At 6:15 PM on Wednesday the 13th, several candidates for offices that will be representing Lansdowne got calls or emails (or a note through their websites) from John Whitbeck (who is running against Dave Butler for 10th HOD) inviting them to what had been a “residents-only” meeting at 7:00 PM that same night. The meeting was to discuss whether or not to begin a suit against Open Band.

This seems to have been a way of enabling Ralph Buona, who is running for Ashburn Supervisor against Lansdowne resident Valdis Ronis, to attend a meeting that Valdis was entitled to attend.

Considering that Buona has received quite a lot of money from MC Dean, Bill Dean, and other executives from MC Dean, that MC Dean owns Open Band, his presence at a closed “residents-only” meeting, where other attendees had to show proof of residency is questionable, at best.

Inviting other candidates less than an hour before the meeting was due to start does not grant cover to what is pretty obviously political game-playing by Whitbeck.

According to my sources, neither Dave Butler nor Randy Minchew were invited.