There is no substitute for the genuine article. Two Bay Area Dudes and a creature of Sacramento are running against Brian Dahle.
Rex Hime is a career lobbyist / “Third House” dude. A lot of my friends in Placer County think Hime is a righteous dude and have endorsed him. I’ve been told that Rex Hime is a right-winger. I have a hard time believing that as the Sacramento Cesspool either does brain damage, sucks you in to a compromise vortex or turns you out. No offense to Mr. Hime, it is what it is. 21 years in the political game has taught me a healthy disdain for Crapitol Mall. I don’t have a whole lot more to say about Mr. Hime, in deference to all the people I know that think highly of him.
Speaking of things Mr. Hime, Dizuba and Kiley have never operated…
What about Brian Dahle? I first met Dahle in 2011 when I was helping Andy Pugno against Beth Gaines and Shasta County Supervisor Les Baugh against Ted Gaines. Les told me what a great man and Christian Brian was. Dahle was then a Lassen County Supervisor. Dahle was supportive of Les against Ted Gaines despite the fact that Gaines was a prohibitive favorite. Seeing Dahle honor his friendship of Les Baugh meant something in the political world of shifting sands, backstabbing and expedience. This was even more amazing as Dahle was in an uphill fight for Assembly.
If you are wondering about Brian Dahle’s Conservative Bona-Fides:
The Capitol Resource Institute – who supported Dahle’s opponent in 2012 after taking thousands from the political machine behind him, rated Dahle 100%.
Howard Jarvis rated Dahle at 98% in 2016, the California Taxpayers Association was at 100% in 2018.
The NFIB chipped in a 100% rating.
In 2016, Howard Jarvis, the CA Pro-Life Council, Crime Victims United, and the California Labor Federation all endorsed Dahle. Heck, the NRA rates him a lifetime A and endorsed him for good measure.
This is why the support of the Police (PORAC) and the Firefighters Unions, who frequently endorse Republicans do not phase me in the slightest.
I am going to take to a separate post (or 20) to talk about Kevin Kiley. While he is a talented young man, I have not been impressed with several decisions he has made. Suffice to say, I would prefer Rex Hime (If I could not have Dahle) to Mr. Kiley as a perspective State Senator. The reasons are not personal, they are issues of leadership and choices.
Just to tease an example – in the just concluded CAGOP Officer Elections, Both Kiley and Dahle appointed an array of people across the spectrum. Some supported Travis Allen, most supported Jessica Patterson (IE the Establishment). Rex Hime was appointed by Kevin McCarthy and his Proxy was carried to the CAGOP Convention by Patterson herself. Dahle endorsed Patterson.
Kevin Kiley did not endorse anyone, yet his proxy was carried by Trump-Hater and noted liberal GOP Consultant Kevin Spillane. I have far more respect for Dahle and Hime planting their flag on the wrong side than attempting to waffle out of taking a stand. (Note: I worked for Pay for Travis Allen and was proud to stand up for Conservatives in doing so)
Like any other CAGOP Convention – especially when I am pushing for candidates, it is stressful and long hours. That is no big deal. But, for your intrepid blogger it was a great weekend on a personal level. For the benefit of a lot of Travis Allen supporters who are wondering what and how it happened, I will attempt to address some of it. There are some that have posted screenshots of re-registering out of the GOP, that is guaranteed to not be the way to solve any issues.
Any of you with any history in the CAGOP know the significance of this
As a hardcore pro-life conservative, Travis Allen was my first choice for CAGOP Chairman. Steve Frank in my opinion was out of position to deliver results. The first awesome thing was being able to get to know Travis Allen and has team. I disagree with the negative characterizations I’ve heard about him from some. Knowing Travis as I do now, I get 100% why some love him and some hate him. I pretty much live in the same world.
Secondly, I got to spend several hours talking to CRA Vice President Tim Thiesen and CRA Exec VP Carl Brickey. After getting expelled from the CRA in 2015, those were the two relationships that I missed the most. I do believe my very public role in helping Travis Allen helped heal wounds and make the reunion possible.
