Open Letter to Bob Smith, a leader in the St. John’s County Republican Executive committee that continues to attack and smear the RLC, without ever attempting to address any issues he may have head-on.

Bob,

I got a call from the Rubio campaign this morning stating that you sent them an email that said that we did not want Aaron Bean to come speak based on our newsletter. This is not the truth. We are resending the announcement. I was waiting to talk to Aaron myself, since this whole scheduling thing has been such a fiasco. Now that we have confirmed him, we have no problem promoting him. The RLC would have appreciated if you had confirmed with us, before passing on misinformation.

I have recently been told of numerous times that you have gone out of your way to attack and smear the RLC, specifically with people in the Tea Party and 912 groups. I am not sure why you find it necessary to continue these aggressive and non-productive attacks. However, you need to understand that not only do most of the people that you talk to in attempts to smear the RLC come back to us to find out if there is any cause for the absolute vitriol that you send towards the RLC, this allows us to prove to them what kind of people and organization we actually are. Often times the very people you tried to convince that the RLC was evil and working against the party, end up becoming very active within our organization, once they see and understand how untrue your perceptions and attacks really are.

I know that you have told people that the RLC was the “kiss of death” to the Dan Quiggle campaign, that we lack integrity, and so on. I have a statement from Dan Quiggle stating the exact opposite. The RLC is consistent in its beliefs and what it stands for. When you state these kinds of things with no proof it proves that you have a different agenda than advancing principles of conservatism within the Republican Party.

Even those within the Republican Executive Committee, such as Lenny Curry and Cindy Graves (copied on this email), have proven to be leaders, because they understand that we are all, for the most part, working towards a common goal. They do not find it necessary to attack the RLC and are actually happy, many times, to have us working with them side-by-side. Sometimes we disagree, but neither Lenny nor Cindy have ever tried to shut out the voice of dissent. Often each of them have taken the time to listen to other points of view and even explain their own, allowing us to reach an agreeable resolution. This proves that it is only when you shut out the voice of the people – when you choose unethical, unfair and wrong behavior, when you choose to attack, berate and smear other Republicans – that there are problems.

It is funny how the ONLY club or committee in Duval or St. Johns that has problems with the RLC is the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee. We are at nearly every GOP meeting in those two counties without any problems. We are being recruited to work on campaigns and people are flooding to our meetings, I get several emails a day from people asking for more information about the RLC.

So if you stop and examine this, the fact of the matter is that whenever there is a problem, the same leadership within the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee is involved. It is those people and their behavior, and not the RLC, that is the common denominator when problems arise at the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee meetings.

If Senator Thrasher sticks to his word (and I hope that he will), as he gave it to me, to John Stevens and to Will Pitts, that he believes we are working together for a common cause (as we are), that he wants to bring the party together and stop the unneeded attacks on others within the party, then you and the others in the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee will need to find a way to work with us. We are fighting for our country. We have the same goal. While we may disagree with how to get there, the constant attacks and attempts to smear the character of others, proves that it is never your intention to work with others and it is you and not the RLC that are attempting to tear the party apart.

I would point out, that the Tea Party and the 912 groups share the RLC’s vision and that all of these groups are growing. Many of these people are joining their local Republican Executive Committee in order to fight for principles. They share the RLC’s message. To continue to fight us on these issues is to fight what is a growing majority within the Republican Party.

You have yet to actually attempt to talk to us, about any of the issues that you are so vocal about with everyone else. On every public forum that you posted your hateful words regarding the RLC, I have posted my contact information. I have NOT caused problems, I have always voted Republican and I have worked hard on Republican Campaigns, as has nearly everyone else in the RLC.

You and the others in St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee leadership do not get to choose who is Republican. This is my party as much as it yours. I fight for the values that the GOP has always been for and I am disappointed when a candidate is chosen in the primary or is elected that I feel does not represent those values. This is the cry of the rank and file Republican today. And we want to use that passion to move our party back to those values once again. When people like you create road blocks to that cause, it not only drives a wedge into the party, it shuts out the voice of the people that the leadership within the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee are supposed to be representing.

You know very little about the RLC or the people that are within the organization. By never seeking to find out more or attempting to see what we could work together on, you, sir, are the one causing problems in the party.

If you are not the one trying to drive a wedge into the Republican Party by determining who is acceptable and who is not, then you would attempt to make ways for us to work with you, instead of you working against us. I will also add that is you and a handful of others in the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee that are spreading these untruths regarding the RLC. We are focused on the big picture, which is the goal of restoring our Republic and we are not spending our time trying to find ways to attack you or the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee. It is our wish to work together.

