Apparently not. Or he simply enjoys playing a bully. [read_more]
First case in point. A couple of weeks ago Sheriff Chapman learned that the Republican member of the Electoral Board of Loudoun county was having a party in her home, hosted by her husband and his friends, for the Sheriff’s opponent, retired deputy Eric Noble. Chapman called a democrat member of the Electoral Board demanding that the party hostess be removed from her position on the Electoral Board. Officials in the Republican party were also contacted. Chapman tried to force the party hostess to abandon her position on the board or abandon her planned party. Ultimately it was learned that a member of the Electoral board is free to support any candidate she chooses. They are free to have parties, work to elect candidates, anything they choose, except chairing a party. An Electoral board member must resign if he or she becomes a party chair. They need not resign their position on the board of Elections for having a private party in their home supporting their chosen candidate.
Mike Chapman was wrong.
Last Sunday was the deadline for delegates filing for the Loudoun Republican Convention on May 2nd. Only two offices in Loudoun are being contested, Ashburn Supervisor and Sheriff. Ralph Buona is the current Ashburn Supervisor. Supervisor Buona and Sheriff Chapman challenged many of the delegate forms and asked for rulings from the attorney for the Republican Party of Virginia. They challenged some of the delegate forms for Buona’s opponent Joe Scalione because the email addresses and phone numbers had been blacked out. Those details were later given to the committee but Buona and Chapman wanted those delegates disqualified. The question was addressed by RPV attorney Chris Marston,
Do other campaigns have a right to challenge the acceptance of the altered delegate forms? (since the duplicated unaltered forms came in after 5 PM)
Campaigns never have this right, only delegates do. A delegate always has a right to challenge, but the forms were sufficient to meet the requirements of the call, so a challenge would not be well taken.
Do we need approval from RPV in order to add the phone numbers and email addresses to the certified delegate list since the additional information came in after the 5 PM deadline?
You do not need RPV’s approval to do this.
Since on the original delegate filing form only the phone numbers and email addresses were redacted and all other information including the pledge were left intact are we required to challenge those forms?
The Credentials Committee is not required to challenge these forms as they are sufficient to meet the requirements of the call.
Mike Chapman was wrong.
Sheriff Chapman’s biggest objections were to Eric Noble’s delegate forms which had yellow highlights for the sections of the forms that were required to be completed by the voter. He tried to challenge all of those delegate forms. The RPV attorney addressed those concerns,
One last separate issue: In a different race one campaign marked their delegate filing forms with a yellow highlighter so as to be able to identify their filings as opposed to the rest of the forms. The highlight coding was over the data field titles such as name, address, etc. and did not interfere with recording the information in its entirety. The other campaign in that race is asking if they have grounds to challenge those delegate forms. Could you please give us an opinion on this issue as well?
Assuming the forms are sufficient under the call in all other respects, highlighter marks (like coffee stains, stray ink marks, or anything else that doesn’t obscure the information required) do not make the forms insufficient. Such marks are not sufficient grounds to successfully challenge forms.
Mike Chapman was wrong.
Sheriff Chapman was wrong in every instance. Bullying never works and it won’t work in the Loudoun county’s sheriff’s race.
