St. Johns County, January, 21, 2010 — The leadership of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee (SJCREC) dealt a blow to the grassroots and derailed recent attempts to reconcile long standing differences with the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida (RLCNEF) Thursday night when it refused to allow RLCNEF members access to a meeting where State Committeeman Jon Woodard stepped down and State Senator John Thrasher was elected to Woodard’s position. The election of Thrasher to Woodard’s State Committeeman post clears the way for Thrasher to run for the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Chair position to be vacated on February 20th by Jim Greer. There is a level of excitement within the party that has not been seen in a long time surrounding the race to succeed Jim Greer. Greer’s re-election a year ago has resulted in a leadership implosion within the RPOF. Thrasher, a sitting Republican State Senator, is seeking to lead the Republican Party out of its doldrums. Unfortunately for Thrasher, the SJCREC appears to have added fuel to an internal firestorm.

The latest in an unfortunate series of events occurred when the majority of the SJCREC members were not given notice the meeting would be closed in Executive Session, and only received the news upon their arrival at the meeting that night. To further exacerbate matters, SJCREC officials – allegedly in preparation for the vote on Senator Thrasher – performed a “purge” of the membership list for the stated purpose of removing members who had missed three consecutive meetings pursuant to state bylaws.

The purpose and accuracy of the list purge is in question, however, as RLCNEF member Cliff Johnson who is also a sworn member of the SJCREC and who had not missed three consecutive meetings, was told that he was not eligible to attend the Executive Session or vote in the Special Election.

While SJCREC leadership claimed that access to the Executive Session was limited only to SJCREC members, at least four members of the Duval County Republican Executive Committee who support Thrasher were allowed inside while known opponents of Thrasher and supporters of Sharon Day – also a candidate for State Chair – were told they must stay outside.

In a protest against the double standard and blatant cronyism on display, RLCNEF Chair John Stevens entered the meeting despite being told not to do so. Stevens was then asked to leave and refused. SJCREC officials called police and Stevens was escorted from the meeting. No charges were filed.

Chairman Stevens desired to attend the meeting to ask Thrasher what position he would be taking on Orange and St. Johns County REC members removed by Greer through the never-before-used grievance process  last year. Stevens commented regarding the incident, “It was unfortunate that it had to come that. The RLC is working for accountability within the Party and we would prefer to do so quietly from within; but if members are being locked out and denied an opportunity to be heard then we are left with no option but to make our voices heard publicly.”

This incident in St. Johns is eerily similar to a situation that occurred last year in Orange County where Orange County Republican Executive Committee (OCREC) Chair Lew Oliver prevented members of the OCREC from voting in the election for Oliver’s seat; the people barred from voting were supporters of his opponent, Deon Long, who is now running for the 24th District of the U.S. Congress.

Many of the registered voters of Florida agree with the message of the Republican Liberty Caucus. The

RLC’s message has begun attracting large numbers of people statewide. Support has poured out from around the state as this struggle with the corruption within the party has continued. Many of the recent changes in the RPOF leadership started at the grassroots level with large groups of dissenters, such as the RLC, calling for honesty and transparency in our elected leaders.

About The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida:

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida is a coalition of traditional conservatives and liberty minded Republicans working within the Republican Party to promote individual liberty, smaller government, state and national sovereignty and the Constitution. The caucus advocates the return of our nation to the values and intentions of the Constitution and our founders.

CONTACT:

Frank Zilaitis
Email: frank@zilaitis.com
Phone: (321) 480-7597

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In Truth, there are only two possible outcomes of this meeting:

1) The Resignation of Jim Greer of the Chairmanship of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF)

2) Continued internecine warfare in the RPOF.

If the RPOF members Saturday think that Jim Greer can remain Chairman of the RPOF and everyone can just sing a couple refrains of “Kumbaya” at the end of the day and all will be well, I’ve got news for them: That scenario is delusional.

Let me put this in as blunt of terms as possible: Jim Greer has taken the Chairmanship of RPOF and corrupted it to the point that he is endangering the very existence of the Republican Party in Florida. There are many Republicans that will not sit idly by and let that happen.

Republicans: Do not fool yourselves. Yes, the American populace is finally waking up to the fact that Obama and the Democrats in DC are literally bankrupting the country and destroying our reputation overseas. However, don’t believe that the disenchanted voter will then come back and support a Republican Party that is the essentially the same party that lost the trust of the people in 2006.

