I volunteered my time. I walked away. Six months later, why am I still part of the conversation?
There is something fascinating about people who cannot seem to move forward without dragging the names of those who already left into the conversation. Imagine minding your business, building your businesses, serving your community, and suddenly discovering that your name is still being passed around like campaign literature. At some point, you have to wonder whether the problem is really the person who left or the inability to function without making that person part of the explanation.
I have been out of Kisha D. Skipper’s political campaign for approximately six months. Yet people have approached me with accounts of negative statements allegedly made about me, some attributed to Skipper. I cannot verify conversations I did not personally witness, and I will not pretend otherwise. But then I came across a published article discussing the campaign’s filing problems in a way that, to me, suggested responsibility rested with its former treasurer. Excuse me? I left this campaign months ago. Why am I still being pulled into its problems?
Let’s establish some facts, because apparently the timeline needs its own microphone. I accepted the unpaid treasurer position for Kisha for Westchester on January 21, 2026. What started as one responsibility expanded into event planning, communications, outreach, relationship management, and whatever else needed attention. All while I worked demanding hours inside a maximum-security forensic psychiatric facility and maintained my responsibilities as a wife, mother, grandmother, and community advocate. I was volunteering my professional experience, not auditioning to become somebody’s permanent problem solver.
I verbally resigned March 29. My final day of campaign involvement was April 2. I returned the campaign bank card April 14. Skipper was aware of my departure. After submitting resignation paperwork in May and again in June, I received formal approval from the New York State Board of Elections on August 4. Those dates are documented. They do not automatically settle every legal reporting obligation, but they establish an essential timeline that should be considered before anyone attempts to explain the campaign’s filing history.
During my involvement, I was not provided complete access to the campaign’s banking information and financial records. I worked with the documentation available to me. If there are questions about financial filings, examine the reporting periods, records, access, deadlines, and actual responsibilities. That is what accountability requires. A former title is not a substitute for an investigation, and a convenient narrative is not the same thing as a documented fact.
And since we’re clearing things up, let me address another story that has reached me. Kisha Skipper and I were not friends. She may have understood our relationship differently, but I viewed it as professional. I entered that campaign to contribute my skills, not to build a personal relationship. So the suggestion that my concerns are rooted in a broken friendship does not reflect my experience. I did not leave because my feelings were hurt. I left because I evaluated the circumstances and decided my time, labor, and energy belonged elsewhere.
What troubles me is the expectation that someone should continue carrying the weight of an organization long after choosing to separate from it. I gave my time without compensation. I answered calls after exhausting shifts, contributed relationships I had spent years developing, and made room for responsibilities that often extended beyond my original role. Those were sacrifices I chose to make because I believed the work mattered. But generosity should never be mistaken for an unlimited obligation.
Westchester is a community where your reputation walks into rooms before you do. People remember who helped organize an event, who connected them to resources, who returned their calls, and who showed up when there was nothing to gain. I have spent years building those relationships through public service and professional commitment. They did not begin with this campaign, and they do not belong to it. That is why I take seriously any public account that may leave readers with an incomplete understanding of my involvement.
I have witnessed and experienced things during my time with the campaign that I have chosen not to discuss publicly. I am not interested in making unsupported accusations or reopening every disagreement. Serious matters deserve evidence and context. But restraint should never be confused with an inability to defend yourself. I know the difference between protecting my peace and allowing an incomplete account to stand without correction.
And since leadership is always part of the political conversation, here’s a question worth asking: Why is it sometimes easier to focus on the person who walked away than to examine the structure they walked away from? What happens when a volunteer establishes a boundary? Does the organization respect that decision, or does the person’s departure become a convenient explanation for unresolved problems? Leadership is not simply about attracting people to a mission. It is also about accepting responsibility when those people are no longer there to carry the work.
I am prepared to sit down with a journalist, share my correspondence, and answer questions about my actual responsibilities. I welcome a careful examination of the timeline and relevant records. I will acknowledge mistakes if the evidence establishes them. What I will not do is accept blame based on assumptions, incomplete reporting, or somebody else’s interpretation of my departure.
Your campaign is no longer my business. I am not standing beside decisions I did not make, defending actions I did not oversee, or volunteering to absorb consequences that have not been shown to belong to me. I have a family to love, businesses to build, and a community to continue serving. My energy has somewhere to go, and I refuse to spend it repeatedly explaining why I chose to leave a position I was never paid to occupy.
So before my name becomes another talking point, check the dates. Examine the records. Ask the questions that accountability actually requires. And if you’re going to tell a story about my involvement, make sure the full context is represented.
I gave my time. I did not give anyone ownership of my reputation.
My name is not a favor. My integrity is not negotiable. And my departure is not your excuse.