Prior to the attacks, character assassination and grievances, several attempts were made to reconcile with the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee and these attempts and acts of faith have been disregarded.

Consider this story, http://staugustine.com/stories/082508/news_news01_002.shtml

Jon Woodard and Becky Reichenberg agreed to cease attacks on the RLC on the condition that John Stevens and Wynona Mayer drop out of the race, which they did, in good faith, taking them at their word. Less than a year later those very people were involved in a grievance proceeding with one of the  people ( John Stevens) they had given their word to.

Now it is happening again with Precinct Committeeman Cliff Johnson being shut out of the vote for John Thrasher. He politely asked for the records, via certified mail, that would prove that he has missed three meetings, and was denied. He was denied entry at the vote and now has been ignored in his request for the records that should simply prove that he missed three meetings. This kind of behavior is not demonstrated on the part of the RLC, these are things happening at the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee and within their leadership.

Many of the rank and file  who hear this story and the lengths that it appears that the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee leadership has gone to, in order to shut out a certain group of people, are baffled and disenfranchised (with the party, not the RLC) to say the least. We do not want bad publicity, we do not want to keep fighting. But we believe the message of return to Constitutional principles is worth fighting for, and because of that, we are not going away.

So now I am asking you, as a leader within the community and the party, will you step up and be the one to make amends? Will you cease the attacks and admit that we have more in common than we do different? Will you allow us to work towards the same goal?

Most of the RLC feels it has done all it can do, we have put our contact information out there, along with an open invitation to sit down and talk these issues out. I hope that as a leader and fellow fighter and servant within the party you would take us up on that and stop with the senseless attacks.

I hope to hear from you soon, all my contact information is below.

Kristi Dunn

MsKristiDunn@gmail.com

After reading few of the article written by several RLCers Doug Kosarek contacted me and asked that I called into the radio show. We talked about grassroots activity, local politicians, the recent controversy in the local Republican Executive Committees and the electing of a new Republican Party of Florida chairman.

You can listen to the show with the player below.

