Right On Daily Blog

On the exact same day – 9/8/2007 – the Yolo CRA was chartered along with the Sutter, Tehama and Yuba CRA by Karen England (who was a then-CRA Vice President).

Like Yuba – Yolo has existed as a Zombie club for service to its’ master, David Stafford Reade, listed as its’ President. This is the third unit in Northern California that was targeted to be re-organized by the CRA. While some have tried to spin the 7/23/2011 board meeting as a lynching, or a bloodbath, the intention is to get Real activists involved in these units.

What David Reade, Mark Spannagel and Karen England did to the CRA in Northern California should have been grounds enough to expel them from CRA, but their behavior and the lawsuit added an exclamation point.

The Yolo CRA may well be the most grotesque example of fraud any California GOP organization has ever seen:

They are not listed on the Yolo GOP website, Consumnes RA President Carl Brickey has not been able to get them to participate in local endorsing conventions and two years of calls from CRA SD-09 director Steve Macias regarding when the club is going to meet have not been returned. This suggests multiple violations of Section 10.05 Meetings.

When contacted by the Credentials Committee, they refused to provide records of membership or bylaws. This is a violation of Section 10.07 – (Availability of Records)

Official CRA Records do not back up the unit’s claim of 45 members for the 2011 convention. There have been no new members join since 2010 – suggesting that growth from 35 to 45 members is impossible (they reported 35 members for the 2010 Buena Park Convention)

Unit lists David and Amy Jackson as members – the only Republicans in California with that name at the same address live in Kingsburg. When called said they had not been CRA members in over 8 years as told to Paul and Joel Olsson. At that, their dues expired in 2010 – but they were submitted as alternates. Violation of section 4.01 / 4.03 / 4.06 / 13.10 (Membership, Membership Dues, Delegate Fraud)

Unit lists Calvin and Christine DeKnikker as members. Cal DeKnikker is a client of ours and when I called him, he said he has never been a CRA Member. He put that in writing in an email. Violation of Section 4.01 / 4.03/ 4.06 (Membership Fraud)

Karen and John England are listed as members without notifying the Placer RA of their intent to transfer. Their daughter, at the same address is listed as a member of the Norco RA. Violation of Section 4.06 (Illegal Transfer) Karen admitted to this during the credentialing process at the 2011 convention.

Irregularity: Yolo sent three senior Meg Whitman staff to the 2010 CRA convention as delegates. They are all ex- Pete Wilson people – Michael Saragosa, Justin Smith, and Todd Cranney. This suggests violations of section 10.04 club elections of delegates.

Yolo RA listed Pete Conaty as a would-be alternate, his name is not on their official CRA roster. Violation of Section 4.01 / 4.03 / 4.06 / 13.10 (Membership, Membership Dues, Delegate Fraud – Laurie Conaty is listed as a paid member as a single.)

The above irregularities suggest that this unit has never elected it’s delegates and also suggests that they did not pay dues to the CRA nor did they collect dues. Consistent with other suspect units – the bulk of their membership renews 3/31/2012, suggesting they paid dues after the deadline to submit their delegation if they paid their dues at all. This is a violation of Section 4.03 membership Dues, 4.08 Remittance of Dues.

In the local endorsing conventions that Yolo CRA did participate in, their delegations consisted of legislative staff as witnessed firsthand by several CRA officers. The Yolo CRA has never endorsed in local Yolo County elections the entire time it has existed.

Finally, their roster does not list a single real member outside of West Sacramento. The north part of Yolo County is where most of the Republicans in Yolo live – it would be impossible as a practical matter for a County-Wide club in Yolo County not to have a real member in Woodland, much less Winters or Esparto. Again, this suggests the fraudulent nature of this unit.

With the elimination of the known fraud – this unit has at most 38 members. This means they would only be eligible for 5 delegates instead of the 6 they attempted to send. This is a violation of section 13.08 representation.

As a footnote – George and I will be filing a complaint with the FEC against the Romney for President campaign. The Reason? They wrote the check for the 75 delegates they paid for in 2007 out to the Placer County Republican Party – not the Placer CRA. They also reported it as such on their filings.

Since David Reade, Karen England and Mike Spence have attempted to spin that check as another example of misdeeds in Placer County – we will clear our name regarding this issue at Mitt Romney’s expense.

Mark Spannagel was designated for discipline by the CRA board of directors for being a central figure in the consultant manipulation and endorsement fraud that beset the CRA in addition to his gross misbehavior at the 2011 April CRA Convention. The Yuba CRA was chartered by Karen England in 2007 for two purposes – one was to send delegates for Mitt Romney to the 2007 CRA Presidential endorsing convention and the second 2007 purpose was to screw over Dan Logue (by sending LaMalfa / Jim Nielsen staff as delegates to the local CRA endorsing convention to stand up for Sue Horne). The Yuba CRA is not the only CRA unit ever to be chartered for purposes of a campaign – but unlike Placer, which was chartered to help Rico Oller in 1996, the Yuba CRA has existed as a zombie unit for awakening every time its’ consultant masters needed it to produce a result.

Despite the rantings of some – people like David Reade, Mark Spannagel and Karen England earned their tickets out of the CRA.

While some have tried to spin the 7/23/2011 board meeting as a lynching, or a bloodbath, the intention is to get Real activists involved in these units.

Mark Spannagel was the President of the Yuba CRA Unit for 4+ years. The evidence gathered against the Yuba CRA follows:

This dubious unit appears to be controlled by persons outside Yuba County who have never shown any interest in recruiting actual members from the territory claimed by the unit.  The unit does not even appear to operate in its own territory.  Long-time unit president Mark Spannagel (who lives in Placer County) even refused to cash the dues payment that he received from would-be CRA members Paul and Marcia Myers, who are well-respected officers of the Yuba County Republican Party.

Assembly members Dan Logue and Rick Keene joined this unit on-line, through the CRA website.  As in the case of Yuba County residents such as Paul and Marcia Myers, these two legislators were never notified of any unit meetings, which suggests multiple violations of Section 10.05 and Section 10.04 concerning meetings and elections.

The Yuba County CRA unit is not listed on the Yuba County GOP website and its activities (if any) are not announced at Yuba County Republican Central Committee meetings.

This unit sent Meg Whitman staff members to the 2010 CRA Convention as Delegates, even though they were listed as living in Diamond Bar and Hacienda Heights.  This suggests that they were not properly elected as Delegates under Section 10.04.

When contacted by the Credentials Committee for the 2011 Annual Convention, this unit’s officers refused to provide records of membership or bylaws, in violation of Section 10.07.

In the local endorsing conventions in which the Yuba County Republican Assembly has participated, their delegations have consisted of Legislative staff members, as witnessed first-hand by several CRA officers.  It has often been said that none of the Yuba County Delegates ever seem to come from Yuba County.  The unit has never endorsed in local Yuba County elections in the entire time it has existed.

The unit lists exactly 25 members, all with expiration dates of 1/31/2012.  A majority of the members live outside Yuba County, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever seen one of their delegations to an endorsing convention.

This Unit is easily one of the biggest frauds in the CRA – the evidence is self-evident.