So the above document is page three of the form that one must submit to create a PAC in the state of Delaware. this is the certification page where the person submitting the form signs, and has it notarized, in this case the person submitting the form is Christie Shirey as the treasurer of this “newly” formed PAC. A little background. This PAC is simply the latest version of the ongoing attempts to raise funds for the Lacey Lafferty campaign while using the Sussex GOP as a front. Vince Calabro had organized an event in February under the name of a club he did not have claim to, and which had never been certified with the state. He and his followers, which now include Ms. Shirey, are now attempting to form this new “club” and get people to rewrite the checks to the Sussex Republican Club. All well and good, but the crime was still committed, and has now been admitted to by several people, more on that later.
Ms. Shirey even posted a public statement on the Facebook page that was created for the SRC. Just for reference here is that post which she also posted as a comment on this blog.
“Please forgive my vent, but I wanted to clear up some issues caused by a paid blogger attacking this group. The checks in question were from the Unity Dinner held in honor of John Rieley on February 28th. I posted the following on his blog and I thought you had the right to see it as well:
Let me make a few corrections, as I am the treasurer of the Sussex Republican Club. 1. The Sussex Republican Club had to change it’s name because Mr. Knotts filed for the name of Western S…ussex Republican Club as the club was being organized thus causing the club to change name and ask for the checks to be corrected. 2. The Sussex Republican Club was formed to help engage people on the western side of Sussex County and will act in the same manner as the Eastern Sussex Republican Club. I have already requested guidance from that club as I am new at this. 3. The checks are legal and will be used to promote Republican activities in Western Sussex and the County in general. 4. The Sussex County GOP Chairman has been a wonderful resource and continues to help us get this club up and running. Perhaps he is too busy actually working for the Republican Party to engage in this silly activity. 5. As someone who is just stepping up in the party, I am very disillusioned to find such opposition from within. You don’t have to help but attacking is totally unacceptable. 6. I do not, nor will I read this blog as it has the credibility of a Supermarket Tabloid and is a total waste of time. 7. It is my hope that the Republicans will step up and support this new effort to help the party grow and help get Republicans elected. 8. Frank Knotts has done nothing but sabotage our efforts all for his own personal gain. Anyone supporting him should feel ashamed. Thank you, Christie Shirey”
As you can see Ms. Shirey is repeating many of the talking points put out there by Mr. Calabro and others within the Sussex GOP Committee, including the vice-chair Fred Silva, the Secretary Linda Creasey, any number of RD Chairs and ED Chairs, that committee is eaten up with the cancer created for and by Vince Calabro and Lacey Lafferty.
Okay, so now we come to the latest example of either the complete incompetence, or the complete corruption of Vince Calabro and those who support his administration.
Did anyone catch the problem with the above document? Well take a close look at who notarized the document. That’s right, Vincent Calabro, the Chairman of the Sussex GOP, who is also the treasurer for the Lacey Lafferty campaign. No conflict of interest there, now is there? So the Chairman of the Sussex GOP is raising funds for a third-party PAC, instead of raising funds for the Party, why? He is instrumental in forming this PAC and even notarized the document, damned nice guy that Vince.
One little problem, if we look at the seal at the bottom of the page where Vince signed to verify that Ms. Shirey had signed the document in front of him, we will also see that Mr. Calabro’s commission as a notary expired on July 2, 2014. This means that the document is not valid in the eyes of the law.
I have been told that Ms. Shirey is a good person and I have no personal knowledge to make any claim otherwise. So, I would advise Ms. Shirey to disengage herself from this group of people as fast as possible, in my opinion she is just the latest in a line of people Vince Calabro and Lacey Lafferty have attempted to use for their own agenda.
Since Vince Calabro was elected as the Chair of the Sussex GOP he has been embroiled in one controversy after another, now of course his supporters will try to lay that at my feet simply because I have pointed out the incompetence and corruption. Vince Calabro and his followers within the Committee have attempted to silence me by going into executive session during the monthly public meetings, they have gone so far, as to actually calling the police to have me removed for the capital offence of not signing into the meeting. There attempts to skirt the campaign finance laws of the state of Delaware, and now this blatant obfuscation of a legal document, that’s right folks, a legal document, is but the latest demonstration of the lack of willingness to follow the law, that or they are simply too stupid to be allowed to continue to “lead” the Sussex GOP.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out that the document was accepted by the Commission of Elections and the expiration date was not caught.
Now I am sure we will again hear about how Vince is new to the job as was the excuse for not legally forming a PAC prior to raising funds, or that he just got ahead of himself. The only question is, who will Mr. Calabro send out this time to cover his ass. We have heard from the then official spokesperson for the Sussex GOP Sherwood “Duke” Brooks, who got caught in a lie on Delaware 105.9, we were told that future questions were to be directed to former Chair John Reiley, on Thursday 38th RD Chair Billy Carroll took on the role to debate the Chair of the Sussex Democrat Party, why we have heard from any number of people regarding the ongoing issues within the Calabro administration, all except from its “LEADER” himself.
