Pretty darned far…
Dateline Fauquier County, VA – March 6, 2018:
This evening, Jim Rich and Kay Hayes took steps to assure that 130 Democrats will have a shot at once again voting in the local Republican Committee’s chairman race.
During the 2016 Fauquier County Republican Canvass to reconstitute the local unit and elect a chair, Hayes won with a margin of 26 votes. Unknown to the Republican participants in that canvass, many local Democrats voted and even signed a statement of intent to support all Republican nominees in the ensuing election in order to do so.
Not long after that canvass reconstituting the Fauquier County Republican Committee (“FCRC”), those voters violated that pledge by participating in the 2016 Democrat primary between Bernie and Hillary. Additionally, many more voted in the 2017 Democrat primary between Northam and Perriello, and even donated money to statewide Democrat nominees Northam, Herring, and Fairfax, among others. All told, there were 130 voters who violated their 2016 pledge, a number far exceeding Hayes’ slim margin of victory in that race.
One of the 2018 Candidates for FCRC Chairman, Greg Schumacher, raised the issue with Hayes and Rich in the form of a motion to develop procedures prior to this year’s April 14th canvass, so that poll workers will know who is eligible to vote and who is not. The request fell on deaf ears and there will be no procedure to screen out these voters at the Fauquier 2018 canvass.
Many Republicans expressed dismay and questioned whether Rich and Hayes would permit a redo of the 2016 canvass. The dismay has led to the bombshell discovery of a 2014 email exchange where Jim Rich (onetime Chairman of the 10th Congressional District Republican Committee) directed Fauquier GOP officials to elect a locally prominent Democrat to the Republican Committee over her objection!
In 2014, this well-known local Democrat was pressured to join the slate of proposed members for that year’s canvass to reconstitute the Republican Committee. The woman did the right thing and voiced her objection to being included because she was not a Republican.
Not only was her request to be removed from the slate of proposed Republican committee members ignored, she was actually elected to the committee despite her objection. One member involved in this action tried to do the right thing, and initiated a process to remove her from the ballot in order to accede to her wishes, but he was overruled by Jim Rich who insisted that she remain a candidate.
Local Republicans in Fauquier are wondering just how far Jim Rich will go to assure participation of the 130 Democrat voters in the election of our next GOP Chairman.
Well, if the email directive from 2014 is any guide, he will go pretty darn far to see that Democrats have a voice in the Fauquier County Republican Committee.
You can read the email exchange below, and view the list of 130 Democrats who voted in the Fauquier 2016 canvass and then violated the Statement of Intent they signed during that canvass.
