County County Candidate Brandy Brooks sent a blast email an hour ago entitled “A Test of Leadership” that’ says she stands for “Leadership that is accountable, transparent, and committed to equity and justice. I also believe that the test of leadership isn’t what a leader does when things are easy, but what she does when the going gets hard, amid challenges, conflict, and stress.”

Yet neither this email nor a linked longer explanation mentions what she did or how she has been held accountable in any meaningful way. It describes a process run by her campaign manager but omits that Michelle Whittaker is her sister. Imagine what Brooks would say if a political opponent delegated handling an incident like this to a relative?

Even as she touts her transparency, Brooks explains that she asked her endorsing partners for confidentiality. She never mentions harassment let alone the sexual harassment described in the Washington Post.

Rather than taking ownership of the problem and taking decisive action, she went away for two weeks for self-care and “intensive reflection” which juxtaposes uneasily with her claims of “organizing” to promote “equity” and staying in the race for her volunteers and supporters. Disappearing for two weeks when the “going gets hard” isn’t the best advertisement for her leadership skills.

Even more strangely, despite writing about preparing some sort of statement of acknowledging wrongdoing during her two weeks of reflection, there has been no public statement of accountability on her part. All she says is that the employee complained of a “hostile work environment” but never owns it.

Instead of transparency and accountability, her email is a ultimately a whinge that essentially says “I tried” and then attempts to transform Brooks into a victim of her endorsers who didn’t keep quiet and her victim for supposedly pulling out of the mediated agreement and speaking out.

Brooks did remember to include a “Donate” button in her email.