This is the door to the room at the Georgetown CHEER Center where the Sussex County GOP Executive Committee holds its monthly meetings. So what is the significance of the closed-door you may ask. Well it seems that as usual the Sussex GOP has something to hide, nothing new there, right?
The meeting started as usual, with the formality of reading the Treasurer’s Report, and the minutes from the previous month’s meeting. Then there was the welcoming of the first time attendees.
Then Chairman John Rielley addressed what he called the elephant in the room, not sure the pun was intentional. He was talking about the fact that a large number of his committee members have been openly supporting a write-in candidate who is opposing the GOP primary winner.
I would like to say that Chairman Rielley spoke out in the strongest terms possible about how he would handle any committee members who were known to be publicly campaigning for the write-in candidate, I would like to say that, but even he had to admit that he was trying to leave them some “wiggle room”, his words not mine.
I will give him credit though, he told the committee the write-in candidate would not be invited to participate in any GOP event, no signs for the write-in candidate would be allowed to be displayed at any GOP events. Chairman Rielley stated that no committee member should be campaigning for the write-in candidate while acting in their “official” capacity as either RD or EDs of the Sussex GOP Executive Committee.
ED. Larry Mayo asked for clarification of how to define when he was and was not acting in his official capacity, using the example of writing on his Facebook page. There seemed to be a lot of grey area left open to interpretation and no real definition was given. Odd considering that Chairman Rielley and others within the committee had no problem defining my actions and writings as being detrimental to the GOP.
During this discussion another ED. from the 35th rose to make a motion for a resolution, and this is where the closed-door comes into play. What once would have been a simple formality, now became something that the Chairman and some in the Executive Committee would rather do in the back room style of those they once condemned.
I won’t bother you with all of the wherefores, and so be its, the resolution was simply a motion that the Sussex County GOP Executive Committee should vote to pledge their support for all of the primary winners as well as all of the GOP candidates. Once the resolution’s content was known, a motion was made to take the committee into “executive session”. Meaning that the public, including many of the very candidates that the committee should be supporting, had to leave the room.
This certainly begs the question, why does the committee have to hide behind a closed-door to pledge its support for GOP candidates? What is the committee afraid of? What don’t they want the people to know? The Republicans in general, and the Sussex Republicans in particular have long called for transparency and openness, yet within their own committee they hide, and cast secret votes. And then did not come back into public session to announce the outcome.
And it’s not just that they went into executive session, it took them forty minutes to decide to pledge their support of GOP candidates.
I give credit to Chairman Rielley for putting forth the party line, but it is clear that he has no control, and can exercise not leadership over his committee. Even following the passage of the resolution, with some small changes, the same few die-hard supporters of the write-in candidate were working the room bragging that they would not resign their positions, and they would be supporting the write-in.
Notable among them was Laureen Purdy who has been the Republican of the month for Sussex, and was a close runner-up for Republican of the year for the state. Miss Purdy has been closely involved with the write-in candidate in their primary race, as well as working with Lacey Lafferty’s so-called campaign, who by the way is also an ED. and supports the write-in.
It’s not that these people can’t support and vote for who they choose, but they have an obligation to support the party as long as they are in leadership positions. They talk endlessly about integrity and principles and then demonstrate they have none. If they were to resign their committee positions, and then work for the write-in candidate, I could actually respect that, but what they are doing now is nothing but childish and destructive to the GOP.
But maybe that is all it is intended to be.
It does not bother me that they shut the door to argue and vote. It has been being done since the time of Urkle. What does matter to me is that the Chairman laid down what law he has to lay. The question is ” what will be the punishment? ” As evidenced by your post, some people are looking to ” wiggle ” and STILL play both sides.
Only resolution that should have been brought up before committee is removing anyone whether public citizen or committe member that disrupts the constant flow of GOP business through media or otherwise for sole purpose to discredit the GOP organization and its members should be barred from future meetings. Maybe the SC committee will wise up and do what we up here in New Castle would to with you. Poison gas travels up wind.
The resolution voted on by that ball-less Executive Committee should have been for the removal of all EDs and RDs who are openly supporting the primary loser Jeff Christopher. They are all treacherous TRAITORS who won’t even follow the rules that they, themselves, put in place after the 2010 primary to prevent EDs and RD like themselves from failing to support the primary winner.
I want to thank Frank, for being smart enough to realize that a movement he was a large part of creating has become treacherous and filled with hypocrites.
