If you have ever wondered whether or not it is possible to split the baby, Chairman Bill Stanley and members of the 5th District GOP Committee have shown us how it is done. You remember the biblical story?
Two women both argue that the other has stolen their baby and they go to King Solomon for a resolution. King Solomon decides that the way he can determine the rightful mother is by suggesting that they split the baby and they each get half. The woman who readily agrees to such a compromise is obviously not the real mother and it allows King Solomon to see who is right and who is wrong.
The problem with the 5th District Committee solution is that THEY ACTUALLY WANT TO SPLIT THE BABY! This past Saturday the 5th Congressional ruled that the slating that occurred in Campbell County was illegal, but they refused to do anything about it!
How was the slating illegal? The appeal demonstrated that unit chair John Ferguson, temporary mass meeting chairman Neil Vener and their team knowingly and aggressively recruited Democrats to attend a Republican meeting to throw Republicans out of their own party! What’s more, it was proven that they had violated Robert’s Rules procedures as well.
How obvious was the illegal slating? Well, even TWO known Democrat fundraiser for former Democrat Congressman Tom Perriello were in attendance to throw Republicans out of their own party. Many others had voted in Democrat primaries or were recently campaigning publicly against Republican nominees. One ringleader had just run for supervisor with the Democrat endorsement, only to lose his seat to a Republican last year. Now the defeated Democrat endorsee is on the GOP committee and the Republican supervisor is slated off!
All this was in clear violation of the Republican Party Plan.
It is important to remember that Campbell County was very unique in their slating, because they slated off almost 100 Republicans from being members in their own local Campbell County GOP Committee, from attending the 5th District Convention, AND from attending the Statewide GOP Convention. It was a trifecta slate!
So, how do you split the baby? Well, the 5th District GOP Committee ruled that slating was improperly executed and was therefore illegal. Further, they found that the Campbell County Mass Meeting was stolen with Democrat involvement, but they refused to offer a remedy to any of these findings. This is a very dangerous precedent to set in our party.
I have checked with many individuals who are more well-versed with the Republican Party Plan and Robert Rules than I am, and they have all told me the same thing – when confronted by the results of an illegitimate election, it is entirely the prerogative of the 5th District GOP to order a result that would have happened had there been no cheating (i.e., mandating that all properly filed delegates be allowed to participate in the 5th District and statewide conventions). Further, they could rule the Campbell County Mass Meeting null and void and require that another Mass Meeting be held to determine the Campbell County GOP Chairman and its members. Some members on the 5th District Committee argued passionately for these remedies, but they were in the minority.
Instead the response from the 5th District GOP was in essence, ‘that is so wrong that the election was stolen from you and you were kicked out of your own Republican Party by Democrats. That is awful! We agree with you that it was illegal. We’ll politely recommend to the 5th District Credentialing Committee that your slated delegates get to attend the 5th District Convention, but we are not going to require it. Oh, and we are going to let the cheaters who stole your Campbell County Unit Committee keep it too. Have a nice day!”
This line of thinking that says that a higher body in the Republican Party with the authority to hear an appeal doesn’t have the authority to fix the problem is just ridiculous! Why have an appeals process for corrupted meetings if nothing can be done about it? There is absolutely no sense in that.
So where does that leave 5th District chairman candidate Mark Lloyd and the conservative Republicans? The 5th District Convention is this Saturday. (Remember, Mark Lloyd is running for the 5th District chairman and can’t even vote in his own election because he was slated.) Conservative Republicans will have to try and turn out all their delegates (whether they were slated or not) and HOPE and PRAY that the 5th Convention Credentialing Committee will be persuaded by the ruling of the 5th District Committee and seat all properly filed delegates – including those who were slated illegally!
I hope the delegates in attendance at the 5th District Convention will stand up and demand these illegal and strong-arm tactics by the Republican good ‘ole boys be stopped immediately and that ALL delegates be seated at the convention. I am sure the delegates will see the common sense that you can’t win elections and grow a conservative majority by kicking Republicans out of the party with the help of Democrats! But those same delegates should diligently listen to what is proposed as a solution this Saturday, because they might be surprised to discover that their elected representatives is on the wrong side of this issue…
One thing is for sure, splitting the baby is a nightmare. You don’t rule that illegal activity took place and then refuse to do anything about it. That is absurd!
In time, the Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee will hear this case and rule. I’m hopeful they can be more definitive with their ruling AND remedy!
