In my first post, I had to correct some mistakes because I got Nimarata’s delegate list confused with Trump’s. I was also talking to so many people that got snubbed as well.
I gotta tell ya, when looking at this list, I have drawn several conclusions. A lot of people had input on who made this list.
I am linking the list here again.
First off, I have spoken to more people about my Trump delegate list posts than any post I have written in the last 4 years. Everyone has theories on what happened.
I was surprised to see my colleague on the DeSantis SuperPac effort, George Andrews on the Nimarata delegate list. I had thought he was a conservative who is not a Trump fan like your intrepid blogger. But there he is next to Duf Sundheim, Lanhee Chen and a whose who of squishes. Deborah Wilder, is also on Nimarata’s list… I had to edit my last post to delete that error.
Please note I endorsed Trump when Ron DeSantis did.
But – just because I had to correct my first post does not make the Trump list that much better.
First off Kathy Kneer is on the Trump list from CA-01. This is a clear FU to all the loyal Trump supporters in the North State and the Shasta GOP who Jessica Patterson helped screw out of their representation on the State Party. The Rules Committee told the rightful members of Shasta to go to hell and the offense was so bad that there was a concerted effort to change the CAGOP By-Laws so that what happened to the Shasta GOP at the hands of Kathy Kneer would never happen again. (Kneer appointed 5 Jessica Patterson squishes then resigned. The Patterson-appointed Rules Committee sided with Kneer giving the rightful Shasta GOP members the finger)
In CA-02 – Conservative (libertarian pony-tail dude) Stalwart Matthew Heath, who helped change the CAGOP’s rules for delegate apportionment in favor of Trump was left off in favor of Kevin Krick who never met a live birth he liked. (If you are pro-life, Mr. Krick won’t like you very much) The Michel Columbo guy is a hero to Trumpers everywhere, he is one of Harmeet Dhillon’s partners in her law firm. He, Mark Meuser, and Sarv (Harmeet’s Husband) are all on the delegate list. They should be.
In CA-03 no activists I know made the list. This would be a snub of people like Johanna Lassaga, Laurie Wallace and others. But Dave Titus made the cut, I have written about this guy on my blog many times. This is a clear slap in the face of the activists.
In CA-07 Betsy Mahan was appointed. She is the bane of the existence of conservatives in Sacramento County. Again, I can only conclude, that similar to Dave Titus whose wife is the attorney for the CAGOP, that Betsy’s insider connections to Her Majesty and Count Gimmecandy was at work here.
It has been put to me that many of the names I do not recognize are donors. That is great, but as I wrote in my first piece, down in CA-26 a big time conservative bundler who was not a part of any Party Votes or action was excluded in favor of her majesty’s husband, Richard Sherman who allegedly left politics and noted long time moderate activist (and donor) Frank Visco. (FYI – Visco is a polite and professional man and my interactions with him have been good)
There’s no consistency, someone who was integral in changing the delegate rules in Trump’s favor, well-known day one activists, bundlers and others left off the list. But, there is more:
Shane Connelly, Charles Moran, Lindsey Stetson, Jason Clark, all leaders in the Log Cabin Club are on the list. Yes, Charles and Shane were huge day one Trump supporters and have worked their tails off for him, but why include them and why exclude dozens of CRA members?
Also dotted in the Coastal Districts are two well-known moderate activists John Peschong (also a donor) and Vanilla Singh.
Then I found Liz Kolstad on the list but not Gina Wallace (both are conservative county chairs from the Central Valley). Speaking of County Chairs, Phil Cothran Sr. from SB County made the cut along with his son Jr. SF Chair John Dennis made the list while democrats that re-registered Republican and are masquerading as Trump supporters are trying to unseat him in the Cent Com election in that county. Dwight Williams is on the list. Betsy Mahan is on the list as I mentioned previously. Tim O’Reilly is on the list. Paula Whitsell is on the list. O’Reilly, Cothran, Williams and Mahan are reliable establishment votes – along with Vern Costa from Kings County. Costa appears alongside Kevin McCarthy from that area.
That’s five moderate/establishment county chairs. John Dennis is not aligned with either side, so I only see Liz Kolstad as a 100% conservative chair on the list. What happened?
While I was not surprised to see Howard Hakes on the list (speaking of giving activists the finger), I also found one Larry Elder on the list. There is no way in hell Jessica and crew wanted him. It is clear that the Trump Campaign made that happen (along with the aforementioned donors).
So when I see noted CRA members that actually made the cut like Rachael Gunter and Cynthia Gabaldon, I also have to assume that the Campaign itself intervened to get those two slotted. But they are the only two CRA members I see on the list. Update: Neither are CRA members, further adding to the absurdity
In CA-39 I see Mark Troast (a professional fundraiser and known conservative) and Emanuel Patrascu (A Romanian immigrant who is a hard-core conservative)… which continues the whiplash.
In the Orange County districts, I see familiar names: Kathy Tavoularis, Mari Barke and Van Tran. Van Tran is running for OC Supervisor against the Trump-Hating, Open Borders Janet Nguyen who was inexplicably endorsed by the OCGOP.
I see Tony Strickland in CA-47, surprised to see he is still around, and speaking of former electeds Jim Brulte is on the list from Southern OC as well!
Further adding to the confusion is this: There is a rather eclectic list of state / federal level electeds on the delegate list. Jay Obernolte (CA-23 and his wife), Billy Essayli, Shannon Grove, Michelle Steel (CA-45) and Tri Ta.
I listened to a lot of people tell me what they thought. I have some conclusions based on really looking through this list.
There are not a lot of conservative activist types, they are outnumbered at least 8-1 by known moderate/squishes. This suggests the clear intervention of Her Majesty and Count Gimmecandy.
There are not a lot of electeds. This suggests that preference was given to donors. This is not uncommon at all.
The existence of a few specific known antagonists of her majesty’s realm suggest direct intervention of the Trump Campaign to override.
While there could be backstories to specific snubs from the delegate list there is absolutely no way anyone could draw different conclusions. What a mess.