CAGOP Update: How the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure is Trying to Rig the Endorsement of Kevin Faulconer, Oppose By-Law Amendment 5!

I have written for years that the consultant class resent grassroots. They can’t control grassroots and can’t tell them what to do. Today in 2021, we have a classic grassroots versus swamp fight.

The 1990’s era consultants whom I also call the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure are using the same threadbare playbook they’ve clutched since the 1990’s in an attempt to control the second largest GOP in America and rig party endorsements to line their pockets with campaign cash.

If you only read this far – here is Amendment #5 in a nutshell. It removes Recall elections from the menu of endorsement procedures. In so doing, the bylaws become silent on recalls making the 21 member board of directors the governing body for ALL recall election endorsements. Some more extreme legal interpretations state that the Chair of the Party may be able to do the endorsement theirselves!

It is a very arrogant and dishonest play by the Oligarchy of Controlled Failure – as they are telling us Jessica Patterson is all about building the CAGOP while running a bylaw change to strip the party of their voice in recall election endorsements!!! If you read further – I am going to lay out the tactics they are employing and details about who the players are.

It makes sense doesn’t it that the same people lying about 44,000 volunteers that were never sent to local parties – while 27 of them basically collapsed – are trying to rig an endorsement and gut the influence of the delegates to the CAGOP? These same people stripped Modoc County of their delegates while not verifying the accuracy of other paperwork. These same people claim Jessica Patterson raised $37 million for the party when she never participated in most fundraising meetings and at least $15 million is proven to have been pass through money from campaigns.

The string of lies has a purpose. Kevin Faulconer can not win the recall election without total control of the CAGOP. Here’s why:

1. Faulconer is not independently wealthy, in fact, information I have suggests the polar opposite.
2. Faulconer needs to be able to get more than $29,000 per donor. Contolling the CAGOP would allow him to get donors to write checks to three other accounts.
3. Controlling the CAGOP puts Faulconer on the ballot as the “Republican Nominee” – a statistical advantage in a campaign
4. Controlling the CAGOP gets Faulconer use of the CAGOP bulk mail permit for “member communications” – a nebulous term the ethically challenged consultants abuse frequently

This is why the connection of some of the CAGOP Staff to Faulconer matters. Molly Parnell is a main fundraiser for the CAGOP and is now employed by Faulconer too. David Stafford Reade is employed by Faulconer and is Jessica Patterson’s campaign manager. The interim executive director of the CAGOP came up in to politics through the San Diego squish exchange aka the Faulconer machine. The world is way to small.

So just how was the sausage made to post a trojan horse bylaw?

One of my original criticisms of Jessica Patterson was her stalinstic purge of the CAGOP staff and the fact that the committees she appointed were full of the hard-left of the CAGOP. The Rules committee is the worst of the worst. Most of the names you will recognize as I have excoriated them for a variety of things (like trying to shred the CAGOP platform, rampages against conservatives, never trumpers and the like).

Luis Buhler – a frequent subject on Right on Daily, used to be Charles Munger’s control agent and a far-left Liberal from the Bay Area. Buhler is also a political consultant and legal type.

Frances Barrazza – a close acolyte of Kevin Faulconer and a charter member of the San Diego squish exchange

Bill Essayli – an attorney, was the nominee for AD60 the last time it was competitive. A good dude, but controlled by the establishment. He is an attorney and chair of the committee.

Rex Frazier – a lobbyist / consultant type. Runs an insurance-related PAC. The quintessential swamp creature. I also have some personal history with him

Jan Leja – No longer lives in CA, but is a liberal Republican former chair of San Bernardino who helped install a replacement that may be more liberal than she is.

Linda Lopez-Alvarez – Region 9 director of the Women’s Fed, tried to stop the Women’s Fed endorsement of Steve Frank. Another part of the San Diego squish exchange.

Jonathan Madison – Jonathan is a good dude, an attorney but he is 100% in the orbit of Luis Buhler.

Charles Moran – Charles was the first President of the Log Cabin Republicans when it was chartered. I like Charles and consider him a friend, but he is on the left of the party and works /worked for Faulconer as a paid consulant and volunteer.

Lisa Moreno – The outgoing Central Region Vice Chair. The conservatives in the area repeatedly voiced their disappointment in her. Sad too, because I liked Lisa a lot when she first ran.

John Peschong – Peschong is a consultant for Doug Ose, he is also a consistent vote with the left of the party. Should be interesting to see what he does on this issue since Ose is also running for Governor.

