
VA Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Franklin)
This Saturday, the Fifth District Republican Committee, chaired by Senator Bill Stanley, will meet to determine the fate of the appeal seeking to overturn the slating at the Campbell County GOP’s 2014 mass meeting.
The Bull Elephant has documented how Democrat voters and contributors swarmed the Campbell County GOP mass meeting on March 20. Directed by RPV First Vice Chairman Mike Thomas, they ruthlessly threw every sitting member off the county GOP committee, and slated over 100 people off the state and Fifth District convention delegations as well. Chairman Stanley is stepping down, but one of the candidates to replace him at the upcoming May 17th 5th District Convention, Mark Lloyd, was disenfranchised right along with his wife and over 90 supporters. So Lloyd cannot even vote in his own race.
The race for Fifth District chairman was a huge undercurrent in Campbell, with Eric Cantor’s folks pulling for Jon Berkley against Mark Lloyd, a 20-year veteran of the Campbell committee and the former head of the Virginia Tea Party Patriots. Berkley’s delegates were seated by Mike Thomas and Co., while Lloyd and his delegates were unceremoniously tossed.
The previous Campbell chairman, Les Williams, and his supporters, filed a timely appeal accompanied by piles of evidence showing how the slating was accomplished by scores of Democrat voters and contributors, and scores of members of a local independent political party that has run candidates against every local Republican nominee since 2011. Neil Vener, who chaired the mass meeting, as well as all four candidates who opposed Williams for chairman—including contested winner John Ferguson—are members of that other party.
Now, just two weeks before the end of his four years as district chairman, Bill Stanley faces the defining moment of his chairmanship. Les Williams and his supporters have requested that the district committee declare the mass meeting invalid, tainted by the masses of Democrats and third party supporters who provided the margin for Ferguson. They have requested that the committee declare the last valid act of the Campbell GOP to be the acceptance of delegate prefiling forms by the required deadline, and declare that all properly prefiled delegates and committee applicants be seated, except those who have repeatedly and publicly opposed Republican nominees.
There are a number of critical reasons Stanley’s committee should grant the relief requested by Williams an his team. The first reason is the necessity to uphold the State Party Plan of the Republican Party of Virginia. The independent political party, known as the “ICCC,” has nominated and run candidates against every local nominee of the Campbell County GOP since 2011. The entire purpose of a political party is to nominate and run candidates for public office. Republicans can, and should, disagree as to the direction of our party, and support candidates of their choice during nomination contests. The Party Plan is designed for this. But once the candidate is decided, the party has a right and an obligation to protect its candidates. This is why the Party Plan removes from official committees members who publicly support or donate to opponents of our candidates, or who participate in another party’s nomination contest.
Before the mass meeting, Vener sent out an email to all county school teachers and county staff, claiming that the three GOP county supervisors’ proposed 7/10 of one percent (0.7%) budget cut would cost teacher jobs. He stated that the Party Plan’s loyalty pledge is unenforceable, and urged non-Republicans to attend the meeting to ensure that no more “extremists” (read “Republicans”) were elected to the Board of Supervisors. Scores of county employees, along with the Democrats and ICCC folks, responded to his call, overwhelming Williams and his Republican team 308-240.
So the entire Ferguson/Vener campaign was based on turning out non-Republicans to prevent more Republicans from being elected, and on encouraging people to commit fraud and falsely sign their allegiance to the GOP. This flies in the face of the entire letter and spirit of the Party Plan, and indeed of any political party.
Which leads to the second and biggest reason why Stanley and his committee should overturn the result. Should this stand, the blueprint has been produced to destroy every local GOP committee in this Commonwealth. If the Party Plan and its protections are not to apply, here’s the new roadmap. If you don’t like your local GOP committee, turn out Democrats and third party folks committed to destroying the committee. As the coup de grace, demonize Republicans who want to reduce the tax burden and streamline government as “extremists,” frighten the entire county staff that their jobs are at stake, and turn them all out as well.
Not a single GOP committee in the state could withstand what Les Williams’ GOP committee faced. In the massive Henrico slating battle, next door to Richmond, the winning team had some 175 folks present. In little Campbell County, the LOSING team had 240 people, and still lost by more than 60 votes (with documented Democrats and ICCC members accounting for for well more than the margin of victory).
Should Stanley and the other Fifth District committee chairmen uphold the Campbell travesty, their own committees, and every GOP committee in the Commonwealth, will be on the Endangered Species List.
Finally, the Williams team has a huge equitable argument in their favor. While the Party Plan is quite clear as to the process for mass meeting appeals, it is intentionally broad in the equitable power it gives its committees to fashion remedies. Article X, Section C gives the party the authority to make determinations on “all … matters deemed to affect the efficiency of the Party organization or the success of the Party.” This wording is intentional; it allows the party to make fact-specific determinations as to the most equitable way to right wrongs.
In Campbell, the Williams team is correct; the only way to preserve the integrity of local Republican committees, the only way to restore justice to over 100 loyal Republicans who were disenfranchised, and the only way to avoid making a mockery of the state Party Plan is to overturn the result, and seat every delegate and committee applicant who duly prefiled who has not repeatedly opposed GOP nominees.
It’s decision time for Chairman Bill Stanley. Eric Cantor, on whose behalf Mike Thomas masterminded the Campbell slating, will be applying intense pressure to uphold the slating. Chris LaCivita, Stanley’s consultant and an ally of Henrico slating mastermind Ray Allen, no doubt will as well.