Third, Almost all of Jessica Patterson’s team were polite and even friendly to me. I had a few chats with George Andrews. He is a good dude, one of my favorite swamp creatures if you will. I even chatted with David (Stafford) Reade, Jeff Randle and Mario Rodriguez. All three men were polite and friendly. Reade even cracked a joke about how good he looked with a Cigar in his mouth.
Mario suggested we connect in a few days. While talking to Mr Randle and Mr Rodriguez, our conversation was broken up by Andy (gimmecandy) Garakhani who stood out as one of the few that were outright rude to your intrepid blogger. I do intend to sit down with Mario, Jeff Randle and others – at least to meet them, ask a few questions and to try to establish some sort of relationship.
Fourth, I got to talk to Devon Mathis for about an hour. While I disagreed with his Cap and Trade vote, I understand who he is a lot better now. I also had a chance encounter with former Assemblyman Dante Acosta as well. It was fun to catch up with him as I am friends with his former Chief of Staff and go back to 2010 in the CRA with Dante.
Fifth, I got to meet Joshua Whitfield and Heath Flora. Both went out of their way to be polite and friendly. Flora suggested we open lines of communication. Easy enough.
Sixth, I ran in to John Cox who was genuinely glad to see me and just as onrey as I remember him. Good dude. I also ran in to Luis Alvarado a couple times, he is also one of the good guys even though I wish I could cure him of his TDS 😉
I went to #CAGOP2019 and all I got was this lousy tee-shirt
Jessica Patterson won with 54.6% of the vote on the first ballot. The margin was 285 votes. Reports I had indicated that the “leadership” team had something like 265-280 proxies. Reade himself indicated 280. One of the proxies they had was Kevin Kiley’s, whose proxy was carried by Consultant Kevin Spillane. This is an example of the operation they ran professionally to make sure they accounted for every vote.
There were allegations of “arm twisting”. As your intrepid blogger was able to dig deeper, it appeared to me not much more than having conversations and using persuasion on people that were willing to listen. This would include appointees taking delegates out to dinner to educate them on the finer points of Mrs. Patterson.
There were at least three known Travis Allen supporters that flipped during the convention. This is normal as people are generally unreliable and want to back a winner. As this human unreliability was on display and I am sure Mrs. Patterson’s campaign took inventory as people willing to switch last minute to back a winner are not the kind you build a movement on. In my political lifetime, I’ve seen that a gracious opponent that offers help after losing a battle is almost as reliable as someone on your team from day one. This is one of the main principles I personally operate by.
The only direct coercion I am aware of are nominees being told if they want to run again they should support Jessica Patterson. At that, I spoke with a couple of them directly, and only one really perceived that communication as a threat. When juxtaposed with the behavior of the Patterson Campaign team at the convention, it would appear that overt threats were not something employed.
It would be so much easier to explain Travis Allen’s defeat at the convention if I knew of tons of people that were coerced, it just simply did not happen.
I have some takeaways from the convention, and some I am not sure there are answers for and most there are.
Jessica Patterson led the floor session with poise and professionalism after she won the election. It is clear she prepared for it. She is not a good off-the-cuff speaker and with practice she will get better. I have been told her nickname in the consultant world is “The General”. This means she has a skill set to lead.
Volunteer Group endorsements matter. The Corrin Rankin for Vice Chair Campaign had a professional operation. This blogger lit up Peter Kuo hard and people read the posts en-masse. Mr. Kuo won with 57% of the vote on the second ballot. With the leadership types releasing all of their controlled delegates to vote however on the other officer elections, it is clear most deferred to the direction of the volunteer clubs that endorsed Kuo.
Candidate nomination speeches and show matter. Patterson used her 15 minutes to burn Travis Allen down to the ground. It featured jilted PAC President Carl DiMaio venting his rage on Travis Allen. The weekend featured multiple negative attacks on Mr. Allen. This stuff works. Peter Kuo’s campaign executed this phase almost flawlessly as he used surrogates to make an emotional appeal to parlay his residual name ID in to a victory on Sunday.
The Orange County GOP is a shell of itself. Greg Gandrud beat their machine straight up 595-593. Gandrud also “Out-Retailed” all the other candidates on the floor of the convention.
Randy Berholtz ran a flawless campaign. He started out with high-profile supporters, introduced himself through them and then carried home a 3-1 victory.