55 comments
[…] 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” […]
Mass Meeting was not stolen as Rick Boyer claims. He produced a spread sheet with 87 names on it in which he claims the people are either Democrats or a member of the ICCC PAC.
57 names, or 65% are completely false. Email me at bwheaton1@verizon.net and I will be happy to send you the list of inaccuracies.
Boyer even has me listed as a Democrat. I did vote in the 2009 Democrat primary for Brian Moran, the weakest candidate on the ticket, as a way to support Republicans. I voted in Republican primaries in 2005, 2008, 20101 and 2012, but that didn’t matter to Boyer. .
Boyer and Radtke are both wrong.
Here is EXACTLY what happened at the Mass Meeting.
Campbell County Republican Mass Meeting, March 20, 2014
Nominations Committee activity
When I was appointed chairman of the Nominations Committee by Chairman Vener, I and my committee went to get the list of pre-file names, only to discover no such list existed.
Chairman Les Williams and the CCRU failed to tabulate the pre-file forms so no record at all existed.
All we had was the pre-file forms themselves in an envelope within an envelope type system. There were 7 manila envelopes containing the individual pre-file forms in separate envelopes. However, Les Williams was not in custody of them.
They were in the custody of Rick Boyer (not a delegate to the mass meeting) who, along with his people, were frantically mining the profile forms for names, for what I would expect for Boyer’s personal political use. The chain of custody of these original documents had been broken by Boyer.
They were pulling smaller envelopes out of the larger manila envelopes and copying down names. These envelopes were is a sort of alphabetical order but Boyer’s people were just stuffing them back into any envelope.
I had to wrestle the pre-file forms out of Rick Boyer’s hands and almost had to call upon the sergeant at arms for help.
I finally took possession of the forms. I asked Rick Boyer for his list to use in helping the Nominations Committee and he refused, not once but twice. It was blatantly obvious that Boyer cared nothing about the delegates but was concerned only about his personal political ambitions. Boyer had compromised the integrity of the forms as we had no way of knowing what was taken out and what was put in.
Our committee quickly concluded that within the time allotted us it was completely impossible for us to go through and tabulate all the pre-file forms. That would have taken hours and we only had minutes. All we had was a list I had prepared for the people we pre-filed.
Chuck Falwell was finally able to convince Boyer to give us a copy of the list he had made and the Yellow Branch principal obliged by letting us use the office copier.
However, this list was a third party list of questionable accuracy and contained many duplicates. We spend what little time we now had left pouring over the lists in an attempt to identify those we could be certain had filed. Frankly, in many cases, we just took it on faith.
Without a list provided by CCRU, with the broken chain of custody and with the compromised integrity of the original forms, we did the best we could and we are sorry many were not recognized.
However, we are not apologizing as we have nothing to apologize for. We did nothing wrong. We were provided with nothing we could use from Les Williams and the CCRU and Rick Boyer’s personal political ambition destroyed the integrity of the documents and consumed practically all the time we had. If it is anyone that needs to apologize to these people who lost out it is Les Williams and Rick Boyer.
One final note. We had requested copies of the pre-file forms from Les Williams but he refused our request. If we had those forms earlier, the outcome may have been much different.
Bill Wheaton
Nominations Committee Chairman.
Nominations Committee members Chuck Falwell and Ken Towler have reviewed this statement and attest to its accuracy. Ken Towler has added the following observation:
March 20, 2014 Campbell County Republican Mass Meeting
Report by Kenneth Claiborne Towler, Member Campbell County Republican Party Nominating Committee: Buckmoor Farm,
201 Grist Mill Road, Lynchburg, VA 24501
I spent most of meeting stationed near the right rear entrance observing what people were doing. Word was spreading that the incumbents were going to be voted out and they were trying to cut deals to maintain power.
At this point I saw Rick Boyer, not a resident or registered voter of Campbell County, carrying a stack of manila envelopes. There were 5-6 young girls all wearing WILLIAMS stickers following him. I didn’t notice a name tag in the group that allowed them to vote. They dumped the contents of the manila envelopes on the table were the registration computers had been, started to rummage the envelopes then writing names down on pieces of paper. It was disorganized and very frantic. While this was going on it was announced that Neil Vener was elected temporary chairman and the handling of the envelopes got more frantic. All this was being done under the direction of Rick Boyer.