The REC’s need some new blood. After all that has happened the “most active Republicans in the county” are still clueless. The REC is supposed to be the principled foundation of the Party, from which grassroots values are supposed to rise upwards to the elected party leadership; each successive level of leadership is to respond to our mutual values and in cooperation lead the Republican Party to electoral success.
Integral to this relationship is the understanding that individual Republicans are equals. From the voter that chooses to register Republican all the way up to the GOP Chairman, we are all volunteers. While it is necessary that their be hierarchy to order our activities and ensure our effectiveness, it is proper to understand we all serve of our own free will. Just as proper is to demand that all who serve in the name of the Republican Party do so for conservative principles and the resulting benefit to our nation rather than for collateral benefit to themselves.
Recently the grassroots REC members of Florida became incensed at our former state chairman, Jim Greer. The root of their complain was that he was abusing his power, that he was basically pushing Republicans around to serve the electoral purposes of himself and his cronies.
Greer is gone, so now the Republican Party of Florida must pick a new Chairman. We all know who that person is going to be, it will be John Thrasher.
The more power held by an individual the more liable they are to abuse it. Greer was a party insider who abused his power as Chairman. Now the FGOP elite are giving all the power that Greer had to a man who is already a lobbyist and a state senator.
Lobbyist. State lawmaker. State Republican Party Chairman. Greer’s power was nothing compared to the influence Thrasher will be able to wield. Grassroots Republicans had better hope he is a benevolent dictator because he will have more power in the Republican Party of Florida than anyone except perhaps the governor.
Who thinks it is a good idea to give one person that much power, especially when that person will be your leader in the state party? That average REC Republican thinks that’s a good idea! The problem is they don’t come to that idea on their own, they are led to it by manipulation of the party electorate by the party elite.
Case in point: the Clay REC.
Understand that I have no real problem with the board or most of the membership of the Clay REC. Clay is a conservative county and this is reflected by our REC. Except for a couple of local power brokers the majority are sincere in their Republicanism; they are nonetheless clueless. They are not the libertarians of the RLC, or the principled patriots of the tea parties, neither do they even have a good understanding of what is means to be a Reagan Republican. They mean well, but they have no understanding, and so in their January meeting voted to place a Republican king over themselves.
The way it went down was that during “new business” a person in the back of the room made a motion that the Clay REC direct it’s voting delegates (chair, state committeeman, state committeewoman) to select John Thrasher as FGOP chairman. Someone at the front of the room, a former REC chair, then stood up to extol Thrashers virtues. A person in the front and a person in the back, promoting something that was not specifically on the agenda? Sounds to me like an ambush and a tactic for working the room. They told us all the Thrasher had done for Clay County, all that he will doing for Northeast Florida, and all he will do for the FGOP.
There were some objections. One man wanted to know who else was running as chairman; he received a very sketchy answer that ended with “Sharon Day is no John Thrasher.” A woman made very intelligent remarks that could have come straight from RLCNEF, about the obvious conflicts of interest in someone being both a lawmaker and a party chairman. Her objections went unheeded.
They “ayes” won the vote, so now Clay is endorsing Thrasher. My impression is that most of the REC members didn’t really know what they were voting on, they were just going with the flow because a couple of Thrasher henchmen put on a good show. I’m sure the same thing is happening in every REC in the state of Florida.
The Republican Party needs to be protected from itself. Every Republican corporate crony, every tax-and-spend Republican, every power player, every moderate who talks like a conservative, every single one of them was placed in their position by a democratic process in which Republicans unwittingly voted against Republican principles.
My appeal to the people of the RLC, and the tea parties, and the Reagan conservatives, and that we do in earnest that thing we have been talking about for years: take over the REC’s. The stupidity comes from above, from the party elite that use us, but the REC is the soil in which it is planted. Join your county REC; get other constitutional conservatives to join the REC; go the meetings, and when a critical vote unexpectedly pops up stand on your principles. If you don’t like the county REC leadership then replace them in December. Nearly every precinct in Florida has at least one opening for a committeeman or committeewoman: take that position and together let’s take our party where it is supposed to be. It will be easy because it is not a matter of us against everyone already in the REC, it is just a matter of us against just the few who want elitist domination, it is a matter of us educating the majority of sincere REC members who want the best for their party and their nation in the decisions they should make to achieve those ends.
I give whoever reads this permission to copy it onto any venue they desire. My hope is that it will go viral in the state of Florida. This will not prevent Thrasher from being seated, but in the future we will at least be able to say “we told you so.” If we drive that home maybe they will listen the next time.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

No Dissent Allowed: St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee

St. Johns County, January, 21, 2010 — The leadership of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee (SJCREC) dealt a blow to the grassroots and derailed recent attempts to reconcile long standing differences with the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida (RLCNEF) Thursday night when it refused to allow RLCNEF members access to a meeting where State Committeeman Jon Woodard stepped down and State Senator John Thrasher was elected to Woodard’s position. The election of Thrasher to Woodard’s State Committeeman post clears the way for Thrasher to run for the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Chair position to be vacated on February 20th by Jim Greer. There is a level of excitement within the party that has not been seen in a long time surrounding the race to succeed Jim Greer. Greer’s re-election a year ago has resulted in a leadership implosion within the RPOF. Thrasher, a sitting Republican State Senator, is seeking to lead the Republican Party out of its doldrums. Unfortunately for Thrasher, the SJCREC appears to have added fuel to an internal firestorm.

The latest in an unfortunate series of events occurred when the majority of the SJCREC members were not given notice the meeting would be closed in Executive Session, and only received the news upon their arrival at the meeting that night. To further exacerbate matters, SJCREC officials – allegedly in preparation for the vote on Senator Thrasher – performed a “purge” of the membership list for the stated purpose of removing members who had missed three consecutive meetings pursuant to state bylaws.

The purpose and accuracy of the list purge is in question, however, as RLCNEF member Cliff Johnson who is also a sworn member of the SJCREC and who had not missed three consecutive meetings, was told that he was not eligible to attend the Executive Session or vote in the Special Election.

While SJCREC leadership claimed that access to the Executive Session was limited only to SJCREC members, at least four members of the Duval County Republican Executive Committee who support Thrasher were allowed inside while known opponents of Thrasher and supporters of Sharon Day – also a candidate for State Chair – were told they must stay outside.

In a protest against the double standard and blatant cronyism on display, RLCNEF Chair John Stevens entered the meeting despite being told not to do so. Stevens was then asked to leave and refused. SJCREC officials called police and Stevens was escorted from the meeting. No charges were filed.

