The “leadership” of the California Republican Party are notorious conflict avoiders, they are also skilled at nuance. For example, when a Central Committee deadlocks on an endorsement and can’t reach 2/3 – it does not count as “taking an action”, don’t you know.
The current CRP By-Laws mandate that all Cent Coms in a given district must agree on a result and that the CRP’s board can not come up with a different result than that of the local Central Committees.
As you read previously – Placer returned Both Gaines’ to sender. However, since we did not come up with the 2/3 to endorse anyone – the CRP ignored our result and endorsed Beth Gaines in Ad-06 and Ted Gaines in Sd-01. I was told that on Wed night the Gaines camp celebrated when we could not reach a 2/3 vote on “No Endorsement” as they knew the fix was in. Incumbent Protection.
It didn’t matter – the CRP board disregarded “No Endorsement” votes, including in the case of John Campbell who was rejected by the Orange County Republican Party. The CRP board endorsed incumbents (including Gaines, Campbell, etc.) regardless.
That brings me to Tehama County and AD-03. David Stafford Reade recruited Tehama Supervisor Bob Williams to run against Dan Logue. Williams is not really a serious candidate (in my opinion)… he is filing simply to bleed money off of Dan Logue in preparation for an impending State Senate Race against Jim Nielsen if Doug LaMalfa wins his Congressional race. (forcing him to vacate his Senate Seat)
Well – David Stafford Reade is a master at rigging endorsements. Tehama’s Central Committee is the Nielsen/LaMalfa choir. Poof! 2/3 for Bob Williams! That is Tehama’s right and by the way – whether or not David Stafford Reade manipulated the outcome, Tehama would have endorsed Bob Williams, period.
The CRP leadership said that Tehama didn’t follow the rules! Nevada County didn’t, Lassen didn’t, Plumas didn’t, ElDorado didn’t, in fact, you could argue that none of the Central Committees in the North State followed the CRP’s rules. Therefore, the CRP could have arbitrarily decided to endorse anyone they wanted for any reason.
Tehama is hopping mad, and I don’t blame them:
PRESS RELEASE
MARCH 12, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEHAMA GOP RESPONDS TO CRP ENDORSEMENT
RED BLUFF – Disregarding last months vote of the Tehama County Central Committee to endorse Tehama County resident Bob Williams for the 3rd district Assembly Seat, the California Republican Party led by party chair Tom Del Baccarro threw out the local endorsement on Sunday in favor of Assemblyman Dan Logue.
“The endorsement process of the CRP was hijacked by Sacramento politicians and insiders who used a lawyer’s trick to disqualify Tehama County from having a voice,” said Ken Say, Chairman of the Tehama County Republican Central Committee. “ Not a single one of the 24 people in that room Sunday have a vote in the 3rd district and regardless of what they did, our local Republicans are squarely behind Bob Williams for Assembly,” said Say.
A fifth-generation family farmer with a history of public service, Williams is currently serving on the Tehama County Board of Supervisors. Last month he was endorsed by the Tehama County Farm Bureau.
The Third Assembly District covers six Northern California Counties.
I’m laughing – David Stafford Reade was paid to gather proxies to thwart efforts to create a real endorsing system – both Mark Spannagel and Reade opposed any efforts to reform proxies and voting at the CRP level and they just got bit in the ass by the process they helped create.
Update – Mark Spannagel’s conversation with Mark Pruner (Not Del Becarro) was one of Mark warning the CRP regarding this broken endorsement process and suggesting that the CRP is going to get itself in to legal trouble as a result. Mr. Spannagel told me directly that he did not threaten to sue anyone, rather that his comments were stretched by people attempting to assign motive.
Tehama got screwed. Orange got screwed. Placer got screwed. David Reade got screwed. Mark Spannagel got screwed.
Saddest of all – the Republican Primary voters got screwed.
… and the incumbents are laughing all the way to the ballot box. Way to go CRP – you suck.