Kirby Wilbur, just like the RNC, seems to think he is above his own rules.
When King County Republicans in precincts with contested Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) elections collected their mail this week, they were astonished to find professionally produced postcards endorsing one Republican candidate in preference to others.
The anointed candidates face opponents who are often Ron Paul, Santorum, or Gingrich supporters, including incumbent PCOs like long-time party activist and office-holder AND known Ron Paul supporter Joel Bowen (45th Legislative District).
The post cards are “Paid for and authorized by the Washington State Republican Party.”
Kirby and Lori are working on their own campaigns for reelection, using Republican contributions to illegally support the election of PCO candidates who will support the GOP Left status quo in King County and in the state. That is theft. That is corrupt. We are not surprised. What is surprising is the blatant nature of the latest abuse.
One of the targeted Ron Paul candidates, Joel Bowen, responded to Kirby at the WSRP Facebook page:
“Dear Chairman Wilbur,
As a duly elected sitting Republican PCO in the 45th District (and a former GOP PCO in the 47th, 11th and the 34th), I frankly am appalled and extremely disappointed in your recent decision to authorize and pay for a mailer that contains the explicit endorsement of the King County Chair Lori Sotelo for my opponent in the PCO race. While this action does not appear to be illegal, it certainly goes against all the longstanding GOP tradition of county and state leaders never endorsing anyone during the primary. Additionally, these expenditures by the state party are wasteful and take away precious resources from electing Republicans to influential offices. Finally, the state party authorizing and paying for such mailers will discourage participation by the grass-roots in the GOP since most individuals do not have the resources to fight Goliath. Thank you.
Hammer Down Doug.
Here’s the Examiner article by Mikael Thalen that broke this yesterday:
http://www.examiner.com/article/washington-gop-creates-controvery-over-mailer-endorsment
The RNC/GOP leadership reminds me of the old movie “Gentleman’s Agreement” about anti-semitism,only in this case, instead of”No Jews Allowed” it is “No Ron Paul Supporters Allowed.”
Well as Joel admits it is not illegal, so Kirby is allowed to do this. Tradition does not a law/rule make. The majority of Ron Paul supporters are not legal members of the Republican party because they are members of the Libertarian Party. For the few Ron Paul supporters that are truely Republicans I am sorry the rest of them have given you a bad name.
Sorry, Darrel, Joel is simply saying there is no explicit statute in the RCW that forbids it. Contrary to your assertion Kirby is NOT allowed to do it as his own admission (http://wp.me/p3Rqg-5jL) makes clear. It is not only clearly unethical (it would be the same as sitting incumbent legislators using public tax dollars for their re-election campaigns) it is clearly against Republican Rules.
With regard to your statements about Ron Paul supporters, your fantasies are only exceeded by your ignorance.
1. There is no such thing as a “legal member” of the Republican party as your words would be commonly understood. In Washington State, party affiliation is entirely self-identified. You can be a Republican one day and a Democrat the next BY LAW. And if general agreement with the Platform were a requirement, most of the candidates Kirby has honored would have been ejected long ago (Slade, Dan, Sam, Ralph, “I’ll protect abortion” McKenna, “Kill Schiavo” Reichert, “Gay Marriage” Dunn, etc., all of them Agenda 21 Environmentalists).
2. Only a TINY percentage of Ron Paul supporters (contrary to your made-up accusation) are or have ever been members of the Libertarian Party and ALL of them are to the right of “Mainstream Republicans of Washington,” the left-wing organization that has dominated GOP Chairs for the last 40 years, now including Kirby.
There is no question that there are leftists, as well, in the Paul Movement (see: The R3volution at Cindy’s: http://wp.me/p3Rqg-5ha), but they are a distinct (though vocal) minority. But how would you know that? The problem is that you are not ashamed to speak of things of which you know nothing.
These people apparently still don’t understand that the party is at risk of dying due to demographics (including urban growth and rural decline accelerated by Agenda 21 driven “growth management” policies). They would rather continue to pursue the politics of division (us vs. them, R vs. D) and preside over a failing party than realize that there are “independent” conservatives and libertarians (including those that may have voted Democrat or other in the past – GASP!) out there that they need to welcome into the party if they wish it to survive.
If there was not a PCO choice on your primary ballot does that mean it was uncontested? I submitted to run but did not see a choice at all on my ballot.
Where can i check to confirm it was recieved by the state?
Comment thread on Lysander’s query about unopposed PCO candidates has been removed to avoid confusion.
The law changed. No write-ins are allowed for PCO. Unopposed candidates were automatically elected after the filing deadline.