Tuolumne County Supervisor Steve Griefer, who had agreed to debate community organizer Renée Orth this Saturday, has withdrawn from the event.
Griefer had agreed to participate in the debate not in his official capacity as a county supervisor, Orth said in a news release last week. Griefer confirmed Thursday in a phone interview with The Union Democrat that he would be debating Orth as a private citizen.
“I believe that I was crystal clear that I was not going to come to this event as a supervisor but as a citizen,” Griefer said in an email addressed to Orth, shared with the newspaper, and posted online. “I believe that your intent to have an open discussion was true, but now it appears that this has become a political issue, and the intent has been corrupted.”
Griefer cited several issues that convinced him to withdraw from the debate, including The Union Democrat article that announced his participation in the event, which he characterized as being “written in a way to make it appear to the people that I was representing my constituents and the county.”
Griefer said the headline, “Tuolumne County supervisor will debate community organizer this Saturday,” was misleading and untrue. Griefer was elected in March 2024 to a four-year term as the District 4 county supervisor that began last January and expires in January 2029.
Griefer also said he never agreed to having the event taped and aired. The nonprofit Access Tuolumne had planned to record the event.
Griefer also took issue with Orth’s statement in her news release, “The purpose of this debate is not personal or performative. It is an opportunity to clarify the values guiding recent decisions by Supervisor Griefer, and to examine those values in the broader context of the national crisis we are facing.”
Griefer said he was not sure how Orth drew the comparison between when America was great, the topic of the debate, with some of his recent decisions on the Board of Supervisors.
“With that nexus being drawn, I no longer feel that there is a way to keep my comments, as a citizen and as a supervisor, separate in the eyes of the public,” Griefer said. “More concerning, having this event filmed and edited or repurposed is of grave concern to me, as well as my legal counsel.”
Griefer said he had received multiple comments, online and in person, that it would not be wise to continue with this debate “for it appears that there is a hidden agenda to attack, defame, or slander my standing within the community.”
“To be honest, I feel that the spirit of this event has changed, and trust has been broken, therefore I will not be participating in the event on Saturday,” Griefer said in the email.
Orth said that event will still take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday at the Aronos Club, 37 Elkin St. in downtown Sonora, despite Griefer’s withdrawal.
“The focus will be on the essential role of principled leadership in American greatness — specifically, the need for leaders at all levels who demonstrate courage in their convictions and integrity in their commitments,” Orth stated Friday in an email to The Union Democrat.
Orth had hoped to debate Griefer after he declared during his report to the county Board of Supervisors on Sept. 16, six days after the assassination of conservative personality Charlie Kirk: “Anytime, anywhere, any subject, wherever you want to meet, I will debate you in the honour of Charlie, whatever that topic is.”
Griefer added, “And I will do that because discussion is the first and foremost weapon we have against evil… This is a nonpartisan position… I will fight for every person and their rights, regardless of whether I like it or not.”
Orth said she interpreted Griefer’s statement as an open invitation to debate and posted a video to social media on Sept. 24 accepting the invitation. She said at that time that debate topics could include the nature of evil.
Orth said Friday that Griefer issued his challenge to debate in his official capacity as a supervisor — at a public meeting during board reports in board chambers — so his decision “to shed that mantle of leadership for the debate was always problematic.”
While Griefer’s stipulation that he would participate only as a private citizen was problematic given the context, “I accepted because my intent was never to debate county business specifically,” Orth said.
“The suggestion that this debate has become a ‘political issue’ misrepresents reality — this has always been a political matter, and any claim otherwise lacks credibility. Supervisor Griefer is an elected official who voluntarily assumed that responsibility. Leadership is not a role one can selectively adopt or discard based on convenience. The concern that video footage might be used politically is inherent to public service in the digital age and does not constitute legitimate grounds for withdrawal.”
Orth said that Griefer’s assumption that her reference to his recent decisions pertained solely to board action is incorrect. She said the context of her acceptance of his Sept. 16 invitation to debate was clear: his personal Facebook activity.
Griefer said late Thursday to Orth, “Originally, when we started discussing the potential of having a debate, I stated to you very clearly this: ‘My comments made at the meeting where I stated I would debate means just that, me as a regular citizen, not as a supervisor. I make this distinction because I would not want to answer questions about the county, since the topic was about Mr. Kirk’s goal of having open discourse, open peaceful discourse, about issues concerning our society.’ ”
Orth said Friday in an email to Griefer, also shared with this newspaper, that he could not credibly claim surprise about the topic of the debate, for which she requested his feedback in December, or the content of the news release she sent him on Jan. 15.
“That release explicitly identified you as ‘Tuolumne County District 4 Supervisor and current Chair of the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors, Steve Griefer’ and specified, per your own email, that you had ‘agreed to participate in the debate as a private citizen, not in [your] official capacity as a county supervisor.’ ”
Orth said she did not have a hidden agenda, that she’s always been transparent, and that constituent questions about his public conduct are part of how functional democracy operates — elected officials must expect accountability from their constituents.
“I am a District 4 resident,” Orth said. “You represent me. Today, I am profoundly disappointed by that representation. If backing out of a commitment made ‘in honor of Charlie Kirk’ is your definition of honoring his memory, one must question what you thought Charlie Kirk stood for.”
The Union Democrat posted the article announcing Griefer’s participation in the debate Thursday evening. The post had received more than 170 comments as of Friday afternoon, and it was one of the platforms where Griefer announced he would not take part in the debate.
Contact Guy McCarthy at gmccarthy@uniondemocrat.net or (209) 770-0405. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @GuyMcCarthy.