Will Bill Stanley rise to this most critical leadership moment of his chairmanship? He has built a four-year reputation for fair dealing in the Fifth District. The next two weeks—with the appeal hearing this Saturday and the district convention next weekend—will be the supreme leadership test of his four years.
15 comments
The verdict is in. It’s OK to cheat. The committee ruled that the Campbell County Mass Meeting was full of impropriety, and it’s still OK to cheat. Bill Stanley has defined four years into a concise and shameless act by leading the committee into an impotent decision for relief. Unfortunately, I don’t see Bill at the steering wheel. I see Robert Hurt with very long puppet strings. Yes, Bill recused himself from the vote, and that sound fair handed and above board. At the end of the day, he wasn’t expecting the appellants to prevail with a simple majority. Make no mistake about it, our lack of remedy was the plan before the meeting ever began at 11 am should the decision favor the slated Campbell County Republicans. So, here’s my take…..It’s OK to expose a crime family. It’s OK to call them on the carpet and let them know of their offense. As long as the public officials get their cut of the profit there’s no end to the number of meth labs that can go up in your community. I would even argue that the establishment is helping them to purchase their raw materials at a reduced price. Wrong is still wrong no matter how many people oppose you, and right is still right even if I’m the only one. Truth is not subject to political elite rule except in the Republican Party at large.
[…] Interesting side note: the Virginia Beach slating contest was by far the most expensive, both for Curtis Colgate and Sen. Frank Wagner and his YG Virginia backers. The race easily accounted for over $200,000 in campaign spending. The irony? If this result holds, the balance of power on the State Central Committee will only change by one single vote, and Curtis Colgate will still be there. That’s because Curtis now reverts to his regular seat on State Central, attending meetings seated in the same row as Sen. Wagner. The only seat that will have been lost as a result of all this brouhaha will have been that of outgoing Chairman Gary Byler. Just a guess, but that’s got to be the most expensive single vote on State Central ever. Not exactly the sweet, resounding victory the Ray Allen/YG Virginia crowd were undoubtedly hoping for, especially after their crushing loss in the 3rd District, and their likely defeat on Saturday in the Fifth District. […]
“I trust Bill Stanley to make the right decision as long as it’s the decision that I want him to make.”
Senator Stanley’s rules for the appellate procedure Saturday were just sent out to the district committee. They are painstakingly aboveboard and fair, and present a clean opportunity for both sides to have a fair hearing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Rick,
If all those people that voted for Ferguson were Democrats, why were they allowed to vote at the meeting? Your side controlled the meeting to begin with and your Credentials committee reported they were registered and qualified Why were Democrats not reported as not qualified?
Its all spelled out in Article I Section A Paragraphs 1,4 & 5 of the Party Plan- but yet nothing was done.
Eric Cantor is an SOB to declare war on Conservatives with his Young Guns Slating. If they would use these same DIRTY Politics to beat Democrats, instead of using massive $$$ to fight conservatives, we would not be stuck with McAwful,Herring, and Northup in Richmond and have the Virginia Constitution rendered MEANINGLESS… THANKS TO CANTOR AND HIS ARMY OF RINOs we are living in a DESPOT RULED STATE…. North Carolina and West Virginia are starting to look really promising right now…
…and another question…Why does Mike Thomas still hold his position?
We’re dealing with the same sort of thing in Fauquier County. Heck, at least 3 known Democrats were elected as voting committee members. How is that allowed to happen?
If masses of Democrats, Republican opponents, and government employees can legitimately storm a Republican meeting to oust Republicans, then every other Republican unit in the state is potentially on the chopping block. The key leaders of the take-over team repeatedly, publicly opposed and campaigned against Republicans, and one even ran against a Republican as a Democrat endorsed candidate. Their intention is obviously to take control of the powerful “Republican” nomination for their own uses, and the only way to do that was to get rid of all the real Republicans by force. The Fifth District Committee members now have an opportunity to put a stop to this farce and restore justice.
Sure hope the committee will do the right thing. I was at the meeting and what I saw was all the hard working Republicans who have dependably turned out to help with mailings, door knocking, manning the poles, etc get slated out. I’d never seen Mr. Ferguson do any of those things in Campbell Co. If you kick out all your workers, who’s going to get the job done?
Mr. Ferguson’s never done these things – but those in his “leadership team” have, plenty of times. They are always handing out flyers, holding up signs, and making calls – for the non-Republican candidate, and in one case for the Democrat-endorsed candidate. They are always out in force – against Republicans.
Bill Stanley is a man of principle. There is only one decision here and it does not include the will of republican opponents who voted.
Bill is a good man, and tries hard to do the right thing.
My issues with what happened are simple.
1) We are paying members of the Republican party of Campbell County.
2) We volunteered our time, our efforts and pushed to get our message out and to be Delegates in our own party
Only to be kicked out by the “all inclusiveness’ of the new Big Government Republican party. Kind of Ironic isnt it.
The more true to government conservatives get kicked to the road while the Big Government Republicans put up candidates no one wants to support and that does not represent the Constitutional abiding Republicanism we all suport.
Evidence of that is the results of the Lynchburg City Council results from this past Tuesday. The republican endorsed candidates got beaten like red headed step children.
Why would people vote for a lite version of a Democrat when they can just vote for the real thing.
My observation of Bill
Stanley is that he does not care for that type of dirty politics that
irreconcilably destroys
us. My hope is that Bill will continue to stand on his own with his own
reasonable thoughts and not cave in to the pressures of those who care
not for hard working people of Campbell who were unfairly labeled as
enemies to the Party. Bill will see that the true enemies are those who rallied leftists to the meeting and slated off life long members.