Ok. So it has been determined that the SCGOP will not require its sitting RD and ED committee members support the winners of primary contests. In the words of the Grateful Dead, ” what a long strange trip its been”. The entire legacy of Christine’s winning the primary in 2010 is worth nothing, at least in Sussex. If you run and lose, act like the NCC “establishment” and ignore the results. It seems there hasn’t been a divide between NCC and Sussex, they both really don’t support the primary process. The real loser is the Sussex GOP, never again will their candidates have support north of the canal. Who thought Sussex would support the argument “that primaries don’t count”, and the establishment is not beholden to primary results, just so Sheriff Christopher can lose a write-in race. This is a bad deal for Sussex and means they will not have support for their statewide candidates. What a shame. When you throw away your principles, it is always yourself that you hurt.
It really is a shame. That the whole ” we the people ” who barged into the EC, re-wrote the rules into what can only be described as a ” manifesto paranoia ” from gays, to abortion, to the purity of your conservatism, to the God you worship, went so far astray.
It has been my contention for quite some time that all the wrong people sought all the wrong positions in the EC for all the wrong reasons. Power corrupts. Even if it is the puny percieved power that is beholden to a member, or leader of the EC.
Few understand the true meaning of leadership, principles, morals. The list goes on and on. There was a glimmer of hope for the committee prior to this mess. Moving forward I feel the committee is lost. Is the Party lost? I say nay. There are good people in office now who are supported by sane people amoung the rank and file, distant from the disfunction of the committee.
All this crap is just a distraction to the real goal. Finding, supporting, and getting elected proven leaders who can serve the County and State well.
So Gerald advocates for even more closed meetings, ones where purity oaths are taken, but not ones where members pledge support of the endorsed candidates.
And Gerald, was your poison gas reference a threat to my physical well being?
Gerald wants us to believe they are from NCC, but they sound as if they would fit in with the SCGOPEC famously. Close the doors and throw out anyone who dares to disagree. My, my, my Gerald, it is getting mighty crowded outside. You just keep on boiling down the GOP to your idea of purity, and soon there will be no one left.
I should point out one other thing here, before I became a member of the EC I attended many meeting run by Ron Sams, and not once while I was in attendance did the EC go into executive session, and yet it is these same yahoos who called for Mr. Sams to resign, these same children of the corn who screamed for openness and transparency, it is these same malcontents who refuse to abide by lawful primary results, who refuse to follow their own rules that they themselves put into place, who refuse to do the most basic of things that a person in a party leadership role would be expected to do, to support the officially endorsed candidates.
Well “CHAIRMAN” John Rielley refused to do it last night, so I will, they should all RESIGN IMMEDIATELY!
Frank you are such an insignificant turd that it is very laughable. You write liberal trivia and you call yourself “Delaware Right” instead of what you really are “Delaware Progressive Liberal.”
We don’t care about that much, but we do care about the constant lying that you like so much.
Gerald also knows that you are a total piece of shit, which surprised me greatly because you usually only have sycophants commenting here.
This site is a total piece of shit/
Thank you Winston.
Frank,you should look inward & get rid of your seed of bitterness. As it is written, yeah 6 things does the LORD hate; yes seven are an abomination unto HIM…” a false witness that speaks LIES, and HE that sows DISCORD among brethren.” ( find the list in Proverbs 6:16-19. As was said, we all must give an account to GOD. And your foul comments as you departed the meeting, makes one think why even come if all you sow are seeds of bitterness, having a heart that devises wicked thoughts, and put others down to make you look so so much better ?
Fitz, instead of trying to preach to me, why don’t you tell me what part of anything I have written is a lie? And what I said as I left the meeting was to ask the same question as the title of this post, “is this what passes for openness and transparency in the Sussex GOP?”
Even the Devil can quote scripture.
The members of that committee are not autonomous, they must be held accountable to the rank and file voters, and thanks to people like yourself I am once again just a rank and file GOP voter, and when I see hypocrisy I will point it out.
The seeds of bitterness and dissension in that committee are sown by the people who think they are above their own rules and who do not understand what it means to be a member of the party leadership.
You come here and quote scripture in an attempt to look righteous, when really you look only to be a hypocrite.
THE LORDS OF THE BACK ROOM NEED TO GO!
Fitz I remember you being physically removed from an early 2011 SCGOP meeting for trying to read emails into the record that showed Ron Sams wasn’t trying to screw the angry mob by moving the meeting location around. Do you remember how angry these people were that you tried to set their lies straight? They had to silence you by dragging you out of the meeting.
Lost and hopeless cause that does nothing to aide candidates. Frankly, the resolution to support the GOP candidates is as useful as toilet paper at this point because half the members on the committee will do nothing but push their own agenda forward. e.g.-current and soon to be former sheriff Jeff Christopher.
Animal Farm, you are correct, I was present that night. You may find this telling, ” An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Sound familiar?
Can’t argue will Bill Rappa on that one!