Before he came to Maine and was vilified for trying to start a white separatist group, Jackman Town Manager Thomas Kawczynski dabbled in politics in at least two other states.
Most recently, in late 2015, he served as one of about 200 “town chairs” for Donald Trump’s still nascent presidential run, representing Lisbon, New Hampshire, according to a Trump campaign press release. In 2011, Kawczynski was a candidate himself – announcing a run for county executive in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, as an anti-fracking, pro-wind power independent. State records and news reports show he failed to get on the ballot.
In 2008, Pennsylvania elections records show he filed as a Republican candidate for the 16th Legislative District in the state Assembly but withdrew from the race.
On Tuesday morning, his job will be on the line when he meets at Town Hall with the four selectmen who hired him in June and are now weathering a storm of public outrage over Kawczynski’s statements promoting the separation of the races.
Kawczynski triggered an outcry Friday for anti-Islamic, white-separatist and misogynistic views he expressed on Gab, a social networking site associated with the far right.
In recent posts, he has sought funding for a defense fund and said he expects to lose his job over the controversy: “I’m guessing I should be working on my resume as my public sector career looks likely to draw to a close in one form or another,” he posted on Gab. Similar appeals for financial support and essays explaining his views are on his “New Albion” website.
On the New Albion website he wrote: “I believe in all people, living as they choose, in free determination. For the people of New England, our folk are white people of European ancestry and ideas, emphasizing the value of work, communing with nature and a society based upon order. While I am not an absolutist on race understanding, the many complications created by the American system, I do believe to the extent we voluntarily separate, the happier every group will be as they regain self-determination.”
Kawczynski also attacked feminists.
“It’s no accident unattractive women make up the vast majority of feminists,” he said on Gab this month. “Their issue is less with the roles men and women play, and more with resentment about the lack of attention they draw from men due to these attributes.”
He said in a post on Gab Monday that GoFundMe shut down his fundraising appeal there, which had raised about $100 in several days. He also set up a fundraising page on Hatreon, a crowd-funding site popular with extreme right figures since it does not bar hate speech, like other fundraising sites. But Hatreon has been down for several days, so no funds have been raised there.
Reached by phone Monday, Kawczynski said he was not granting interviews until after the meeting with selectmen and the town’s attorney, and he did not respond to emailed questions. On Gab he said he’s no longer talking to mainstream media.
But during an exclusive appearance late Monday evening on True Capitalist Radio, Kawczynski vehemently denied he is a racist, a Nazi, and a white separatist – terms he says he has been called by the media.
“I am not fighting against anyone. I have no hatred. … I just believe that people like me deserve to get a fair shake,” he told Ghost, the talk show host for True Capitalist Radio, during an interview that lasted more than an hour.
Kawczynski said the country has become too politically correct. He argued that people who live in a small, rural town like Jackman deserve to receive just as many of the federal government’s resources as do immigrants.
“It is the responsibility and social contract of our government to spend money on the American people,” said Kawczynski, who repeatedly referred to himself as a white, civil rights activist.
Ghost defended Kawczynski, referring to him as a member of his “inner circle.” Ghost also took the opportunity to bash what he referred to as the “lamestream, mainstream media.”
Since the controversy erupted, Kawczynski has insisted in interviews and social media posts that he is not racist, and that he welcomes people “of all ethnicities” in his group. But his posts on Gab in recent weeks regularly include racist, sexist, separatist messages.
“Haiti has been a shithole from day 1,” reads one post entered after Trump reportedly uttered the word in a White House meeting with senators. “My job is to just keep building the ark up here while hoping for the best elsewhere.” “To quote Papa John’s, if better ingredients make better pizzas, does it not also follow that better people make better countries?”
Some posts are tied directly to living in Maine: “In my very small corner of #NewAlbion, up in western Maine, I’m actively working to make sure we have our own utility, power generation, developing and diversified food production, and cultural unity within our small isolated community,” he wrote. “While there are some disagreements up here in New England about the best form of government and society, every conversation I have with people anywhere near where I live agrees upon one thing: We do not need and do not want refugees.”
Numerous groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, have condemned his views.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center became aware of New Albion after neo-Nazi Billy Roper highlighted the group and we were sent its brochure. It’s unacceptable to see people in leadership positions espousing white nationalist views. Tom Kawczynski should step down immediately,” Heidi Beirich, director of SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said in an emailed statement.
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey contributed to this report.
Noel K. Gallagher can be reached at 791-6387 or at:
Twitter: noelinmaine
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