My LTE: The Revolution is Alive and Well

[JS4Pat]

Thought I'd share my Letter to the Editor which was just published online.

Please feel free to comment - so that they notice increased traffic... ;)

http://www.historiccity.com/2012/staugustine/news/florida/le...



Letter: The Revolution is alive and well
November 12, 2012 | By St Augustine | Reply More Letter: The

John Charles Stevens
SJC Republican State Committeeman Elect
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Dear Editor:

Four years ago, the prospects for Ron Paul’s liberty wing of the Republican Party did not look too promising in St. Johns County.
A 2008 front page article in this newspaper detailed a clash between the old guard GOP leadership and a new younger vibrant group seeking to move the Republican Party towards a constitutionally focused agenda.

The clash led to grievance filings against me and other Republicans ultimately resulting in suspensions from the RPOF by then State Chairman Jim Greer.

What a difference four years make!

Since 2007, Jim Greer’s Chairmanship came to an early end due to a criminal indictment related to corruption within the RPOF.

The Tea Party, which began as a fringe group of passionate Ron Paul supporters, exploded into a nationwide political force. The 2010 election saw big gains for constitutionally focused candidates in local, state and national elections.

And now, in 2012, not all Republicans are feeling defeated. After being persecuted for opposing many Republican Party policies, I managed to win election as St Johns County Republican State Committeeman.

This is a position within the RPOF that gives constitutionally focused activists an official voice in the Republican Party at both the local and state level. And my election is not an isolated event. Constitutional conservatives have won party positions throughout the country.

For example, Ashley Ryan, a 21 year old Ron Paul Activist from Maine won election as a Republican National Committeewoman. And in Iowa, A. J. Spiker, the state’s vice chairman of Paul’s presidential campaign has become the Republican Party State Chairman.

So why is this good news for the GOP?

Just as Goldwater brought about Ronald Reagan – Ron Paul’s movement is likely to give birth to a leader with big ideas that will transcend the “left-right” paradigm. Long term, that means a larger and stronger Republican Party — despite its losses on November 6th.

And I, as the incoming Republican State Committeeman for St. Johns County, am anxious to help get us there!

[JS4Pat]

The GOP is at it again...

Despite qualifying to be on the ballot per my Supervisor of Elections and then being certified the winner by my SOE - the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) notified me the night before I was to take office, that I would not be seated citing a 4 year suspension handed down by indicted former State Chairman Jim Greer.

Current RPOF State Chairman Lenny Curry allowed me to address the RPOF Executive Board concerning my seating as Republican State Committeeman in St. Johns County on Saturday morning, December 8th in Tallahassee, FL.


The points I made to the Board were as follows:

1. The RPOF should not override the will of the Republican voters in St. Johns County.


2. I met all the requirements to run for this office according to the Supervisor of Elections. I even asked the Party Chairman prior to the election if I would be seated - should I win the election. (He would not confirm either way.)



3. The RPOF should have alerted the Supervisor of Elections that I would not be eligible to serve since they knew I was on the ballot prior to the election.


4. The legitimacy of the original grievance process has been called into question because it was administered under the direction & rules of indicted former Chairman Jim Greer.


5. The punishment was excessive. The 4 year suspension effectively prevented me from serving for eight years and the individual punished under the same grievance (Will Pitts) was punished for only two years.



The Decision:

I am not sure of the exact vote count – but the Board almost unanimously voted against seating me. (There was only 1 vote in favor of seating me).



My reaction to the vote:

“It is very disturbing to me that a small group of Republican Party officials in Tallahassee have the power to overrule the decision of the Republican voters of an entire county. Furthermore, it is a bad sign that the RPOF is working to keep people out of the Party at a time when we need to be working to bring more people into the Party.”



What’s Next?:

I am exploring legal options.



New Development:

The RPOF seated Bob Veit as St. Johns Republican State Committeeman effective December 1, 2012. Mr. Veit was the candidate who finished third in the election with 19% of the vote. I have since learned that the RPOF was in violation of their own rules because Bob Veit was serving as the Treasurer and it is against RPOF rules to serve in two officer position within a REC at the same time. He also failed to make this known at the time that he ran for re-election on Thursday Night, December 6, 2012.



The new SJCREC Chairman, Sean Mulhall released the following statement regarding the State Committeeman situation:




Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2012 18:10:49 -0500
Subject: Message from REC Chairman Sean Mulhall re: St. Johns County State Committeeman
From: XXXXX
To: XXXXX

Dear Fellow REC Members,



I have just returned from the Republican Party of Florida ("RPOF") meeting in Tallahassee. Certain matters affecting St. Johns County and our REC were addressed by the RPOF Board today. As you are aware, John Stevens ran for St. Johns County State Committeeman during the recent election cycle and was elected to that position by St. Johns County voters. However, he was later informed by RPOF that he was not legally qualified to serve in that position and would not be seated because he was still serving a four (4) year suspension entered by RPOF Chairman Jim Greer in August 2009.



Today, RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry allowed Mr. Stevens to address the RPOF Board with a history of the matter and ask the Board to eliminate the suspension and seat him as State Committeeman. The RPOF Board determined that the suspension must be completed and Mr. Stevens cannot therefore be seated as our State Committeeman. I join others in expressing hope that Mr. Stevens will continue his efforts to advance conservative values and Republican principles of government and look forward to his return to the Republican Party in the future.