It is time for the sensible Republicans of Sussex County in general, and within the Sussex GOP Executive Committee in particular to call for, demand and or force the immediate resignation of Vincent Calabro, his Vice Chair Fred Silva, Secretary Linda Creasey ED Chairs Kim Gibson, Larry Mayo, Lori Purdy and anyone else who has played a lead role in this ongoing atrocity.
I again call on the Election Commissioner to take swift action to investigate the actions of this small lawless group.
I repeat my claim that this small fringe group does not speak for, or represent the majority of the rank and file Republican voters, they are an embarrassment at best, and possibly criminal.
Hey Frank, genuinely curious here: why don’t you run for Chairman next time?
Then who would keep me honest?
I can’t they let that expired notary get by. When my notary expired I had to wait on the lines, pay the bucks….yada, yada.
The people that have to get answers and demand action on this are the ED’s and RD;s of the Sussex GOP. Next meeting we shall see.
I got some thoughts on Lacey Lafferty…..soon I will write a column about it. But if she is any way involved in a cover up or deception she will forever be NBODY I’d ever vote for.
You ask me Ms. Lafferty should be answering these questions.
If Viince Calabro is her campaign Treasurer than neither one of them has a lick of sense. I was an ED when I was campaign Treasurer for Don Ayotte and I’d have had enough sense to know I should not ALSO run for Sussex GOP Chair….don’t laugh, I could have.
But I got common sense and a feeling for how things are perceived.
There’s a conflict of interest here and it ain’t purty.
Frank, I hope you have some evidence of my involvement in the “leadership of this atrocity”. I didn’t realize attending a dinner has risen to the level of a crime. Does the fact that this false accusation is published on a public blog rise to the legal level of slander? Perhaps one of your attorney readers would know.
Oh by the way, you spelled Laurie Purdy’s name wrong!
It’s time for the Sussex County Executive Committee and Bruce Fitzgerald to weigh in. They called the cops when Frank signed an “X” rather than his legal name. Now Vince has notarized/signed a legal document with an expired notary seal, which police agency do we call? It’s time for our experts to weigh in.
WAKE UP REPUBLICANS!!!! We all have an opportunity to make huge gains in 2016, but with a clown show like this, we may just move backwards. This is the most opaque (opposite of transparent for some of you), deceitful, hateful, petty group of individuals I have ever seen, and they do NOT speak or represent me as a Republican. Let’s tally up what they have done thus far:
1. Supported the loser of a GOP primary
2. Held an illegal fundraiser
3. Called the police on a fellow republican for not signing in
4. Lied about the reason the police were called
5. Used a notary whose (at the least) stamp was expired, or (at most) whose commission had expired
6. Refused to offer anyone on the executive board to debate the chair of the Sussex Democrat party
7. ….. (I’m sure I missed at least 1)
Find out who your RD and ED chairs are. Call them. Demand that they call for the resignation of the executive board. If they refuse, show up at the next executive committee meeting on 4/13 at 7:00 PM. Cheer center in Georgetown. Pack the room with the rank and file and DEMAND your voice be heard. This has got to stop, folks!
List of RDs and EDs can be found here:
http://www.sussexgop.org/Representative-Districts/
STOP THE MADNESS!!! TAKE BACK THE PARTY!!!
Larry, not sure calling for someone to resign from a private club rises to slander. As I have often suggested to others here, “learn to read and read to learn”.
You have made your usual mistake and have selected one sentence out of the context of the paragraph it was written within.
Let me help you
“It is time for the sensible Republicans of Sussex County in general, and within the Sussex GOP Executive Committee in particular to call for, demand and or force the immediate resignation of Vincent Calabro, his Vice Chair Fred Silva, Secretary Linda Creasey ED Chairs Kim Gibson, Larry Mayo, Lori Purdy and anyone else who has played a lead role in this ongoing atrocity.”
So as you can see, the “atrocity ” of which I am speaking of is the GOP Executive Committee, of which you are a leader as an ED Chair.
But thanks for playing, always love how you so called small government types are the first to talk of litigation.
Oh and by the way Larry, no charge for the schooling and no text book to buy.
More schooling for Larry: It would be libel, not slander.
It really doesn’t matter what facts come out; Larry, Lacey, Vince, Laurene, et. al. will ALWAYS attempt to defend, deflect and diffuse their issues with these types of tactics. And they will continue to bring others in as sacrificial lambs to try and keep their hands clean. That’s why they had Duke. John. Now Billy. Have Christine Shirey and Kim Gibson on this form. All so they can claim that they have no knowledge of this. It’s truly sad that the rank and file has become so disillusioned with the party that they allowed this to happen. Time to wake up and smell the coffee, people! Get re-engaged, or you will hand the democrats one victory at a time.