When Neil Vener named me to the nominating committee I moved to the front right of the auditorium to join Bill Wheaton and Chuck Falwell. A stack of envelopes was handed to us by Rick Boyer but with no list. We were told there would be no list given to us. We had a spreadsheet listing all the Ferguson supports that had filed credentials. Rick Boyer was told that it would take hours to go thru the individual envelopes and if we didn’t get a list we would go with the spreadsheet we had. Rick Boyer was acting as though he was running the event and he didn’t want to cooperate in any way. He started to get in Bill Wheaton’s face and saying that he didn’t have to give us a list. At that point I stepped in front of him and told him, “You are not a Campbell County resident, back up.” Chuck Falwell told him we needed some sort of list as it would take days to go thru the envelopes and properly certify them. Upon realizing that if he didn’t supply a list there would be no one credentialed from the WILLIAMS group he said that they would hand copy the list for us. I suggested that he see the school principal and use the schools copier. He thought that was a good idea and they returned with photocopier copies of the list.
As we went thru the list we could see there was no order to what was done. We found the same names on multiple copies. Not knowing which were names were legitimate we reviewed each list and included people that one of the nominating committee knew and felt they could talk to, work with and would support an open Campbell County Republican party.
The Nominations Committee didn’t actually review the prefile forms? Nice. Instead, you just substituted your list. Thanks for the confession.
it sounds as if the nominating committee never had possession of pre-filed delegate forms.
Not sure how you could reach that conclusion. From the confessing Nominations Chairman himself: “I finally took possession of the forms.”
What he didn’t have was a LIST of the pre-files. What the Nominations Committee is supposed to do is examine the pre-files and compile that list…it’s then called the Nominations Committee Report. Instead, rather than do, you know, actual work, our loquacious friend spins himself dizzy trying to justify essentially throwing the forms into the circular file and then offering his own list as the Nominations Committee Report.
I can’t believe he’s actually admitting his culpability in public.
pardon me for lack of specificity. it sounds as if the nominations committee never had possession of all pre-filed forms.
No problem! I disagree…what it sounds like is Wheaton trying to make you think he had no choice but to engage in slating because of ol’ evil Rick Boyer. He never actually says he didn’t have all the forms, though the subtle implication that Rick did something sinister with them is amusing. If he really wanted to justify that kind of accusation, he would have ACTUALLY TABULATED THE NAMES ON THE FORMS, like he was supposed to, so that he could prove someone tampered with them.
Instead, he casts aspersions on others to try to obscure the fact that he engaged in what is the texbook definition of slating. Lucky for us, he’s apparently not smart enough to pull it off; what he undoubtedly meant as a jab at Boyer was actually a confession of his own guilt in this affair. (And don’t bother editing your comment, Wheaton, we’ve got it saved).
Just split the Baby and be done with this, sure that works all the time, in abortion clinics! The GOP is killing themselves from within!
C Davidson why do you need to resort to personal attacks? Perhaps bc you have nothing better to say? I’d say that why a person hangs Drywall at night even tho he has a law degree, is because this is a man who is responsible and wants to support his family while building his practice. What does that have to do with anything? And as an observer of the clerk of court nomination, the current clerk of court got elected bc she ran as an independent after not getting the republican nomination. Then the ‘good old boy’ Campbell County network ( which is still obviously still in force hence the takeover of the mass meeting) got behind her to get her elected. They don’t want anyone upsetting their nice little clique.
Common sense says that when a letter containing lies goes out to the CC employees ( which was against school rules) that something underhanded is afoot. When people, who never attend CC meetings, show up enmasse for this one and then take over with underhanded means, it is suspicious. I hate lying on either side. The new Chairman told several. But whatever helps you win. Right?
We’re accustomed to personal attacks…the bright lights makes the crawlers scurry, so they’d rather not have anyone flip the switch.
The meeting was actually recorded and the recording will be available for the State Central appeal in case anyone’s interested. As to the Vener email, we included copies of it along with a massive pile of other evidence to the entire committee. On both scores – stacking the meeting with Democrats and totally destroying Robert’s Rules, the evidence was overwhelming.
I understand some folks don’t like accountability, but it’s time the light was shined on the theft Cantor/Mike Thomas/Ferguson pulled. They begged Democrats to come, promised them that the statement of intent to support Republicans is meaningless, and warned of the consequences of electing more Republican “extremists” to local government. Three of them ran for supervisor last year with Dem endorsements against Republicans. And two longtime incumbents were turned out by the voters.