Several in Jessica Patterson’s team went out of their way to tell me there is no “Black List”. They added that at 24.5% registration that we need to build bridges, etc. I want to believe there is no black list, but with almost 10 years of residency on said black list I have to defer to my own personal experience as a guide.
Let the significance of this sink in. Cox in 2018, Travis Allen in 2019. What’s next?
If you are Jessica Patterson, you enjoy the win for a couple days and start contacting groups that did not support you. Somehow, the list of people jilted from being delegates need to be reached out to. Obviously, money needs to be raised. If there is a black list, it needs to be torn up and people on it need to be brought in to the fold.
If you are the team around Jessica Patterson, you have a string of gutted Central Committees, volunteer organizations that are shells, with still others fracturing in to a million pieces. You have a shrinking donor base and an apathetic caucus that only showed up to protect the status quo at this convention. What do you do? Do you care about the shrinking, splintering Volunteer Organizations? Do you try to revitalize Central Committees, or do you try to continue controlling shells as per the last 10 years? What do you try to sell donors on? Is it possible to get sitting GOP legislators to engage?
If you are Travis Allen, you have a choice to make. Stay or go? I hope it will be to use the movement you have as a force for good within the CAGOP. Given what I know about Travis Allen, I am sure he will do the right thing.
Your intrepid blogger spent 2 months torching Jessica Patterson’s campaign and crew. I do believe that we framed the debate correctly – it was indeed the insiders (aka the swamp) versus the rest of us. Given that the lines were clearly defined, and everyone knew them, they made their choice clearly.
I am sure a few people will not like me very much. It is clear that I personally did not make any new enemies this weekend. I don’t engage in cowardly anonymous attacks, I sign my name to them. The behavior and interactions I had with people this weekend told me that while they are irritated with me, there is a level of respect for being willing to stand up and be counted.
That said, your intrepid blogger will follow through on his promise to respect the results of the election. I am looking forward to meeting some of these people in person, smoking the peace pipe and figuring out how to win some elections next year.
Lastly on a personal note – the California Impact Republicans was given a full charter by the CAGOP at the end of the 2019 convention. This was the culmination of a 3 1/2 year mission after being expelled from the CRA in 2015. The CIR was created to be a group of Conservatives, Squishes and in between with a goal of recruiting candidates and winning elections. We tell people we are no-compromise conservatives that welcome everyone. As of today, the CIR is in 11 counties with 14 chapters. I will be stepping back from a position of executive leadership to a more advisory role as a political director now that the organization is self-sustaining.
Thanks for reading – if you are a Travis Allen believer, supporter and activist, please do not go away. There are a lot of good conservatives that need you to stay plugged in. In the 21 years I have been involved, I’ve been through the gamut of wins and losses, yet here I am still standing. My message to you is please stand with me.
Please note that your intrepid blogger is directly, professionally helping the campaign of Travis Allen. (In case that was not obvious or you missed previous disclosure) Also, as you can see Corrin Rankin is an advertiser on this blog. I’ve also been making calls on behalf of Greg Gandrud and Randy Berholtz.
Yesterday, I wrote a second post about the 2011 CAGOP Platform Drill. It is my number one issue with Jessica Patterson, Luis Buhler, David Reade, Jeff Randle and the host of others. The platform is foundational to party identity. If you have no identity, you have no party. What Jessica Patterson did by getting paid to shred the platform was wrong and that reason alone would have caused me to pick a different candidate.
I also wrote about the $3Million Rampage of Luis Buhler and David Reade hunting down Conservatives off of Central Committees statewide. This is my second biggest issue with Mrs. Patterson as she is a paid operative of that same cabal. I fear that with Mrs. Patterson as chairman, the hunting of conservatives with big money will continue.
This is a change election for the CAGOP. The result will determine the fate of the CAGOP for a generation.
We’ve successfully defined the Jessica Patterson vs Travis Allen for CAGOP Chair race as insider vs grassroots. This is why recently, Patterson’s team of professional consultants are trying to re-define California Trailfailures as a grassroots organization – even while the logos of corporate donors are still displayed on their website. They have also sought to define her as a conservative, another sure-fire sign of problems. If you have to tell someone you are a conservative, you have an image problem.
