According to an explosive new report by David Steinberg at PJ Media, Rep. Eric Cantor’s chief consultant, Ray Allen, has been telling people that he will essentially burn down the Republican Party of Virginia so that he and Cantor can assume control of its smoldering ruins.
Slate-master Ray Allen
Readers of The Bull Elephant are familiar with the strong-arm parliamentary tactics that have been employed by Ray Allen and his allies over the past months. Check here and here for recent articles exposing the parliamentary maneuver called “slating,” whereby Allen’s allies seize control of a party committee’s mass meeting to elect only sa elect few delegates supporting Allen’s preferred candidate for the party’s district level chairmanship, thus disenfranchising every other person from that county or city who wanted to be a delegate to their respective district conventions. Much of this has been carried out by field staff hired for this purpose by the Eric Cantor-affiliated 501(c)(4) organization YG Virginia. In other cases, the practice has been carried out by hysterical appeals to public employees and Democrats suggesting they need to turn out to GOP meetings to help stop “Republican extremists” who might threaten their funding.
Now, PJ Media’s Steinberg reveals the larger strategy at play:
Ray Allen, has “angrily” stated to multiple individuals that he intends to bankrupt the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV), to install his own people throughout all levels of RPV’s State Central Committee, and to rebuild the RPV with money from Eric Cantor’s donors.
Essentially this confirms what we have known all along about Ray Allen’s activities this convention season: Cantor and his allies intend to sweep aside the grassroots majority on the party’s governing body, the State Central Committee, and install in its place a more pliant group friendlier to Cantor, and to Ray Allen’s financial interest in having GOP nominations decided by state-run open primaries. It also aligns with reports we have been hearing about threats and strong-arm tactics involving Ray Allen himself in communicating to ostensible allies (including sitting legislators) in the 5th Congressional District about how they are expected to handle formal appeals from those shut out of party processes.
What is new about this report is the edge of desperation it reveals, which is undoubtedly intensified after last weekend’s surprise ouster of the longtime chairman of Cantor’s own 7th District Republican Committee, Linwood Cobb.
The tactic of slating is divisive and destructive, as it leaves the injured victims embittered, and permanently wounds the local party where it happened. Taken to the highest level, these practices damage party unity like nothing else can. Picture it like the “fracking” for oil and natural gas, which is accomplished by pumping vast amounts of water underground to fracture certain kinds of geologic formations, thus releasing trapped pockets of oil and natural gas. That’s a good thing. But, Ray Allen is fracking the party by pumping Eric Cantor’s money deep into party organizations to divide and break them to get at just a handful of helpful votes. That’s a very bad thing, as it leaves behind him a wasteland of hopeless division, suspicion, and anger.
Apparently, Ray Allen and his allies don’t care. Which is why he has to go. As I wrote when breaking the story last month on how Ray Allen got over a million dollars of business through the Republican Party of Virginia last year,
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sit right with me. I think that if Ray Allen has access to Rep. Cantor’s money, then let him have at it. But, the Republican Party of Virginia must stop subsidizing the corruption of its own processes—immediately. Not a single dime of RPV money should find its way into the unclean hands of this political thug ever again.
This open warfare on the party won’t stop unless the party decides to defend itself.