The above document is not the only document notarized by Vincent P. Calabro after his commission expired as a notary. A revision to Lacey Lafferty’s Liberty PAC was notarized by Vince and submitted to the elections commission on 3/10/2015.
https://cfrs.elections.delaware.gov/Public/DownloadCorresDocuments?FileName=statement%20of%20organization_c9bcef6b-7ae2-4aba-acb3-e6fc11b5e045.pdf
Also disturbing the document lists Vince Calabro as an officer for the Liberty PAC. He is also listed as an officer for Lacey Lafferty’s election campaign.
I believe Pat Fish would agree, NO notary with any integrity or ethics would notarize a document for a corporation, PAC, campaign committee, etc, which lists the notary as an officer. It is a blatant conflict of interest, in this case it certainly brings into question Vince’s judgement and credibility.
And the circle keeps getting smaller and smaller. When will the state GOP stop ignoring this, and instead play the integrity card and take action to remove him before he brings down real trouble upon the entire Delaware GOP?
Take a guess who’s address is the one listed on the document submitted for the Sussex Republican Club none other than Kim Gibson’s
Now would that be the same Kim Gibson who was the treasurer of the fake WSRC who possibly raised political funds illegally, and who is also an ED Chair in the Sussex GOP Executive Committee?
Wow! I cannot believe there is actually people supporting this gentleman. He has absolutely no integrity what so ever, notarizing documents with an expired stamp and to afraid to take accountability for a mistake. I will say if this is the kind of leadership we as a party are willing to except and support, we deserve everything that is coming to us. The facts and paperwork do not lie, this guy is a complete fraud and has his own agenda.
The only solace the Sussex Republican Majority can take away from the mess the minority created, is that the minority is just that. It does not have enough support outside it’s core echo chamber to get anyone elected. Just Jeff is walking proof of that fact.
I would also point out that every administration since the hostile take over of the EC, has gotten progressively worse. Vince is bad, but it will prolly take 1 more downward spiral administration to wake up the rank and file R’s in the county.
The gall of this so called leadership is amazing. As all of this BS has unfolded, I reviewed the SCRC web site.Under the tab for “Elected Officials” there is a section for “Sussex County Republican Elected Officials”. There is one glaring (but not unexpected) omission. I wonder why our Republican Sheriff, Robert Lee, is not mentioned. It can’t be because it is “just” a row office as Recorder of Deeds and Register of Wills are prominently featured. I guess if they ignore that there was even an election, they have enough of Reilly’s “wiggle room” to believe that JJ (Ret.????) is still the Sheriff.
” but it will prolly take 1 more downward spiral administration to wake up the rank and file R’s in the county.”
Well some Republicans manage to get elected in spite of the party. My guess is that people recognize quality candidates, regardless of their party. So maybe the rank and file will come to the conclusion that the local party apparatus doesn’t mean a hill of beans and that what is really needed are candidates with solutions, not candidates with ideology. People like Ernie Lopez seem to be able get elected, but he probably would be elected regardless of what party he ran under. Maybe that’s the real answer. Disregard party. Vote for the responsible legislator who is going to piss people off sometimes but generally acts like an adult.
My other thought is, in relation to the rank and file. If someone gives a party and no one shows up, is it still a party? I know Frank shows up at the meetings to fly the flag of reason but really, what if no one shows up except those who cannot even govern themselves? You can still be a republican but the Sussex Region of the DE GOP has become irrelevant. If they don’t matter, does it matter if they even exist?
That’s the problem with the GOP nation wide. They elect people who pander to the most exclusive right wing, angry, paranoid, religious types and drive people like me out of the party by the millions while the most corrupt people take leadership positions throughout the party
“They elect people who pander to the most exclusive right wing, angry, paranoid, religious types and drive people like me out of the party ”
And yet, the exclusive right wing, paranoid, religious types are not even in the majority. However, white evangelical protestants comprise 34% of Republicans. So yeah, their influence is significant. My solution continues to be to marginalize the GOP until they come to the realization that they need to be a responsible party and are a vital component of our two party system (which I have a greater appreciation for after seeing the latest Israel election). I do vote for some Republicans but only the ones that demonstrated that they are responsible individuals. For example, their actions over this last 8 years has amply demonstrated that they are not qualified to be in the White House. Additionally, since they are the majority in Congress, we need to have a check and balance. Consequently, I have no choice but to vote for the Democratic candidate. It’s sort of an anti-GOP vote. One day the GOP will remove it’s head from its posterior and decide that it wants to govern, but I don’t see that happening for at least another 10 years.
I’ve been voting Green. I know its a throw away to a point but I can’t bring myself to vote for corporate owned democrats like Carper