It was also determined that our current Treasurer, Bob Veit, who qualified and ran in the election for St. Johns County State Committeeman, is officially the new State Committeeman for St. Johns County as the next qualified candidate. Please join me in wishing Mr. Veit our best wishes as he carries out his duties in this important position. As Mr. Veit is now our State Committeeman, we will need to hold a special election within the REC for the position of Treasurer. I will provide more details regarding this election in another e-mail soon.



Best regards,

Sean Mulhall

Chairman, St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee

[wgadget]

OMG, can my faith in the "representative republic" sink any lower?

[cjm]

5. The punishment was excessive. The 4 year suspension effectively prevented me from serving for eight years and the individual punished under the same grievance (Will Pitts) was punished for only two years.

Was Will Pitts re-seated after the two year suspension? or was his two year suspension effectively a four year suspension?

[JS4Pat]

Was Will Pitts re-seated after the two year suspension? or was his two year suspension effectively a four year suspension?

Mr. Pitts was seated as a Precinct Committeeman on December 1, 2012.

His suspension ended August 29, 2011 - I guess he could have technically filled the PCM position (if vacant) on August 30, 2011.

So no, his suspension was not effectively a 4 year suspension.

He chose to wait and run for the position in the 2012 election cycle.

In my case - I ran for State Committeeman - a position chosen by a county-wide election. If I did not run and win in 2012 - then 2016 would be the next time I could run...

[JS4Pat]

Looks like I am not alone...



Marc Caputo: Republican insider fight becomes headache for GOPMarc Caputo The Miami Herald
By Marc Caputo
mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
MiamiHerald.com/columnists

A Republican is suing the Republican Party of Florida, saying it disenfranchised him and some Republican voters.
On its face, the lawsuit filed last week by former Miami-Dade School Board member Renier Diaz de la Portilla looks like a simple paperwork fight over an obscure party position.

But the underpinnings of the case are much more complicated, involving the byzantine politics of Miami-Dade and the behind-the-scenes battle in Tallahassee for who leads the Florida House in six years.

The lawsuit is also another public-relations headache for the Republican Party of Florida, which would prefer to focus its energies on bigger matters, like promoting Gov. Rick Scott.

But RPOF has no choice. It has to deal with Diaz de la Portilla.

He was elected Aug. 14 as Republican State Executive Committeeman from Miami-Dade. The party, though, refused to seat him. It said he forgot to submit a loyalty oath to the party in Tallahassee.

Diaz de la Portilla said that’s false.

“The law is on my side,” Diaz de la Portilla said. “I won the election. And I filed my loyalty oath. I don’t see what the problem is, why they want to disenfranchise Republican voters.”

Party spokesman Brian Burgess said RPOF isn’t cancelling Republican votes; it’s ensuring the rules are properly followed.

Burgess said he couldn’t comment on Diaz de la Portilla’s suit, filed last Tuesday. A Friday hearing on the case was delayed until another date.

Under party rules, candidates for executive committeeman were supposed to file loyalty oaths to the party between June 4 and June 8.

Diaz de la Portilla signed the oath June 5, got it notarized and promptly submitted it to the county and state elections offices as well as the local Republican Party, according to documents he filed in his lawsuit.

In a sworn affidavit, Miami-Dade Republican Party Executive Director Yulexis Argota said he faxed the loyalty oath to party headquarters in Tallahassee on June 6 and then personally spoke with a party official who confirmed receipt.

Burgess, though, said that this evidence presented by Diaz de la Portilla wasn’t “definitive proof” that he filed his oath properly. That means RPOF isn’t budging.

And Diaz de la Portilla won’t back down over the executive committeeman position, which has limited say and influence over the direction of the party. But the potential stakes are far bigger than this largely ceremonial party post.

After all, the committeeman battle is bound up in the fight over who becomes Florida House Speaker, from 2018 to 2020.

That post appears at the moment to have been won by Hialeah state Rep. Jose Oliva.

Diaz de la Portilla’s brother, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, wanted the job. But he lost his central Miami state House race in a general-election upset to Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Months before, Renier Diaz de la Portilla also lost his bid for a state House seat that he sought at the same time he ran for committeeman.

Assuming he and his brother won, Alex Diaz de la Portilla would have had a strong shot at the speakership (their oldest brother, Miguel, serves in the state Senate) because Republican House members choose the chamber’s leader in the GOP-controlled Legislature. Democrats essentially have no say.

Alex Diaz de la Portilla knows something about legislative leadership races; he helped engineer a coup that cost former Miami state Sen. Alex Villalobos his shot at becoming state Senate president in the 2009-10 sessions.

This year, as Renier and Alex Diaz de la Portilla ran for their house seats, Renier hedged his bets by simultaneously running for the committeeman slot. He won that post, salvaging a win against the man who beat him for the House seat, newly elected Rep. Manny Diaz Jr. – an ally of Oliva’s.

Then, in mid-October, the state party informed Diaz de la Portilla that he didn’t properly file his paperwork. It said that Diaz, the runner up in the committeeman race, would be seated instead.

Diaz de la Portilla tried to sound reasonable at the time and said all the votes cast for him should count.

"I hope to work with party officials to make sure that 30,000 Miami-Dade Republicans are not disenfranchised by this misunderstanding,” he told The Herald in October.
But the more the case develops, the less it looks like it’s a fight about the preference of rank-and-file voters for a position that few understand.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/09/3134608/republican-insider-fight-becomes.html#storylink=cpy