If we Republicans do come back to power in 2010 or 2012, then we will HAVE ONE CHANCE to get things right. If we continue to be the party of the likes of Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Lindsay Graham and yes CHARLIE CRIST, then we will REALLY see a political earthquake of the first magnitude. The Tea Party Movement (Which ain’t going away folks) and the Fiscal Policy Hawks WILL COMPLETELY ABANDON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. The Republican party was born due to crisis (Out of the anti-slave movement in 1854. Six years later Lincoln was elected.) and if we fail to come through and act on true conservative principles, it will die in a crisis.

Jim Greer is the poster boy for everything that went wrong with our party and caused Republicans to lose the trust of the great majority of Americans. From his end around the party faithful with his attempt to implement RPOF Rule 11 on behalf of his Political Masters, Gov. Crist and John Cornyn of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) ; to the use of party funds to smear Marco Rubio via bogus web and twitter accounts and finally, his adamant refusal to for a fair and open audit of party funds (which is grounds for dismissal alone), Jim Greer has proven not to be a man of honor. He is nothing more than a vain, strutting bully of a man who thinks crudely worded threats can intimidate honest citizens into silence.

His word cannot be trusted. I can think of no more damning thing to say about a man’s integrity. I can think of no argument that can persuade me to accept such a man as our State Party Chairman.

But as I sit here and write this “denouement” of Jim Greer, let us not lose site of the true villain in all of this. It is our Governor, Charlie Crist, who has allowed this to happen on his watch.

Has there ever been a more cynical, grasping, preening and self absorbed Governor of any State? With his immaculately coiffed hair and his year round tan, there has not been one moment since Charlie Crist was elected governor that he has not been plotting to get elected to another, higher office.

He had not been in Governor’s mansion for a half a term, than he began his lobbying to be John McCain’s running mate. It was if the governorship merely existed to fulfill Governor Crist’s ambition and bringing any leadership or work on behalf of Florida was a nuisance that got in the way of his personal ambition. His efforts were so brazen to ingratiate to the McCain campaign, that some were convinced that he got married just in order to get that “Vice President-Candidate Must Be Married” box checked.

After Gov. Crist failed in getting named McCain’s running mate, he and Greer managed to lose Florida to Obama. Then, in a political move as shortsighted as it was stupid, when Barak Obama and the Democrats proposed and passed the infamous “Porkulus bill” of 2009, Charlie Crist was one of the few Republicans to openly embrace it and give the Democrats some cover of “bipartisanship”.

When the Senate Seat of Mel Martinez became open, Charlie was first to throw his hat in the ring (no Second term for Ole’ Charlie: Too good a shot at the Senate to pass up, citizens of Florida be damned!). Crist then he sent out his bully boy enforcer, Jim Greer, to work his back room deals to stifle a free and open primary for Republicans. Unfortunately, Crist and Greer found in the forms of Senator John Cornyn and RNC Chairman Michael Steele, men eager and willing to sell out “electability” over substance.

That’s when the party grassroots started to revolt. Now Crist’s plan lays in tatters. The Stimulus Bill is an albatross around his neck. Rank and file are upset with the RNC and NRSC for overstepping its bounds. Then, all the stories of Jim Greer excess spending and use of the RPOF funds as a personal slush fund have come to light.

Republicans can’t fire Charlie Crist. But WE REPUBLICANS CAN FIRE JIM GREER. It will that first, necessary step towards saving our political soul.
The hard cold truth here is that opposing Jim Greer is a matter of principle. And either we Republicans start standing strong on our principles or we WILL suffer the same fate of the conservative ‘Whig” party Republicans killed off in the 1850’s: Oblivion.

http://www.bloggybayou.com/2010/01/time-for-rpof-to-stand-up-to-charlie.html

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You know what’s fun about Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer at this point? No one likes him. We could call him “a fat, pompous windbag whose skills at leading his party is only rivaled in the terribleness department by his skills at singing Elvis songs,” and the only person who would bat an eyelash is his mama.

Democrats have no love lost for the pretend emperor of Florida’s GOP (unless they want to thank him for running his party into serious problems), and now many Republicans have had enough of his antics too. In fact, a dozen major Republican donors signed a letter last night calling for the immediate removal of Greer from the helm of the RPOF.

