact is, that she colluded with Peter Sage to make this incident public. This incident occurred months ago, before I was even a city council candidate, and Peter Sage has promoted it, and kept it alive on his blog. Of course, Peter Sage refuses to publish the entire conversation, or what Sunny Spicer said to me first. I never respond unless someone calls me out first. Sunny Spicer smeared me first.
As far as the Carnegie Building goes, it has nothing to do with this incident. The Carnegie is a publicly-owned building, and millions of tax dollars were recently invested in it, and my belief is that it should be used by a government entity, and not by a non-profit. Ms. Spicer’s non-profit is no more special than other non-profit in town, and it shouldn’t be shown any favoritism. The fact is that Ms. Spicer knows that I oppose her use of the Carnegie Building, and thus that’s her motivation to fabricate this story in order to defame me. Ms Spicer is an fervent progressive activist with a liberal agenda, and this stunt was done by her for political purposes.
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