Florida Republican feud continues: Grassroots upset over annointed new chairman
by Michael C. Bender | January 6th, 2010
Starr
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - HASNER: THRASHER CHOICE A POSITIVE MOVE FOR RPOF; FULLY SUPPORT CHOICE***
“I was shocked,” Starr said. “There should have been a mourning period. Greer deserved that - he did the honorable thing. But not one minute after that, the controversy starts all over again.”
The controversy is the anointing from Hasner (who was discussed as a possible replacement for Greer) and a list of other elected Republicans, including Attorney General Bill McCollum and his gubernatorial campaign, of state Sen. John Thrasher’s as Greer’s replacement.
For Starr — who is chairman of the RPOF Chairman Caucus — and other party activists, this is 2007 all over again. At that time, many were unhappy after feeling like Greer was pushed on them by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. Now, the list of Thrasher supporters looks eerily similar to the Greer camp from three years ago.
Day
“I’m considering it,” she told The Palm Beach Post.
Florida’s committeewoman on the national Republican Party and the national party’s secretary earned respect from many grassroots activists in the state when she stopped Greer’s attempt to invoke the party’s “Rule 11″ on behalf of Crist. The move would have essentially denounced Crist’s primary rival, former House Speaker Marco Rubio, as an unfit to run.
One of Day’s biggest fans, Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein, is urging her to reconsider until 2011.
“She’s like my hero in Republican leadership,” Dinerstein said. “She stood up at the right time. She has courage, energy, I just love her. Having said that, yesterday was the time to fight and today is the time together. I would like us to come together.”
Developing…
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Sentenced to die for crimes judged heinous and cruel, inmates await execution in a 9 feet by 6 feet cell.
January 6th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I dont think is the person. their should be asecret ballot election. we need a change not back to another moderate
January 6th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
It would appear the GOP is falling apart in all corners of the nation, no wonder they can’t seem to raise money. Poor leadership, even on the national level with Mikey Steele a daily embarrassment with his comments and nit picks.
Democrats have a real opportunity with this apparent chaos..Go Dems!
January 6th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
The republicans want the right candidates. If they have to clean house for that …good for them. Better than democrats cleaning them out.
A good republican candidate can easily win in 2010.
Sid…get to work in PB County. You have failed over and over to generate LOCAL candidates for local offices.
Elections are around the corner. What the hell are you doing for republicans IN PBCounty?
Now, is the time or have you given in democrats? Sid, who are you talking to regarding mayoral seats, commission seats, school board seats, council seats Get on with it or get out.
January 6th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Repubs better get their gubernatorial candidate busy…cause if a democrat is elected they hold sway over the RE-dsitricting and will RE-draw democrat district to ENSURE democrat wins.
Florida will BE the KEY to the Presidential race in 2012.
NO to TAXERS and SPENDERS.
January 6th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
They need to find someone who has a backbone that can stand up for the principles of capitalism and personal freedoms. Their problem is they have tried to be friends with the scummy little dems and that has turned most conservatives away from the party. Macain was (is) a democrat lite and that is why they lost, and rightfully so.
January 17th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Check out the grass roots rebellion unfolding in central Pennsylvania, where party bosses are trying to foist a long time weakling incumbent on one of the most conservative regions in the country. Sam Rohrer, Josh First, Frank Ryan are stirring things up.
January 22nd, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Replacing Greer with the likes of Thrasher is like trading Castro for Chavez. One is no better than the other. Both of these men are “Charlie’s boys” who are pushing endorsements from the top down before a primary is even run…. WRONG ANSWER!!!
We need people of principal in our county and state committees before we can ever expect to fix anything at the national level… otherwise we will wind up with successive RHINO’s who are the reason we are in this mess to begin with. It is time to put real representation in representative government… not this inverted dictatorial garbage that the RPOF is pushing on us.
January 24th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
The whole Process of getting John Thrasher into the RPOF Chairmanship is corrupt from the start.
John Thrasher is not a Conservative- http://www.rlcnef.org/the-case-against-john-thrasher/
Here is what happened at the vote to get him into position to run for chair:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
No Dissent Allowed: St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee
St. Johns County, January, 21, 2010 — The leadership of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee (SJCREC) dealt a blow to the grassroots and derailed recent attempts to reconcile long standing differences with the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida (RLCNEF) Thursday night when it refused to allow RLCNEF members access to a meeting where State Committeeman Jon Woodard stepped down and State Senator John Thrasher was elected to Woodard’s position. The election of Thrasher to Woodard’s State Committeeman post clears the way for Thrasher to run for the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Chair position to be vacated on February 20th by Jim Greer. There is a level of excitement within the party that has not been seen in a long time surrounding the race to succeed Jim Greer. Greer’s re-election a year ago has resulted in a leadership implosion within the RPOF. Thrasher, a sitting Republican State Senator, is seeking to lead the Republican Party out of its doldrums. Unfortunately for Thrasher, the SJCREC appears to have added fuel to an internal firestorm.
The latest in an unfortunate series of events occurred when the majority of the SJCREC members were not given notice the meeting would be closed in Executive Session, and only received the news upon their arrival at the meeting that night. To further exacerbate matters, SJCREC officials – allegedly in preparation for the vote on Senator Thrasher – performed a “purge” of the membership list for the stated purpose of removing members who had missed three consecutive meetings pursuant to state bylaws.
The purpose and accuracy of the list purge is in question, however, as RLCNEF member Cliff Johnson who is also a sworn member of the SJCREC and who had not missed three consecutive meetings, was told that he was not eligible to attend the Executive Session or vote in the Special Election.
While SJCREC leadership claimed that access to the Executive Session was limited only to SJCREC members, at least four members of the Duval County Republican Executive Committee who support Thrasher were allowed inside while known opponents of Thrasher and supporters of Sharon Day – also a candidate for State Chair – were told they must stay outside.
In a protest against the double standard and blatant cronyism on display, RLCNEF Chair John Stevens entered the meeting despite being told not to do so. Stevens was then asked to leave and refused. SJCREC officials called police and Stevens was escorted from the meeting. No charges were filed.
Chairman Stevens desired to attend the meeting to ask Thrasher what position he would be taking on Orange and St. Johns County REC members removed by Greer through the never-before-used grievance process last year. Stevens commented regarding the incident, “It was unfortunate that it had to come that. The RLC is working for accountability within the Party and we would prefer to do so quietly from within; but if members are being locked out and denied an opportunity to be heard then we are left with no option but to make our voices heard publicly.”
This incident in St. Johns is eerily similar to a situation that occurred last year in Orange County where Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC) Chair Lew Oliver prevented members of the OCREC from voting in the election for Oliver’s seat; the people barred from voting were supporters of his opponent, Deon Long, who is now running for the 24th District of the U.S. Congress.
Many of the registered voters of Florida agree with the message of the Republican Liberty Caucus. The
RLC’s message has begun attracting large numbers of people statewide. Support has poured out from around the state as this struggle with the corruption within the party has continued. Many of the recent changes in the RPOF leadership started at the grassroots level with large groups of dissenters, such as the RLC, calling for honesty and transparency in our elected leaders.
About The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida:
The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida is a coalition of traditional conservatives and liberty minded Republicans working within the Republican Party to promote individual liberty, smaller government, state and national sovereignty and the Constitution. The caucus advocates the return of our nation to the values and intentions of the Constitution and our founders.
(i) http://www.rlcfl.org
(ii) http://www.rlcnef.org
CONTACT:
Frank Zilaitis
Email: frank@zilaitis.com
Phone: (321) 480-7597