Chairman Stevens desired to attend the meeting to ask Thrasher what position he would be taking on Orange and St. Johns County REC members removed by Greer through the never-before-used grievance process  last year. Stevens commented regarding the incident, “It was unfortunate that it had to come that. The RLC is working for accountability within the Party and we would prefer to do so quietly from within; but if members are being locked out and denied an opportunity to be heard then we are left with no option but to make our voices heard publicly.”

This incident in St. Johns is eerily similar to a situation that occurred last year in Orange County where Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC) Chair Lew Oliver prevented members of the OCREC from voting in the election for Oliver’s seat; the people barred from voting were supporters of his opponent, Deon Long, who is now running for the 24th District of the U.S. Congress.

Many of the registered voters of Florida agree with the message of the Republican Liberty Caucus. The

RLC’s message has begun attracting large numbers of people statewide. Support has poured out from around the state as this struggle with the corruption within the party has continued. Many of the recent changes in the RPOF leadership started at the grassroots level with large groups of dissenters, such as the RLC, calling for honesty and transparency in our elected leaders.

About The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida:

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida is a coalition of traditional conservatives and liberty minded Republicans working within the Republican Party to promote individual liberty, smaller government, state and national sovereignty and the Constitution. The caucus advocates the return of our nation to the values and intentions of the Constitution and our founders.

(i) www.rlcfl.org
(ii) www.rlcnef.org

CONTACT:

Frank Zilaitis
Email: frank@zilaitis.com
Phone: (321) 480-7597

Several members of the Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) attended the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) annual meeting January 8th and 9th.  With factors such as the recently announced resignation of RPOF Chair Jim Greer, the growth of the RLC, the emergence of Tea Party movements and the influence of the “We Surround Them” (912) groups, we had high hopes for a new direction for the RPOF.

New opportunities were opened as a result of the anger and energy of these activist groups, and the RPOF state committee recognized this with a resolution to encourage county executive committees to reach out to “Tea Party people.”  This would have given the RPOF a solid boost heading into the 2010 elections.  But they failed to understand that those “Tea Party people” want principled leadership and bottom-up representation, not the party-first top-down mentality currently in place.

At the annual meeting, the RPOF leadership demonstrated that they still don’t get it.  Chairman Greer received a standing ovation from party leadership when he exclaimed at the conclusion of his speech, “It’s about the party, party, party”. The cries heard at a Tea Party or grassroots function, however, are for “principles, principles, principles.”

Rank-and-file Republicans are clearly angry over the unprecedented growth of the federal government in 2009.  They are also disgusted at our Governor Charlie Crist’s display of support for Obama’s stimulus package. Yet, when Crist addressed the RPOF at the meeting, he stated that “Florida needs to get her fair share,” and added that he would “not apologize for supporting the stimulus.” Such a statement would be met with scorn from the majority of voters of the Republican Party and Tea Party attendees, but was met with a standing ovation by party leadership.

The first person to speak on policy was Jeff Kottkamp, candidate for Attorney General. Kottkamp did not talk about reducing the size and scope of government, cutting spending, or removing regulations and encouraging free enterprise.  Instead, he focused his remarks on expanding the Defense and Space industries in Florida.  Grassroots Republicans are pleading for leadership that understands the core issues of fiscal responsibility and limiting the size and scope of government, but RPOF leadership offers only promises to protect special interests.

Most discouraging of all, however, was the apparent coronation of Senator John Thrasher to replace Jim Greer as Chair of the RPOF. In much the same fashion Jim Greer was chosen, the word is that Thrasher had been chosen before the conference call announcing Greer’s resignation had even ended. Many in leadership have rallied around Thrasher because of his ability to raise large sums of money, something the RPOF is in need of. What the RPOF needs more than money, however, is to discover its principles and to get candidates who truly understand those principles elected to office.

A Sign of Hope

In spite of the leadership’s general disconnect with the grassroots, there was a significant sign of hope.  There appears to be some serious resistance to the leadership-led coronation of John Thrasher as the new RPOF Chair. Sharon Day, who currently serves as national committeewoman for Florida, stated that she too is running for RPOF Chair in the election that will take place at the February 20th special meeting in Orlando. “I’m running to give the RPOF members a choice, because there should always be a choice,” Day said when she addressed the state committee Saturday morning.

The RLC applauds those in the RPOF that are supporting the courage of Sharon Day and others that seek to offer a voice to the rank-and-file Republicans. We hope that more in party leadership will stand against the top-down approach taken by many in the RPOF.

-Republican Liberty Caucus Leadership