It’s humorous to watch “Republicans” defending the hijacking of our process by Democrats and arguing that those of us who actually support all our candidates are not good Republicans.”By their fruits ye shall know them.”
Why weren’t the supposed dems challenged at the door ? Les Williams was in charge at that point. Why did you destroy the registration list from the check in ? Why did you have the pre-file forms instead of the Chairman ? If your side won why are you appealing ? Why did Peyton Knight get two votes ? Why do you hang drywall at night when you have a law degree ? Why has Campbell County had 4 chairman since 2012. Why did you say you wouldn’t do anything to hurt Robert Hurt the most conservative congressman in Va but you would never lift a finger to help him ? How did you manage to lose a clerk of the court race by such a large margin with the Republican nomination in such a Republican leaning county ?
No need to get personal. You’re really trending towards being a terrible person. Maybe its time to push away from the keyboard.
The evidence does exist and you are ill informed. Your personal attacks show not only your arrogance, but your ignorance.
No. I read here that Hedrick knows far more about what happened than you do. Clearly the evidence you have doesn’t really exist. I’m sure its all imaginary. Its totally normal for bunches of committee members to be slated off their own delegation, to include the candidates themselves.
It happens ALL THE TIME. Nothing to see here….just keep moving in line.
^^POP^^ was that your tongue Eric?
Thank you, Dianne Whinestein.
This wasn’t a unanimous decision, the vote was 17-16 with Bill Stanley abstaining.
The Boyer group is getting taken out in the same fashion that they used to move into control.
Care to comment on democrat control of the Campbell county GOP?
Of the 46 people they claimed to be democrats only 11 had ever voted in a dem primary or given to any dem. One gave 100 to the dem candidate and 500 to the republican in that election the dem was a family member. Rick Boyer even admitted they didn’t even have a list of delegates from what I was told. If I remember correctly Williams lost by over 100 votes so how was it a dem takeover ?
It seems a majority of the committee disagrees
No actually It doesn’t.
Yeah. It doesn’t exist. It’s ridiculous spin from the Boyer machine that’s trying to take advantage of the current “Let’s Take Our Party Back” crap that’s going on. The Boyers know how to play the game and took control by outnumbering the old administration. The shoe’s on the other foot now and it’s been inserted into the Boyers’ butt.
Weak-minded people who yell “Hell Yeah!” and go with the crowd don’t take the time to objectively look at the facts.
Let’s get real. If Democratic forces had really infiltrated and taken over a county’s political process, it would have been much bigger news and would have been much more covered by the media than it has been.
This is just hype and spin by the Boyers. If you notice, before it was something like Bill Stanley is a fair man and we’ll get fair treatment. Oops. So now they try and spin the decision by sticking their hand up Radtke’s butt like a puppet and getting her to spin out their spin on the situation.
Please, Bruce, keep it in good taste.
So noted. Edits made to bring it down to a PG-13 rating.
Thanks!
I understand that a mailer/flyer was discovered that was sent to the heavily dem-leaning pubic/county employees groups, encouraging them to come vote. Is that your understanding?
No idea. I’ll put that into the “Proof Or Not Real” column for now.
Eric, as I understand it, the communication was via a list of all county employees’ emails telling them that one more GOP “extremist” on the Board of Supervisors would be all it would it would take to threaten their budgets, so they needed to all come out to vote at the mass meeting.
I don’t like that either, but that’s a heck of a difference from McGrane’s spin on things.
That’s correct, Steve. Copies of the original email, the Dem contribution records of Dem donors at the meeting, and recent Dem primary voters present were provided to the committee at the appeal hearing.
Bruce, can we assume that Jamie is not on your Christmas card mailing list?
Do not assume that. I love everybody.
Mike Thomas told us there was no cheating. “These aren’t the cheaters your looking for”, he says while waving his Jedi hand.
As no lawful, by-the-rules process for choosing delegates occurred in Campbell County, that county should not have ANY delegates seated at the convention.
Not seating anyone is an available option, but it’s not the only option. Not seating anyone from the delegation would be appropriate where, on appeal, it was found that the process was such an awful mess that no one could agree on a good equitable remedy. But that’s not the case here.
