Democratic leader says nominee should withdraw from race

Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole confirmed Friday that he advised District 1 Congressional candidate Ron Dickey to withdraw from the race in a conference call discussion on Tuesday.

"I gave him my honest recommendation. I felt like it would be in his best interests to withdraw," Cole said, adding that he specified that Dickey's financial situation might not be optimal for turning the message of Dickey's campaign after his claims of being a member of a Special Forces unit have proven to be exaggerated.

"I don't see how he can sustain his family and be the fulltime candidate he needs to be to be able to change the discussion back to where he wanted it on veterans' issues and mental health issues and not these others that have emerged because of his embellishments," Cole said.

Dickey said at this time, he will continue his campaign.

"I am not going to withdraw from the race, because opportunities like this come once in a lifetime," Dickey said. "Prior to all of these issues happening, I took quite a bit of time to think about running for the office. I put a lot of consideration into it and ask if it was plausible for someone like me to do. At this juncture I haven't done anything illegal to keep me from continuing to run."

Dickey came under fire from the Special Forces community after a post on GuardianOfValor.com profiled him and his statements. That ignited a storm of correspondence between veterans groups around the country, Dickey, the media, and the Mississippi Democratic Party.

Cole had said in emails with Special Forces vets that he didn't take Dickey's claims lightly. It wasn't only the financial aspects that led Cole to make the recommendation to Dickey.

"I don't see how it serves the interests of the Democratic Party to be supportive of a candidate that has been so blatantly false in his representations of his military record," Cole said. "I'm just as embarrassed as I can be about this. That's one of the many reasons I recommended that he ought to withdraw."

Cole went on to say that Dickey remains the Democratic candidate for the District 1 race because he won the Democratic primary.

"The mechanics of it are that his decision on whether to continue or not is completely in his hands. He's the Democratic nominee," Cole said. "We don't have any mechanism to say he's not our nominee. The law says he got our nomination, he'll be on the ballot in November."

Dickey has explained that his claims on the internet, in news articles and on social media of being a Green Beret were generalized statements because most civilians wouldn't understand the difference between support personnel and those who have passed Special Forces qualifying courses. He said his platform will continue to include veterans' rights as a centerpiece.

"I do apologize if I offended anyone, but to be crystal clear, the only problem with my bio is how it came out, not only to the constituents in Mississippi, but also to the Special Forces community,"Dickey said. "No matter how many times I apologize, it can never be enough. I'm sorry. But as long as I know who I am and s long as I can continue this fight, I will fight for vets anywhere."

Cole has stated multiple times that the Mississippi Democrats do not support untruths told by anyone, including Dickey.

"We have to repudiate the untrue statements he made about his military record. They were uncalled for, and he shouldn't have put it in his bio," Cole said. "We won't be part of misleading the voters like that."

Dickey was a food services specialist at one point with the 3rd Special Forces Group at Ft. Bragg. He also served overseas in Korea as support staff with a Military Police Unit. He has admitted since the online firestorm against him started that he did not complete Special Forces training, but he also points to the fact that he never claimed to have outside of calling himself a Green Beret Veteran of Desert Storm.

During the early 90s, support personnel were allowed to wear the beret of the unit they were supporting in the name of uniformity, therefore, Dickey was issued a green beret.

"Yes, everyone was issued a green beret, but I don't even want to hold on to that anymore because nobody can see the difference between being Q-School qualified and simply having one," he said. "I slept in the barracks, I wore the uniform, I served my country proudly. That was part of my uniform. After a while of being so long attached to something, you begin to think you're part of the team. But that never gave me the opportunity to say that."

However, Dickey stands by his military service.

"Understand this, knowing that I could have had to drop anything in my hand inside or outside a dining facility and defend my country like any Special Forces tabber, and I always had my M-16 locked and loaded," Dickey said. "I had an M-16 too, and I was ready and willing to use it even to the point of having to kill to defend my country."

Special Forces veterans across the country have written letters and posts and made statements against Dickey's claims, and have researched his deep past thoroughly. This week, they sent a statement to the Democratic Party that they wanted Dickey to issue word for word. He said the apology he issued on his Facebook page should stand.

"Whoever is asking me for another apology and asking me to withdraw from the race, they're just trying to keep this thing going. If you have to craft an apology for me to give, then that didn't come from my heart," he said. "The people who are my critics are wanting things to come directly form me, but if it's crafted it's not from me. That apology isn't sincere and wasn't originated by me and wasn't coming from my heart."

The Special Forces veterans involved in outing Dickey's claims issued a statement Friday afternoon.

"The association of Special Forces veterans involved with clarifying this matter would like to express their genuine appreciation to the Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole and his organization for taking the high road and withdrawing their support publicly for District 1 candidate, Flemron Dickey. As we have stated from the beginning this never was and never will be about partisan politics, race or personal animus. By publicly acknowledging that the Democrat Party candidate is less than honest, he has sent a clear message to Mississippi voters that it would simply be unconscionable to cast a single ballot for him.

In the final analysis, any reasonable constituent would have to concede that if a candidate would unhesitatingly and even stubbornly cling to falsified claims of military service, that candidate might well also tell voters he has their best interests at heart when in fact, he is only working to realize his own personal agenda. Mississippians of any political party must hold their representatives and candidates to a standard of basic truth. We must take an honest appraisal of the person claiming to know what's best for us, our future, and the future of our communities and families.

Lastly, it should be mentioned that as a loose and voluntary association of Special Forces soldiers from the past to the present, we as veterans choose to abstain from trying to leverage our status to become an engine for politics but rather, to pursue and defend the ideals of freedom in whatever ways are left at our disposal. We do this out of love for our country and our countrymen and never for personal gain. To be free, people must know the truth and then, even more critically, they must acknowledge and speak the truth. In the words of the Special Forces Regiment -De Oppresso Liber (To Free the Oppressed)!"

Dickey faces incumbent Republican Alan Nunnelee in the November election.

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.