Based on the current state of affairs of the Republican Party of Florida today—first, the continued inability to raise the necessary resources to fund its budget; second, its inability to adjust its budget to eliminate unnecessary expenses; and third, its inability to motivate and unite all Republicans in a common effort for our collective benefit–it is evident that [the party chairman] has fallen short…

…Thus we can only come to the conclusion that there must be an immediate change of chairmanship of the Republican Party of Florida.

Greer has pissed off many a right-winger by personally endorsing Crist in the Senate race and McCollum in the gubernatorial race, which was seen as an attempt to limit competitive primaries. There’s also a sense among some that he’s tried to suppress the influence of conservatives within the party.

But perhaps more serious to these megadonors is Greer’s handling of finances. The RPOF was caught in an embarrassing scandal dealing with personal spending on party AmEx cards earlier this year, and now charges have surfaced that the party is running on a $4 million deficit.
While the party chairmanship is technically elected, an incoming governor has great influence in the selection, and Greer was Crist’s personal pick. Before that, he had served on the city council of Oviedo and chaired Crist’s campaign in Seminole County. He was virtually unknown to members of the state committee, and some believed he turned the party into a Crist fan club.

Even while Greer faces criticism, Crist has stood by his man. True, many of the shots at Greer have come from Marco Rubio supporters, but the call by these Republican piggy banks is a whole other line of attack.

Should Crist finally send Greer packing back to Oviedo? Can he salvage the situation and come out clean? Maybe. The council meets next week. Perhaps Crist could give tacit support to sacrificing Greer in favor of a more conservative party leader with some financial credibility who in return wouldn’t work in anyway, publicly or behind the scenes, to tilt support to Rubio. We don’t know if such a person exists, but if we were Crist, we’d certainly begin looking.

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/12/donors_call_for_rpof_chair_gre.php

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December 30, 2009

Pressure mounting on Jim Greer to step down as Florida GOP chairman

By Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital Bureau

Pressure mounted on Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer today as a dozen major GOP donors from all over the state signed a letter urging him to resolve “a crisis in confidence” by resigning.

Greer, who has the backing of Gov. Charlie Crist, has insisted he won’t quit. The state party’s annual meeting is set for Orlando Jan. 8-9 and Greer has said he will meet with fellow Republican leaders to discuss party finances and operations.

Early this month, Greer accused budget committee member Allen Cox of leaking confidential party financial data and removed him from that panel. But Cox, the party vice chairman, denied leaking information about an alleged $4 million gap between expenses and fund-raising and organized a petition among the GOP state committee to remove Greer.

Besides the alleged deficit, which Greer says is exaggerated and due partly to the sluggish economy making donors less generous, the chairman has offended some Republican activists by taking sides in major primaries. Greer publicly endorsed Crist for the U.S. Senate and Attorney General Bill McCollum to succeed Crist as governor — but later said he was speaking for himself, not giving Crist and McCollum the party’s endorsement.

Today, dissidents are circulating a letter signed by 12 major donors — including four former U.S. ambassadors from the Bush administrations — urging Greer to quit.

“We do not take this call for action lightly,” said the letter. “It is even more agonizing to publicly call for this plan of action but it would not have come to this had Jim Greer heeded warning calls and implemented a strategic plan of action for our Republican candidates as a competent state chairman should and would.”

The letter said Greer’s actions “resulted in a crisis of confidence in our party and widespread uneasiness, lack of trust, lack of motivation … among the grassroots active members of the party, elected leadership and th ose of us who have historically rallied financial support around the state of Florida.”

The letter was signed by Al Hoffman of Fort Myers, former ambassador to Portugal; Mel Sembler of St. Petersburg, former ambassador to Italy, Australia and Nauru; Charles Cobb of Miami, former ambassador to Iceland, and Ned Siegel of Boca Raton and Palm Beach, former ambassador to the Bahamas.

Other party donors signing the letter were Richard Beard of Tampa, William Becker of Vero Beach, Seth Bernstein of Orlando, J.C. Demetree of Jacksonville, Earl Durden of Panama City, Ed Easton of Miami, Mark Guzetta of Boca Raton and Charles Hilton of Panama City.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091230/BREAKINGNEWS/91230005/Pressure-mounting-on-Jim-Greer-to-step-down-as-Florida-GOP-chairman

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TALLAHASSEE — Republican Party of Florida general counsel Jason Gonzalez is trying to shoot down the legal argument critics of Chairman Jim Greer are mounting in an effort to force a vote on his ouster at next month’s annual meeting in Orlando.

