By Jordan Labiosa
Fellow Conservative and Convention Go-ers,
My name is Jordan Labiosa, I’m an elected town council member, Chairman of the Craig County GOP, Regional Vice Chairman of the Ninth Congressional District, and a Cruz delegate to the National Convention. It has been my pleasure to work in grassroots conservative politics for the past six years in our great Commonwealth.
Like many of you, I am also a delegate to the State Convention. Recently you may have shared in the misery of being bombarded by negative phone calls from Vince Haley’s campaign, making highly suspect claims about Chairman Whitbeck.
Here is a link to an example of a call. The caller claims to be reaching out on behalf of Vince Haley for Chairman and accuses Chairman John Whitbeck of, among other things, “trying to defeat Trump and Cruz delegates.” At the end of the call the “volunteer” says “paid for by Vince Haley for Chairman.”
Now, I happen to personally know this is false because, as a Cruz delegate, the Chairman endorsed me while I was running for office. His endorsement was based on our shared conservative values and my Presidential candidate preference had nothing to do with it.
Naturally, I was infuriated by this call. Luckily for me, Vince Haley held a unit chair conference call Saturday night and I took the time to directly ask him why he was making such wild accusations. The results were enlightening, follow the link here
Transcript below:
Me: What proof do we have that there is a conspiracy against Cruz and Trump delegates? You know Chairman Whitbeck denied it and told us to ask for proof. What proof do you have?
Aaron Gulbransen: Can you identify yourself
Me: I’m Jordan Labiosa, I was just elected as a Cruz delegate in Southwest Virginia and there was not action against me from Whitbeck. In fact, he endorsed me without prejudice to my candidate, but I do want to know what proof we have of these claims.
Vince Haley: So I’m not sure what claims you’re talking about. You’re saying claims have been made about a conspiracy?
Me: The emails that have been sent out multiple times that Cruz and Trump supporters should be at the convention on Friday to prevent their voting rights from being taken away by John Whitbeck.
Vince Haley: I’m not asserting that, I don’t know who is saying that, but I’m not asserting that there is any sort of conspiracy
*End Transcript*
Folks, it is very simple, either Vince Haley has no idea what is happening on his own campaign or he is knowingly spreading misinformation. I believe both of these are disqualifying. If you don’t have the leadership capabilities to run a tight ship then how can you make a credible claim that you can lead a state party organization? Dishonesty is a disqualifier that probably doesn’t need further explanation.
So which is it?
On the same call, I asked Vince and his campaign manager Aaron Gulbransen to condemn these falsehoods for the good of the Party if they are indeed being made without his knowledge. My question was met with silence. I hope we will not hear the same regarding this blog post.
The choice is clear in the race for Chairman. With John Whitbeck, our Party has a leader who has paid down debt, supported conservative candidates like Nancy Dye and Dick Black, helped our Party win races, and deploy field staff to regions like Southwest Virginia earlier than in any previous election cycle.
In contrast, we have Vince Haley who hasn’t attended any recent Republican events that I’m aware, didn’t vote in the 2014 Cantor v. Brat primary, and ran a campaign that did not make the ballot in Virginia (a task completed by Mike Huckabee’s 2008 shoestring campaign, Rudy Giuliani, and Fred Thompson), and led a 2012 campaign so far into debt that it still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to this day.
The tactics mentioned above, his indecision on whether he is actually running or not, and his previous failures running campaigns, lead me to call for the withdrawal of his candidacy…again.
I hope you will show up on Friday and Saturday to end this embarrassment once and for all. Whitbeck for Chairman!
UPDATE:
In an email sent by “Your Conservative Future”, a shadowy organization perpetrating the same misinformation regarding Whitbeck’s involvement, makes a claim that I am a “pro-parachute stealth delegate.”
I thought the lies about Whitbeck went far, but these lies and personal attacks are beyond what I could have imagined coming from Haley’s campaign. I was, and John is endorsed by anti-parachute activist and Cruz supporter, Morton Blackwell. Over the course of my campaign for National Delegate I made it perfectly clear: I would oppose any change to the rules which would oppose Trump or Cruz.
I’m personally calling on Vince Haley to withdraw from the race. These lies need to stop.
Jordan Labiosa is chairman of the Craig County Republican Committee and is a longtime conservative activist in Southwest Virginia and elsewhere around the Commonwealth. He was recently elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention from the 9th Congressional District on the Ted Cruz ticket.