From what I understand (mostly from reading this site), the record and testimony is pretty clear that we know what would have happened in the absence of the rules violations. Any ruling on appeal should replicate that outcome. To do otherwise is to imply two very dangerous things: (1) that the party apparatus is completely impotent in governing itself; and (2) that similar cheating will be tolerated and rewarded in the future. Absolute rubbish on both counts.
Not providing a remedy here seems like a dodge, or maybe worse, part of a
strategy to frustrate the satisfaction of legitimate grievances. Where a process is fair, only elected delegates should be seated. But where a process is corrupt, the corruption should not be abetted by claiming that we don’t have the power to fix it. The party has the power to do anything it wants that it is not expressly proscribed from doing by law or provision of the Party Plan. For instance, we can’t remove the Chairman except by specific procedures. But there are not specific procedures or guidelines for how a flawed process is to be remedied, or how appeals are to be decided, and saying otherwise is simply inventing constraints that do not exist in Parliamentary Law. Where the rules do not provide guidelines, it is left to the discretion of the body with the authority to hear the appeal, and if they disagree, with the State Central Committee, which has final say and plenary authority on all matters affecting the success of the party.
I suspect I’ll get to hear it for myself first hand one day soon when it makes it to SCC.
And the State Central Committee’s process and hearing needs to be completely open and transparent to avoid any more ridiculous spinning like we’ve seen here.
Couldn’t agree more about openness and transparency.
Welcome to Southside. This is my area of specialty. 😀
The same state central that Peyton Knight serves on ? Peyton Knight gave his proxy to someone else instructing them how to vote then comes to the meeting as proxy for someone else. I’m told a protest has been filed with RPV and Bill Stanley has signed it. From the word I’m getting RPV isn’t happy and they say Peyton Knight will most likely be removed from his position for voter fraud.
Nonsense.
Very true please check it out for yourself. I have seen the protest with Bill Stanley’s signature. Stop believing Rick Boyer he is a liar.
Have a blessed evening Bill, and Bruce, and Steve and Jamie and Eric and everybody else on the comment thread.
C, what was done with the proxies aside (opinions can differ, but the preponderance suggests it was within the rules), I can tell you there is absolutely *zero* chance that Peyton Knight will be removed from the State Central Committee for “voter fraud” or anything else related to this.
And BTW, “I’m told a protest has been filed” and “I have seen the protest” are pretty different statements, don’t you think? Which one is true?
Not sure who you are, “C Davidson”, but I can tell you that you’re either getting some very bad information, or you have a serious problem with the truth. As a member of the Young Republicans, I carried their proxy to the meeting because after an exhaustive search, they couldn’t find anyone to go. I gave my SCC proxy to another gentleman. Perfectly normal. And perfectly legal, according to RPV counsel. That you, and others, would stoop so low to defend the illegal disenfranchisement of over 100 hard-working Republicans is shameful. No wonder you hide behind a phony moniker.
So wipe the whole county’s votes out because of a few idiots that can’t get along?
Bad kitty.
Are you suggesting that persons who were made delegates against the rules of the party should be seated anyway?
No, I was mocking your horrible idea.
Bad kitty.
This is a binary yes/no question. Either you are for seating improperly chosen delegates or you are not. If the system claims legitimacy it cannot seat delegates who are not chosen according to the party rules.
let me understand. if a Democrat endorsed me should I run for public office (God forbid), then I would no longer be a Republican? or conservative?
Neil Vener, the temporary chair of the mass meeting, argued the case for the Ferguson slating cheaters. (I argued it for Les Williams’ team). He OPENLY and REPEATEDLY admitted that the reason they slated out all the conservative delegates who supported Mark Lloyd was to help Jon Berkley, Eric Cantor’s handpicked choice for Fifth District chair. “We wanted those delegates and we absolutely weren’t going to elect any of Mark Lloyd’s delegates,” he said.
Now Jon Berkley is in the odd position of fighting to slate out HIS OWN delegates in Campbell, because if the convention seats all prefiled delegates, Mark Lloyd handily wins Campbell, with its prize of 110 delegate votes. He would rather slate out his own folks (with the help of Tom Perriello fundraisers) than allow Mark Lloyd’s loyal Republican delegates to vote!We can only hope there is honor among the convention delegates Saturday. There is none between Berkley, Vener, Ferguson and Cantor.
What a load of horse shit. Rick Boyer you have to be the biggest liar in the USA.
Who is “C Davidson”?
C stands for Cantor!