David Reade – Yes, this is THAT David Stafford Reade. Conflict of interest much? (He is a Faulconer staffer and Jessica Patterson’s Campaign Manager)

David Rosenthal – He is from Alameda County, close to Luis Buhler and is (drumroll) another Attorney.

Lindsey Stetson – She is a Jessica Patterson doppleganger

Deborah Wilder – Yes THAT Deborah Wilder. (oh, and she is also an attorney in addition to everything else I’ve written about her)

If anyone thinks this Rules Committee is going to do anything but serve the interests of the consultant class looking to exterminate the voice of the grassroots – think again.

So why does this crew of Liberal Republican Attorneys and otherwise Liberal Republicans from inside the San Diego Squish Machine matter? If they rubber stamp By-Law #5 with a 2/3 vote of their committee, By-Law #5 Goes to the floor needing only a majority vote to be enacted.

Got it? With the rubber stamp rules committee the By-Law to gut delegates right to represent themselves only takes a simple majority – and given that the delegation is full of consultants and staffers it is not that difficult of a lift to get passed.

Now – what does this mean to all of you?

On Jessica Patterson’s watch – 27 of 58 County Parties had less than half their elected slots filled by election. This includes 10 that collapsed completely. You do not get this kind of a result without active participation. I’ve long said that the 1990’s era consultants try to rig the process with fake clubs / central committees and they try to destroy everything they can not control.

Then add in the alleged 44,000 volunteers that no one has seen. The only reason you’d refuse to send out / withold such a goldmine is both control and because you don’t care about local parties.

Having dealt with many of the consultants in the oligarchy of controlled failure – they resent grassroots. Grassroots represent a variable they can’t control.

Thus, it is not a stretch that they would use a deceptive tactic – put forward by Betsy Graves Mahan who publicy tried to lynch a member of her own Sacramento GOP without a hearing – to trick people in to giving them even more power.

And they wrecked Modoc County, while ignoring counties in their orbit with similar problems.

This is the kind of leadership that brags about 624,000 voter registrations as a deceptive lie to fool people in to thinking everything is OK long enough for them to get their way in officer elections – The Democrats rolled up 1,833,000 in the same time period. Also, the GOP has lost 50,000 registrations since the Presidential election as well.

Get where I am going? Lie, Deceive, Destroy, Bully, Cajole – whatever it takes to “Win”.

I’d tell people to contact the members of the rules committee but the game has already been rigged – the correct course of action is to rally the honest (non staffer, non consultant) delegates against this abomination.

I will conclude with Carl DeMaio who is dead right on about the CRP and Faulconer:

Aaron —  Several changes to the CAGOP’s bylaws are being proposed at this weekend’s convention. I am strongly urging a NO VOTE on rules change #5 (Mahan) and here’s why.

Rules change #5 by Mahan will strip you as a delegate of the CRP of any role in making an endorsement of a replacement candidate in the upcoming recall election.

Worse, the endorsement decision will then be made by just five people on the Executive Committee!

If you thought the grassroots were already upset with the Party insiders making bad decisions behind closed doors, you haven’t seen nothing yet if we allow this to happen under our watch.

Here’s why this rules change is so atrocious and damaging to the Party:

·      You and I both know this recall was not the work of a handful of establishment insiders; this recall is succeeding because of the blood, sweat and tears of the tens of thousands of grassroots volunteers who have collected the signatures for the past 9 months.

·      By cutting them out of a public process for the selection of a replacement candidate, this rules change is a slap in the face to the grassroots recall supporters who got us here in the first place.

·      If we demoralize our grassroots supporters by letting 5 insiders hand-pick their own candidate, don’t count on the grassroots to be motivated to get-out-the-vote or support the Party or its other candidates in the future.

This rules change is no longer about the recall – it is about whether we want to once again break faith with our grassroots supporters.  It will do long-lasting damage to a party that already has deep problems and would benefit from joining, not usurping, this grassroots movement that is fueling the recall.

Please join me in voting NO on Rules Change 5 (Mahan) and vote down ANY attempt to change the rules regarding endorsements at this stage.

Sincerely,

Carl DeMaio
Delegate CRP 2021-2022
Chairman, Reform California

PS: Remember why we have the existing endorsement rules in the first place: they are designed to protect the brand and integrity of the Party by having a public process and a super-majority vote of delegates. Let’s not destroy this grassroots movement by allowing a replacement candidate to be crammed down our throats by just 5 insiders.