Your Intrepid Blogger, Senator Brian Dahle, Assemblywoman (soon to be Senator) Megan Dahle and Sonoma County Chairman Matthew Heath
Your intrepid blogger was at the CAGOP Convention in 2023. I had three main objectives, elect John Dennis Chair of the County Chairs Association, elect Corrin Rankin Vice Chair of the CAGOP and re-elect Randy Berholtz Secretary of the CAGOP. While I will get in to detail on these at a later time, all three won. In addition to those three, your intrepid blogger made 9 endorsements for CAGOP office. 8 of those won.
To say I felt conflicted was an understatement. I was not aligned with the opposition to the CAGOP as I had been for several years. Months ago, I chose to honor my friendship and respect of Corrin Rankin and I had interviewed some candidates I did not feel were qualified to hold the offices they were running for. I did, however, get an education and one I did not want. What I witnessed over the last three months was painful to experience.
In addition to the run-up, what I witnessed at this convention was bizarre to say the least.
However, I learned a series of lessons that I want to lay out for the readers of this blog. I write this as I fear that many will not be able to relate or understand the lessons, but I am going to write them anyway.
I want to start with a couple of specific mentions. Placer County Chairman Mark Wright ran for CRP Vice Chair, he finished third. Mark Wright is one of the most successful County Chairs in California. He was well received by many delegates as I got a lot of feedback from people about him. The results in Placer County bear out his success as well. However, Mark is not statewide material yet. He could become that if he follows up on elevating his profile in other parts of the state.
I love Mark Wright to pieces and I think he is a good dude and Placer County is lucky to have him.
— the next three mentions are not good and should give readers pause about what the weekend was like —
Errol Weber has to be one of the most bizarre people I have ever met. I hope I never see him again. I had my first run-in with him in front of a member of Congress and his wife. He was passing out stickers for David Dhillon (more on him later) and when I told him I was helping Randy Berholtz his reaction was like a vaudeville act. On Sunday during the convention proceedings, I had another run in with him that was unbelievable and I wish could have been on video tape. I was in the bathroom outside the convention hall and that is as far as I will describe it on this blog. It was so completely insane that I will probably remember it for a long time and I am still trying to sort out what happened.
If Webber runs for office again, I will oppose him vigorously as I believe he is completely insane and should be committed to an asylum. If I see him again, I will warn him to get as far away from me as he can as quickly as he can.
Joseph Grcar will be a case of political herpes that the party will have to deal with until they actually have the guts to expel him from the party. I will be writing about Grcar all throughout the series, but I have come to the conclusion that he is as insane as Errol Webber. I also believe Grcar is racist and homophobic as well. He was removed from an automatic CAGOP endorsement for AD-20 for very good reason. Grcar was also an integral part of the opposition team. (More on that later)
Grcar erupted 4 times at the CAGOP Rules Committee before he was removed. When he got removed, this happened:
That’s right, Dr. Joseph Grcar, with a PHD in Mathematics went 1960’s college BS on the 2023 CAGOP Convention to protest getting tossed from the rules committee for his antics. An ambulance was called in addition to the scene that existed for 30-45 minutes.
Grcar was also running against Greg Gandrud for CRP Treasurer and lost 1108-188. The 188 people that voted for him should resign their delegate status for that act alone. Note that Joseph Grcar could not vote for himself as he continued to act out on Sunday morning and was escorted off the premises by 4 security guards.
Rebecca Klemin / Matt Klemin – the fact that I actually am mentioning those two in my hall of shame given the previous two idiots is palpable.
When I went to check in to the convention and was walking up to the desk to obtain my guest pass, I observed Mr. Klemin behind the desk. Klemin did nothing other than glare at me. There was a blonde woman who appeared to be in her 30’s sitting in the middle part of the alphabet, she motioned to the younger woman who was in the p-z section to switch places with her. I had my glasses off to text with people and did not recognize the woman to be Rebecca Klemin (formerly Luby) until being within 3 feet of her.
Similar to many that work in the bowels of the political machine, I had never met her in person. As with past conventions, I said my name is Aaron Park. She said, “I know who you are and you’ve written about me…”
It appears that the two of them were working the booth to set up another confrontation and this is sort of amateur immature action is a black eye for the CAGOP Staff. I did get my stuff and I continued to be polite despite the reception as I did not want to cause a scene. Well, Rebecca, welcome back to the Right On Daily Blog right next to Joseph Grcar and Errol Webber.
I did learn that Matt Klemin was terminated once again from the Senate Caucus Strategist job, this time it does not appear he will be able to engineer another coup to get his job back… something about the SD04 Debacle did him in.
One thing neither Klemin realize is that if they weren’t pricks and costing the GOP elections I’d have nothing to write about… oh well. They also seem to have forgotten that I pulled a couple of posts I wrote about them at the request of others as well… perhaps that was a mistake too.
Given the totality of what happened at the CAGOP convention, it was actually fitting that it started the way it did for me. I was certainly on alert the entire time I was there and for good reason.
As you read my series, you will realize that the three months I was active in the 2023 CAGOP officer elections featured a ton of bad behavior, but there are several good lessons to be learned for us all out of what happened… this series will be continued tomorrow.
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Aaron, don’t you find it a bit odd that only ‘after’ Peter leaves office that the National media gets interested? Almost as has he leaves the powerbrokers throw him ‘under the bus’ but only after he could not stain the CRP while in office?
Aaron, are you also aware that the 3rd person running for Treasurer, David Fennell, was not causing any problems and simply have a drink with his wife in the Hyatt bar, when Security told him he had to leave Saturday night. When he didn’t and challenged why he had to leave the Hotel manger came and told him “I have large important client wants you to leave our hotel and as this private property we can refuse you access to anybody and you must leave our property”. Delegates standing near him saw and heard the whole thing. Now…Who do you think that ‘large client’ was? One guess! He was not on the CRP ballot the next day.
There is more to the Fennell story and I will tell it shortly.
Charlie, it’s not interesting at all. I have been working on the story for a year and would only write it when I had confirmation of the things I was writing on. The final confirmation on two pieces came Saturday. Aaron knew that I had been working on it for a long time because I spoke to him about it on numerous occasions. There were no power brokers involved in me telling the story or in timing. Peter knew I was working on it last April, and I believe that’s why he acted the way he did in his speech at that convention and why he decided to not run again.