Steve Frank, 71 is an old warrior for the conservative cause. He has added to the debate for sure. He has some extremely loyal supporters and that means something. He also publicly pledged along with Travis Allen to support Allen and the second ballot and Travis Allen has done likewise. This unity of purpose among conservatives is refreshing and rare.
If Jessica wins, what do Frank’s and Allen’s supporters do? Do they leave, do they stay and disrupt? Or do they cohesively participate? Will Reade, Randle and Luis Buhler retaliate and create blacklists as they have done for the last 20 years? What kind of committees will she appoint as the Chairman appoints Vol Orgs, Resolutions, Rules and others?
If Travis Allen wins, what will Jessica Patterson and team do? Will they withdraw completely to make Travis Allen’s job difficult to the extreme? Do they try to undermine him behind the scenes if they stick around? What about all the staffers appointed as delegates? What do they do? Will they run media drills against Travis Allen similar to what they have done against other political adversaries?
Repeat the same battery of questions should Steve Frank win.
The Stakes for the “Down-Ticket” races are less severe. It is the opinion of this blogger, backed up with evidence that the optics around Peter Kuo are disastrous for the CAGOP. While the level of passion in the Vice Chair Race is nowhere near the Chairman’s race – what will Kuo and his team do should he lose to Corrin Rankin?
Worse, even if you agree that Kuo’s many foreign businesses are legitimate, research of his facebook account shows he is gone 4-6 months out of the year on business. What happens then?
I have no doubt whatsoever that Rankin will accept the result and continue on regardless. I also know that she will be one of the most effective Vice Chairs the party has had in a generation should she win. She will be a full-time Vice Chair and available to all.
Treasurer? Kathy T has a lot of friends and a lot of history. As I type this blog, it looks like Greg Gandrud and Kathy T are evenly matched. Gandrud has support across the spectrum. Kathy has a lot of institutional support and the rumors that she was recruited by the establishment are still sticking. Despite said entanglements, Kathy T may be the most conservative candidate not named Randy Berholtz that is running.
Greg Gandrud is one of the most qualified CRP officer candidates we have to choose from in this election. Gandrud’s endorsement list is an impressive cross-section of the party from the far-right to the far-left. He has assembled this list of support despite implied resistance from the establishment.
In the Randy Berholtz vs Dan Trimble for CAGOP Secretary Race, the choice is simple. Dan Trimble is an out of the closet Trump-basher, recently complaining incessantly about the government shutdown. He is also one of those that cares more about Trump’s twitter account than policy. Unless he has scrubbed his social media like Mrs. Patterson did, it is all still there.
Trimble is also dedicated to lerching the CAGOP Platform leftward, he has long advocated to “Yank the Plank” as in removing the pro-life plank from the CAGOP platform (amongst others).
Randy Berholtz is the opposite, a Trump Supporter and a full portfolio conservative. He also happens to have a list of qualifications a mile long. Some of the top party stalwarts are promoting Randy Berholtz.
There are two contested regional vice chair races and three that are not.
In the North, Deborah Wilder is unopposed.
In the Bay Area, Jason Clark is unopposed
In the North Coast, Matthew Heath is unopposed
In the Central Valley, Lisa Moreno AD11 nominee is running against Dean Haddock (from Kern County aka McCarthy Country). Our pick is Lisa Moreno.
In the Central Coast, Vicki Nohrden is running against Career Staffer Lindsay Stetson. Our pick is Vicki Nohrden.
So this is my concluding message to CRP Delegates:
I know 100% that the information on this blog regarding the CRP elections is accurate to the best of my knowledge (and yes I have corrected a couple of posts – which is why I write under my own name). I also there will be consequences to me personally for writing them. I’ve long since made peace with that. But, here’s the thing – almost everyone in the CAGOP universe has read some or all of what I wrote. Now, they get to choose what to do with it. The candidates have all made their case. To the best of my knowledge all the rules have been followed and while some of the stuff going on looks bad, nothing I have seen is a violation of any applicable rules.
I will accept the results of the election and will be available to any and all of the above who win in order to help them and the CAGOP succeed. Will you join me? Will those that win and lose the above races join me?
