An op-ed has sparked a social media war between two East County politicians who didn’t even know each other before its publication.
La Mesa City Councilmember Kristine Alessio published an opinion piece on an online blog Tuesday about why she left the Republican Party. In it, she called out local Republicans and Democrats for not holding their own party members accountable.
As an example, she named El Cajon City Councilmember Ben Kalasho.
Allesio cited four recent declarations against Kalasho, including an allegation made by a former beauty queen accusing him of sexual advances and rigging pageant results, and Kalasho's claim that El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells and another council member discriminated against him.
"He was just a case making my point that the political parties do nothing about bad behavior with their local politicians," Alessio told NBC 7.
Kalasho saw the post and responded in his own way -- by posting a poll on Facebook with a photo of Allesio smoking an e-cigarette that asked users "What is councilwoman Kristine C. Alessio smoking."
The poll had two options: crack or meth.
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The Facebook post was preceded by a lengthy text post that called the councilwoman a "dunce whose only path to media is by riding on the coat tales (sic) of other more well known, more prominent elected officials."
Alessio called his behavior, "terrible."
"He's making a perfect case for my argument about political parties not getting rid of their poorly behaving candidates," Alessio said.
Kalasho told NBC 7 that he was fair game, but "when you attack my family, that's a line that I draw in the sand."
Alessio doesn’t mention his family, but Kalasho said he took issue that Alessio mentioned how the lawsuit reflected on the judgment of his family.
Kalasho closed out his post with an announcement that he would donate $25,000 to anyone who runs against Alessio for La Mesa City Council.
"There is no bantering, no posturing here, I am dead serious. If you are reading this, and want to run against this simpleton than I have a check waiting for you," Kalasho wrote.
Kalasho stood by what was posted on social media when NBC 7 asked Thursday.
"[Alessio] has to know that actions have consequences and you can't just go around willy-nilly saying whatever you want about people without having the facts," Kalasho told NBC 7.
Both these councilmembers are up for re-election in 2020, though Kalasho is now running for mayor of El Cajon.