Gonzalez, a former general counsel for Gov. Charlie Crist, is responding to a memo sent out by vice-chairman Allen Cox and other executive committee members claiming they have the right under party rules to vote at the Jan. 9 meeting on rescinding Greer’s election to a two-year term as chairman.

Greer’s head lawyer says otherwise.

“As you know, the RPOF Constitution establishes fixed two year terms of office for officers such as the Chairman,” Gonzalez wrote to Cox. ”Therefore, the RPOF disciplinary procedures in Rule 22 govern this matter.  Nothing in your letter provides a valid basis for ignoring RPOF Rule 22.”

Read the whole letter below:

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Greer has called a special state committee meeting in Orlando Jan. 9 to give the group the floor, although he’s said their plan to stage a vote to rescind his chairmanship doesn’t square with the state party’s constitution and rules.

But Cox said Monday that “Florida Statutes as well as Robert’s Rules provide for the members of the Republican State Committee to rescind Jim Greer’s election,” and signaled his group planned to push for a vote at next month’s meeting.

“His effectiveness to lead the grass-roots and raise money for candidates has become obviously crippled,” Cox said. ”He needs to gracefully resign, and save the members and himself from the public embarrassment of being voted from office.”

His letter is below:

December 28, 2009

Re: RPOF Letter, Greer, 12-22-2009

Mr. Gonzalez:

The Request for Special Meeting as properly called in accordance with RPOF Constitution, Article IX, Section 2, has been acknowledged and verified in the letter dated December 22, 2009 by Chairman Jim Greer. The purpose of the meeting, i.e. “to submit by secret ballot the question of rescission on the January, 9, 2009 election of Jim Greer as Chairman, RPOF”, is also acknowledged, but action upon the purpose is being denied for reasons cited which are not supported by the arguments stated.

The right to call a Special Meeting is clearly stated by Constitution, and has been so stipulated by Chairman Greer for Saturday, January 9, 2009, at 9:00a. Therefore, no further comment is required.

The RPOF Constitution, Article XI, Parliamentary Authority, clearly states that for any issues which are not specifically addressed by the Constitution or Rules, then Robert’s Rules Of Order, Newly Revised,(RRO) “are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with the Constitution of the State Committee.” Therefore, the Constitutional recognition of Robert’s Rules of Order renders RRO as the appropriate authority for addressing the stated purpose of the approved Special Meeting.

In that there is no provision in the RPOF Constitution or Rules which specifically addresses procedures for an action to rescind an election of an officer, or removal through disciplinary actions, an officer from office, then, by stipulation of the Constitution, Article XI, (Parliamentary Authority), the stated purpose of the called Special Meeting of disciplining the Chairman through a secret ballot to rescind the Chairman’s election is addressed explicitly in Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised. Chapter XX, Disciplinary Procedures, Section 61, Remedies Against Misconduct or Dereliction of Duty in Office, pp.642-643, states:

“Except as the bylaws may provide otherwise, any regularly elected officer of a permanent society can be deposed from office for cause- that is, misconduct or neglect of duty in office as follows:

If, however, the bylaws provide that officers shall serve only a fixed term, such as “for two years,…” an officer can be deposed from office by following the procedures for dealing with offenses outside a meeting; that is, an investigating committee must be appointed, it must prefer charges, and a formal trial must be held.”

The RPOF Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, states “All officers of the State Committee and Congressional District Chairmen “shall be elected to a term of office of two (2) years”.

The procedures to be complied with as cited in Robert’s Rules of Order in conducting this called Special Meeting are clear, and require the following actions:

(RRO, Chapter XV, Section 47, p. 436)Whenever a motion is made that refers only to the presiding officer in a capacity not shared in common with other members, or that commends or censures him with others, he should turn the chair over to the vice chairman or appropriate temporary occupant (see below) during the assembly’s consideration of that motion…………(1) the vice chairman normally should take the chair unless he also, because of involvement in the debate or for any other reason, should disqualify himself from presiding in the particular case………

……(2) the chairman can appoint a temporary chairman, subject to the approval of the assembly …..p.382-383 (and who is assumed to receive the assembly’s approval by unanimous consent unless member(s) the nominate other person(s), in which case the presiding officer’s choice is also treated as a nominee and the matter is decided by vote).

We would be willing to stipulate to the appointment of a mutually acceptable, objective temporary chairman, subject to affirmation by the State Committee. While other nominees could arise, we believe the State Committee should be favorably disposed to accept a temporary Chair who would be fair and impartial, and whom was acceptable to both parties.

