It’s true that after four years of effort, supporters of Rep. Ron Paul have successfully ousted the “old guard” from the leadership of both the Nevada and Clark County Republican parties. But now that they’re in charge, they have no one to fight with but…themselves.
As such, we’re now seeing the Paul army dividing…not just between those who support Mitt Rommney because he’s the Republican nominee and those who still oppose Romney because Paul hasn’t told them to get with the GOP program…but between leaders who have different positions of responsibility and constituencies they have to answer to.
Yep, power politics is rearing its ugly head among Nevada Paulistas. Consider this recent email exchange between the Nevada Republican National Committeewoman and the Clark County Republican Party Chairwoman – both ardent Paul supporters:
From: Dianna Orrock
To: Cindy Lake
On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 9:59 AM:
The following my thoughts on the state of the CCRP and what occurred at the CCRCC meeting on 9/19/12. I will be forwarding a copy of this, along with a copy of Resolution G-109, to James Smack, Michael McDonald, Jim DeGraffenreid, and Frank Ricotta.
1. Resolution G-109
€ In an attempt to placate the CCRCC on Sept. 19, 2012, the time stamp of the attempted but failed delivery of the resolution was shown. This was to show that the resolution would have been electronically sent to the central committee within the 10-day required period, prior to its presentation for adoption. The fact remains that this resolution has yet to be posted on the CCRP website at www.clarkgop.net and was never received by me in any e-mail, at any time as of this date. The response that was received from the central committee members at the meeting was certainly no surprise and should have been expected by your executive board.
€ In the formation of this resolution, as it applies to those whom you wish to urge into action and agree to publicly pledge in the affirmative regarding your recommended action, an invitation to participate and invite comment on the formation of this resolution would have been appreciated. I speak only for myself, but the fact that it was completed in such an exclusionary manner upsets me personally, as your National Committeewoman. You presume to know what I should be doing to remedy the RNC rules changes that occurred at the National Convention, yet you have never spoken to me or James Smack regarding what our plan of action might be. Your executive board¹s lack of communication to those in other elected positions in the Republican Party is unacceptable.
2. Who is the actual CCRP Political Director? At the CCRCC meeting on Sept. 19, 2012, Rachel Stevens introduced herself as the Political Director at the CCRP. I know that Frank Ricotta is the rightfully-elected Political Director, yet I saw no correction made either at the meeting or since. Also, in a column by Jason Nellis of the Libertarian Review, he refers to Rachel Stevens three different times as the CCRP Political Director. I expect Cindy Lake to set the record straight as to who the CCRP Political Director is and to communicate the correction to the CCRP central committee members as well as Mr. Nellis. I would also hope that a public apology to Frank Ricotta would also be forthcoming.
3. Notification for help needed to man the CCRP office continues to come through the Ron Paul 2012 Meet-Up Group when it should be sent under the CCRP banner to the central committee membership. There are probably many interested volunteers who may not have been Ron Paul supporters and you are perceived as being exclusionary here. You cannot expect any unity with other Republicans if this continues.
With CCRCC meetings occurring every other month, there should be ample time to form a meeting announcement with attached agenda that can be sent to the central committee membership during the week prior to every meeting. I have received no such notices to my e-mail address in the past 6 months. It would also be extremely beneficial to communicate the ongoing progress of the Silver Bullet voter registration initiative to the central committee body. Communication between the executive board and central committee is essential for an informed, involved membership and currently is sorely lacking.
Diana Orrock
National Committeewoman-Nevada
From: Cindy Lake
Date: Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: The state of the CCRP
Diana,
Rachel Stephens informed me that she simply misunderstood something Jordan Ross said at our last E-board meeting, an innocent misunderstanding. The fact that it was a misunderstanding had been communicated to Frank as well as to the author and the article was immediately corrected. No disrespect was meant to Frank. I was busy when Rachel was speaking and did not hear her enitre presentation, very few could hear her over the yelling, apparently. Unfortunately, I skimmed the article and did not notice the misuse of the title referring to Rachel as Political Director.
The communication that goes out through the Ron Paul meetup group is on automatic and has been for several months since the resignation of Victoria Rivers and doesn’t cost us anything to send out, nor is it official or purposely exclusionary. It is akin to a men’s or women’s club sending out a request for volunteers. Several emails have out gone under the CCRP banner requesting volunteers as well but it costs us each time we send an email out using the icontact system and we’ve been fairly conservative with those.
We have all been doing our best as an Executive Board to handle everything in a timely and transparent manner. Jordan Ross, who not only chairs the Bylaws and Rules Committee/Task Force but also prepares and formats the resolutions as well as the Agenda for the CCRCC meetings, has been completely overwhelmed. As Rob stated, there are several mitigating circumstances for the issues that arose this past meeting, a few of us spending almost two weeks in Tampa is only partially to blame. When it rains it pours would be an understatement. I would be happy to discuss all the reasons in detail with you, anytime.
Silver Bullet was on the Agenda as well, we would have happily transmitted the status to the CCRCC had we been given the courtesy to speak for the few minutes it would have taken to do so.
Cindy Lake
Chairman, Clark County Republican Party
The Paul folks are learning an immutable truth; that’s it a whole lot easier to criticize from the outside than it is to actually govern from the inside. Indeed, it ain’t as easy herding cats as it looks.
This is all part of the political maturation process.
The next cold hard dose of reality the new leaders are going to have to face: The fact that you can’t save the world if you can’t pay the rent. ‘Tis only a matter of time before they realize it takes money to run a political operation…and Mother Hubbard’s cupboard is bare. Where’s the dough gonna come from?