One last note – I am calling on all delegates to be polite and professional this weekend. Please do not repeat the confrontational style of the Governor’s race convention. There will be a lot of news media present. Secondly, aggressive behavior will alienate the small number of truly undecided delegates that are going to be present.
This convention will be one of the most well-attended conventions in a long time. Let’s have our debate, keep it polite and then agree to move forward with the best interests of the CAGOP at heart.
Beyond their attempt to gut the CAGOP platform in 2011 – the pattern of contempt for conservatives in team Jessica is set. Jessica Patterson’s complicity in it is set. She was paid for pretty much every proxy drill since 2010 – which included stuffing two attempts to trash prop 14 by the rank and file delegates. It also included running very bad by law amendments and stuffing an attempt to censure Chad Mayes. However, the second largest issue I have (beyond trying to gut the Platform) with Team Jessica is the $3MM they directed hunting down conservatives.
In previous posts, we detailed how Jessica Patterson was involved in getting a bylaw passed that removed the delegations from 8 Central Committees. The rub was to force them on to the ballot. Tiny counties were disenfranchised because they had no elections, angering people like David Stafford Reade that sought control of their leadership. Solano County, the main intended target of the by-law change now has no representation on the State Party despite having over 100,000 registered Republicans. (Neither does Merced County with their 75,000)
Note Placer County D4 and D5 did not make the ballot – and D1-3 on this slate guide were paid for by Spirit of Democracy PAC (directed by Luis Buhler and David Stafford Reade)
Luis Buhler, the puppet master had a plan while running the by-law change. He was lining up nearly $3Million (I’ve written $2.2 million in past blogs, I found more) to send mail and purchase slate mail cards in Central Committee races all over the state. See here for a link to the report of the California Republican Taxpayer’s Slate.
You will see Butte, Nevada, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Kings, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz, Orange, Los Angeles, Tulare, Contra Costa and the list goes on. You will see familiar names of political consultants and legislative staff on the list of candidates Spirit of Democracy spent money on.
At the time, your intrepid blogger pieced together 44 Counties Luis Buhler directed expenditures of money to. Luis was attempting to exterminate conservatives off of County Central Committees and settle 30 year old scores. (This is the conclusion I drew based on the evidence I gathered)
Jessica Patterson, while doing the job she was paid to do, helped facilitate this. Jessica Patterson while doing the job she was paid to do helped facilitate primary challenges to known conservative incumbents – Tim Donnelly and Alan Mansoor. Jessica Patterson while doing the job she was paid to do twice defended Proposition 14 from opposition. Jessica Patterson while doing the job she was paid to do led efforts to shred the California Republican Party Platform.
What will Jessica Patterson do as CAGOP Chair?
For further proof about the mail operation – here are photos of the “We are the GOP” mailers that came to my house.
You will see Congressman LaMalfa promoting these Placer GOP Candidates – the connection is David Stafford Reade who was his Chief of Staff in his Senate Days. You can see clearly that Spirit of Democracy (funded by Charles T Munger Jr and controlled by Luis Buhler) is listed as the responsible party. Reade, Jessica Patterson and many others made a lot of money from that operation.
Yup – three pieces of mail went to Placer County.
There is no reasonable standard whereby Jessica Patterson can claim to be a unifying force or a Conservative. Period. Republicans judge people by their actions, not their intentions. In practice, whenever the oligarchy of controlled failure has needed their operations carried out, Mrs. Patterson has been in the middle of them.
Patterson did her part to get the CAGOP ByLaws changed so that Luis Buhler, David Reade and others could set up a web of control statewide with consultants and staff the favored picks over Conservatives. $3MM later, the deed was done. They are doing it again in 2019 – with something like 1/3 to 40% of appointed delegates as of the last update I saw being Paid Staff, Consultants or employees of donors.
In 2012 and 2014 – they tried to take out Conservative Legislators. In 1992, Jeff Randle, the CEO of Jessica Patterson’s employer California Trailblazers ran a similar effort against several Conservative legislators on behalf of Pete Wilson. In 2012, they went after the Placer GOP and the San Bernardino GOP with $100,000. In 2016, they went after 44 County Parties. What will they do in 2020 if they win control of everything? Of course, don’t forget millions upon millions spent against Conservatives in open seat races.
