Chad Mayes was right about the leadership vacuum. He led in the wrong direction but he led in a direction. He continues to rail on the vacuum as justification for going off the left end of the cliff and for ceaseless attacks against the right to assuage his ego. However, I encourage anyone to go back and read Mayes’ comments at the beginning of the cap and trade saga. They were spot on.

However, those in CAGOP leadership now appear to be even more MIA than those we’ve criticized in the past. Chad Mayes as Assembly Leader had a good grip on the members of his caucus until the cap and trade fiasco shattered it. According to accounts there is no discipline left in the Assembly GOP Caucus.

It appears to be the same in the Senate.

While the CAGOP appears to have some (limited) resources with which to operate ($1MM or so in total) – there has been deafening silence from the top.

Where were the leaders when the bill targeting President Trump was actually in committee or on the floor? Unless I missed something, it looks like they showed up after the thing was sent to Gavin Newsom’s desk.

While CAGOP Chair Jessica Patterson has been using Gavin Newsom as a rag doll (good job on that by the way) she and her crew have been oddly silent on a variety of things.

I tried asking Senate Permanent Minority Leader Shannon Grove a couple questions on facebook and succeeded in getting a canned answer about how the GOP is a minority and how I should stop having an opinion (labeled as attacking people). So, I am going to ask some questions of anyone in CAGOP Leadership that wish to reach out to me directly. (You can remain confidential if you like) The embedded screenshot was related to some documents Shannon Grove Published yesterday relating to the Donald Trump Tax Return bill. She responded somewhere between 2AM and 3AM as my reply was at about 8AM today 8-4-2019.

Where has the CAGOP been on the Assemblyman William “Bill” Brough scandals? (AD-73) (4 documented victims with complaints dating back to 2011, several documented incidences of financial corruption with his campaign account) What about CA-45 and CA-49, two key congressional districts we need in order to restore a GOP majority in the house? Both are affected by Brough’s maladies.

Where has the CAGOP been on the Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. scandals? (CA-50) (Federal Indictments, several documented incidences of financial corruption with his campaign account, and several alleged and documented affairs) What about Assemblyman Randy Vopel whose district is completely encased in the boundaries of CA-50? Where does he factor in the inaction related to CA-50?

Where is the CAGOP on the recently exploding Scandal Related to Omar Navarro? (CA-43) (The Woman he cheated on his wife with got a restraining order against him after his now ex-wife did as well)

I’ve been told several things privately about who is calling who, but we have all been treated to a vacuum publicly. It appears that the CAGOP leadership have deferred to the local parties, most of which have been damaged and/or devastated by the rampage of Luis Buhler in 2016 when some $3MM was dumped in to local party committee races targeting a lot of the leaders with tenure.

I’ve been waiting for public moves related to Bill Brough for two months, we’ve all been waiting for public moves on Duncan Hunter Jr for much longer than that. (The RivCo GOP has called on Hunter to resign, but the SD GOP appears to be unwilling to follow suit)

Why have the CAGOP leadership been silent, and if they have not what have they done to show leadership in the face of these scandals?

Where is the CAGOP with regard to President Trump? We’ve seen cagey quotes and media avoidance. We’ve seen several prominent Consultants with a lot of past work for the party publicly trashing the President. We’ve seen staffers of GOP legislators trashing the President. Is the CAGOP ok with this? Are the consultants pulling the strings in the background still of the belief that President Trump is toxic? What have the CAGOP leadership done with the consultants that were celebrating the tax return bill’s signing?

What is the position of the CAGOP leadership and paid consultants with regard to Trump supporters? What message were they sending when they filled party steering committees with staffers, consultants and known #nevertrumpers… with few if any early trump supporters making or conservatives regardless of 2016 preference making the lists? What message are they sending when they have paid vendors who are blanket labeling trump supporters as white supremacists and racists in other campaigns? What message are they sending when they refuse to stand up for rank-and-file Republicans in the state media when the race card is abused?

What message is the CAGOP and their leadership sending with the party platform drill and the secretive way it was handled? Was the resolution of the platform drafting a political calculation or was it done out of core ideological conviction? Why was leadership silent on the platform before the draft was created and why are they still silent now?

Regarding the SD05 fiasco: Should I have just not said anything about Jesus Andrade? Does the fact that Andrade is a former Barack Hussein Obama Staffer who re-registered Republican just before running for his current city council seat an issue? Was Andrade vetted before Bob Elliott was called and coerced in to dropping out of the SD-05 race? If Andrade was vetted, were you guys ok with his personal history and financial maladies? If Andrade was not vetted, why not? Since Bob Elliott was pushed in to the CA-10 Race, does this mean CAGOP leadership thinks CA-10 is a lost cause?

Now – in the interest of accuracy, I’ve corrected some previous assertions as I am concerned to report accurate facts. However, let’s summarize them again:

David Carney was brought in to California by Shannon Grove, who is reputed to have gotten Assembly leader Marie Waldron on board with his hiring as well. Carney’s connections to President Trump appear to be part of his resume’ but not part of the nexus for his presence.

Jessica Patterson, Shannon Grove and Marie Waldron have been working as a team on fundraising (the “one-ask” program where funds are split in thirds between the two caucuses and the party). The caucuses appear to be out of debt, but appear to have small amounts cash at this time. The CAGOP has about $1MM total.

The platform that emerged from the secretive and controlled process is largely the 2015 platform with minor modifications to update it to 2019.

I hope I can make more such modifications to previous assertions based on continued success of the party leadership.

Here is the bottom line – I reserve the right to continue to scrutinize the actions of the leadership of my party. Having been in this game since 1998, I’ve seen a set in pattern of control and failure presided over by a shrinking group of insiders. This is the “Oligarchy of Controlled Failure” I refer to.

If you want to shut up this intrepid blogger, start winning and stop controlling people, places and things. In essence practice the principles of transformational leadership:

1. Inspirational Motivation

   Leaders should inspire those they manage with an emphasis on mission, values, and vision to create meaning. This is where leaders help workers to understand that the work they engage in is useful and means something to the company.

2. Intellectual Stimulation

   Transformational leaders specialize in shaking up the status quo. If an old idea is not practical and no longer serves a purpose, then a leader should have no problem discarding it. They set employees up for success and encourage them to be innovative and creative in how they approach problems and produce solutions.

3. Idealized Influence

   This is the “practice what you preach” stage of transformational leadership. Employees are more likely also to adopt the ethical principles set forth by transformational leadership if leaders become role models concerning the principles. Leaders should treat every interaction with employees as a chance to inspire transformational leadership.

4. Individualized Consideration

   Leaders then work to recognize the individual talents and skills of each person they work with. They do what they can to encourage their success and create opportunities for them to create, innovate, and make their own decisions that lead to success.

Credit: This link on status.net

Are the current leaders of the CAGOP willing to risk losing control? Are they willing to put in the effort to create a new generation of leaders? Where is the vision? Where are the values? Where is the individualized consideration?

I’ve seen next to none of this in almost any of the situations I’ve been a part of. To be continued…