Due to the extensive media attention already given to all aspects of the Chairman’s role in the RPOF, and recognizing the high visibility of the Chairman’s arguments and protestations of all criticism, the need for an “investigative committee” would appear superfluous and unnecessary at this point. The central question is simply, what is the will of the State Committee, as determined by secret ballot, on whether or not a rescission of the Chairman’s election shall be affirmed.

The best interests of the RPOF and all parties affected is best served by a mutual stipulation of WAIVER of the investigation committee process (p.632), and instead proceed with the presentation of defense and rebuttal arguments, closing arguments and proceed to a secret ballot of the question (p.638-640).

Notwithstanding the above, Florida Statutes supersede any provisions of the RPOF Constitution and Rules. The State of Florida governs political parties as mandated by Florida Statutes, aforesaid statute sets forth the procedure for declaring the chairman’s appointment void as requiring removal by tribunal FS 103.131(7). By law, the chairman can be removed. The Special Meeting of the full State Committee serves as the statutorily required tribunal.
Unless the Chairman should choose for personal reasons to tender his resignation prior to the Special Meeting, the above stated procedures shall be deemed in effect for the Special Meeting, and all involved should conduct themselves accordingly.

Respectfully,

[signed by and on behalf of the following]

Allen Cox, Vice Chairman, RPOF, SCM, Gulf County
Allison Defoor, SCM, Wakulla County
Gary Lee, Chairman, Lee County
Peter Feaman, SCM, Palm Beach County
Bob Starr, Chairman, Charlotte County

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Greer likes to blame his troubles on Marco Rubio supporters and uses the liberal media-inspired proposition that anyone who opposes Greer’s shenanigans, or Gov. Crist’s campaign for U.S. Senate, is some sort of right-wing extremist nut.

Operative: “Greer is functionally dead.”

December 18, 2009 at 8:14 am by Chris Ingram

Operative: “Greer is functionally dead.””

By Chris Ingram

The latest from the Jim Greer fiasco is more rumors that he has resigned and Charlie has accepted his resignation. Certainly between Charlie and Greer, the two of them must have enough gray matter between their ears to figure Jim Greer’s tenure as RPOF Chairman is going to end one way or another.

I was not able to confirm this with attribution but let’s just say the three people I spoke with are all credible sources, one of whom said if Greer doesn’t resign before the middle of next week, he’ll be “functionally dead by the time we finish with him.”  He added, “If he’s not [politically] dead by Tuesday, I don’t know much about politics,” — this came from someone with more than three decades of service to the GOP.

Sources say at least two Republican Members of Congress have signed on to a letter calling for Greer to resign. This is in addition to over sixty party leaders on the RPOF Executive Committee who have signed the rescind Greer letter. On top of that, four out of five of the living past RPOF Chairs are reported to have signed onto a similar letter and former Chairman Tom Slade will have an op-ed piece in a major Florida paper this week blasting Greer and asking Charlie to get rid of him.

The wild card in all this is the Republican members of the Florida House and Senate. Many of these bozos have (or have had) RPOF Amex cards which they would probably rather not explain the expenses on said cards to voters (and probably their wives). As such, they’ve stuck with Greer, who has protected them by not releasing the Amex details.  As a source of contention, this matter has been/will be diffused with Alan Bense reported to be the interim/post-Greer Chairman — selected by Charlie and House/Senate leaders. Bense is believed to believe there is no benefit in “exposing” inappropriate charges to RPOF credit cards (nothing like protecting your buddies, but hey, we’ll be rid of Greer at least!). Rather, Bense apparently favors putting this matter to rest by ridding the party of Greer and moving on. That’s something the RPOF Executive Committee will have to decide, and if it does in fact go that way, the PROF Budget Committee will hopefully put checks and balances in place to ensure another Greer-type chairmanship doesn’t lead to a repeat of the last two years.

In conclusion, I hate to sound like a broken record with all the “Greer is gone” talk, but let me say this: I’ve been working in politics for twenty years and I will be shocked if Greer isn’t gone by Christmas, and I will shave my head if he’s still the chairman of the RPOF on February 1, 2010. I don’t have much hair to begin with, so don’t get too excited…

Hopefully Charlie will find him some state  Park Ranger job in the depths of the Everglades in Monroe County making eighty grand a year — heck, that’s four times what he’d have ever made sacking groceries at Publix, which is where he’d be if he had never met Charlie Crist.

Stay tuned…

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