It is nearly impossible to draw any other conclusion that the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure that is promoting Jessica Patterson has a clear agenda against Conservatives. It is also a reasonable question to ask, should they succeed in their plan to elect Jessica Patterson will open season ensue (again)?
Note the tweets Mrs. Patterson liked (and retweeted while at the Oct 2017 CAGOP) again, since deleted from her account when it was scrubbed
These tweets provide concrete proof of her involvement in one of the two efforts to thwart anti Prop 14 Measures at the CAGOP. Secondly, you can see her also celebrating the failure of an attempt to blast CHAD MAYES for his role in the largest Tax Increase in State History (known as Cap and Trade).
It is the opinion of this blogger that Mrs. Patterson had professional assistance to sanitize her twitter account, as the references to Chad Mayes and Kristen Olsen were difficult to uncover. (As were the above references to her paid proxy harvesting operations to thwart the will of the majority of activist delegates to the CAGOP)
Now, again, ask yourself if this is the pattern you want from a potential Chairman of the CAGOP? John McCain, Meg Whitman and Mitt Romney?
Jessica Patterson has been a career staffer. I can’t find any proof that she has ever held a job outside of Politics. When I am not blogging or working on campaigns, I’ve been a licensed insurance agent since 1997. We have candidates for Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer who are outright successes in private business, but not Jessica Patterson.
Note the strange characters, one of the archive sites produced some foreign language results.
In the embedded tweet, since deleted, you can see Jessica Patterson wishing Kristen Olsen well. It would probably not be a big deal were it not deleted. Then, of course your intrepid blogger discerned the rest of the story. Embedded here is a form 460 from Stanislaus County indicating that Mrs. Patterson was paid over $11,000 by Kristen Olsen for her Supervisor Campaign – over and above the $1.2 Million she got from Trailblazers. Unlike California Trailblazers record of failure, Kristen Olsen won her campaign.
I have a problem with Staffers and paid political consultants being in positions of authority in Party or Volunteer Organizations. I personally have to recuse myself all the time from votes in the CIR. It is nearly impossible to be unbiased and balanced when your income comes from politics. It is a fact of life.
In the case of Jessica Patterson, she has been paid to run delegate proxy harvesting drills for years at a price of $5K-$15K a piece. It is reputed that David Stafford Reade, her campaign manager can make upwards of $30,000 a convention. Meridian Pacific who is her campaign consultant for her Chairman’s Race has handled millions of dollars worth of campaign expenditures for the CAGOP. There are far too many conflicts of interest here, and the world of people controlling this stuff is very small. (The Oligarchy of Controlled Failure)
By virtue of our research, your intrepid blogger has been able to generate concrete proof of the following:
Jessica Patterson is a career political staffer
She has a client list that is a pedigree of the far left of the GOP
She has routinely worked to thwart the will of the rank and file CAGOP Delegate, defending Prop 14 and Cap and Trade as proven on this blog
She ran a proxy harvesting Drill to pass a CAGOP By-Law provision targeting Central Committee using quriks in state law to avoid being exposed to thousands of mail pieces hitting their area. The Oligarchy of Controlled failure saw to it that 8 Central Committees were stripped of their deligation
She has worked to gut the CAGOP Platform as proven on this blog
Her closest advisers have a history of retaliation and heavy handed tactics
Her most recent employer, California Trailblazers has been an abject failure. It has paid over 90% of its’ raised money out as salaries and consulting fees.
She ran victory 2010 and 2012, two of the worst years for the CAGOP at the ballot box, eclipsed only by 2018’s disaster
She has defended (and worked for) both Chad Mayes and Kristen Olsen, both scandal ridden and authors of legislative disasters for the GOP
California Trailblazers, founded in 2011 to elect more Republicans to partisan office has participated in a net loss of 13 seats in the California Legislature.
Her political consultant, Meridian Pacific is also the single largest vendor to the CAGOP. This is a serious conflict of interest.
You have a clear choice for CAGOP Chair. Travis Allen is almost the exact opposite of what we have detailed in our expose’ on the CAGOP Chairman’s Race. Choose wisely.
