GOP Chairman McLain in Charge of Selling Out
Republican Control of the State GOP?
Last year we missed a bullet at the State GOP Convention when a motion was made and passed calling for the tabling of a motion that would have amended the rules of the state party by making the GOP chairman a figure head and giving complete and total control to the Congressional Delegation and the state elected officials. State Party Rule Change #5 and a few other similar rule changes that are up for a vote at the August 15th GOP State Convention will automatically strip all power from the Republican grass roots and the elected County Chairs and Vice Chairs and place that power in the hands of elected Republican officials in the state.
The executive committee is to be completely redone from a advisory board to the master of the Oklahoma GOP and they are to hire an executive director to run the Party. The current State Committee, with over 400 members from all counties in the state would be powerless and cease to exist other than ceremonially. Likewise the State Chairman and Vice Chair will have zero power and zero control over messaging, finances, conventions, literally they will become useless positions.
The executive committee is to be completely redone from a advisory board to the master of the Oklahoma GOP and they are to hire an executive director to run the Party. The current State Committee, with over 400 members from all counties in the state would be powerless and cease to exist other than ceremonially. Likewise the State Chairman and Vice Chair will have zero power and zero control over messaging, finances, conventions, literally they will become useless positions.
David Van over at Sooner Politics has written a good write up on the effect of passing these rule changes that will be up for a vote on August 15th and the GOP State Convention. Read the PDF files, especially the ones in the lower section, there are several rule changes that are targeting the elected officials by asking them to review the Party Platform and mark up their agreement or disagreement on each plank. You see, elected officials want to use the GOP for marketing but they have zero intention of ever following what it stands for.
This is not a new fight by any means. Back in 2010 the Tea Party and conservative Republicans were within 5% of electing a conservative Chairman. In 2015 we succeeded in electing Randy Brogdon as Chairman in a close race, only to see RINOs Pam Pollard and then vice chair Estella Hernandez stab Brogdon in the back repeatedly and help hound him out of office. STP took out Hernandez in the October chairman election at a state party meeting using audio tapes of her berating Brogdon after lying on the Pat Campbell show and claiming she was the victim. We also had a video of her husband employing illegal Mexicans on a job site. Hernandez got up on stage with about thirty supporters for her speech;Pollard got up with two. Pollard won the top position but not enough to win outright so a run off vote had to be held but Hernandez saw the writing on the wall and bowed out of the run off.
Pollard isn't conservative at all but she was less of a danger to Republican values than Hernandez so people chose the lesser of evils. Pollard did what she was told, kept her mouth shut mostly, and obeyed the likes of James Lankford and Tom Cole and in return they funded the party in a most niggardly manner.
BTW for the snowflakes out there, niggardly isn't a racial slur, the word comes from a completely different source than the word that isn't mentioned by polite people. It means stingy or miserly, derived from the Middle English world nigard which comes from Old Norse hnoggr which means stingy. The word that drives so many politically correct folks wild comes from the 16th century Spanish word negro which means black, which itself came from Latin word nigrum or another form, niger, both of which mean dark or black.
Why use a word that snowflakes can latch onto and create a fuss? Because it is the perfect word to describe the stingy amount of money that the Congressional Delegation meted out to Pollard. Just enough to keep the doors open, but they disrespected Pollard so much that it wasn't enough to pay her salary as Chairman. That is indeed a mix of stingy and miserly, thus the choice of the word that covers both.
But enough about the etymology of words, the point is that the Congressional Delegation has always kept control of the Oklahoma GOP when possible by limiting funding. They funded Dave Weston lavishly, he was one of Tom Cole's minions. He had a staff of nine and left the Party about $50,000 in debt. Brogdon was elected, paid off the debt, and managed to keep the doors open with a few staff members, but Pollard was given a pittance, just enough to keep her on the hook and in their control.
Then in comes David McLain, starting off with a respectable $20,000 in the bank and little debt. David was also weak and somewhat stupid so our opinion, slowly proving that with all that lavish spending, jetting staff and family members around on the GOP dime, and attending multiple National GOP events, was likely a very clever way to cause McLain to bankrupt the Oklahoma GOP and gain control over the Party by “graciously” keeping the doors open with donations from the Congressional Delegation. You know what they say, you cannot cheat an honest man, they had to know of McLain's past bankruptcy and his spend thrift tendencies so they didn't have to twist his arm to blow through the bank account and become beholden to them. All he needed was some buttering up and sweet talking to tell him he had a responsibility to travel to these national events and spend lavishly by bringing his entourage.
But remember that the convention where this rule was brought up by lobbyist Seth Rott was also the convention where a coalition of interests including STP slapped down all opposition and got McLain elected in the first place. Everyone was shocked when Rott stood up and asked that the rule change be tabled and taken up at a later time. Why? Because besides McLain there was strong indication that former State Rep Mike Turner was going to be vice chair so they likely felt their interests would be protected or at least they felt they had access to the leadership of the Party. Then McLain got the big head, likely egged on by the likes of Lankford and sons, and he started squeezing Turner out of any leadership role.
Once McLain was firmly in debt to them, all support for Turner ceased. Turner was tossed under the bus as casually as a State Senator would take advantage of a farm animal.
Now with McLain pretty much isolated by his exposure of both his actions in the last year and from his past transgressions, Lankford and sons are getting worried that come May of 2021 the conservative coalition might yet again elect the leadership of the GOP. They are fully aware that no one outside the tiny circle of insiders at the GOP has seen a financial statement since last August when STP published the horrific state of GOP finances, despite McLain stating on numerous occasions that a budget committee would get to work in late August and craft a budget. Then it was after the first of the year, and then silence.
One of the few things that Matt Pinnell did right was setting up the Minute Man program, a monthly donation program of small donors. Dave Weston killed the program, Pollard neglected it or the remnants of it that had survived, and McLain refused to get it cranked up again even when he had driven the GOP into bankruptcy territory. You can bet that Lankford and sons don't want to share leadership, they own McLain as is. They feel entitled to owning the Oklahoma GOP.
So for the last sixteen months or so the Republican County Party leaders and their members have been completely isolated from everything in the GOP. There have been few State Committee meetings, few actual Executive Committee meetings, and little input from the County Chairs and Vice Chairs much less rank and file Republican Party members. Should these State Party Rules pass it will be the literal end of any influence these County Chairs and Vice Chairs will have. The foxes will be guarding the hen house. Republicans will be told to learn to know their place in things and not to question their betters.
If you didn't participate as a delegate to the earlier online Zoom convention, the day that Trump visited Tulsa, you likely didn't get the follow up emails notifying you of the second half of that convention on August 15th. I would call your county chairman and show up at the convention if you attended your County Convention in the spring and signed up as a delegate. I would demand to be accepted as a delegate and try to be able to vote. Or call your state rep or state senator and ask for their proxy so you can vote in their stead against this power grab.
Failing that, if this despicable set of rules passes, be sure and attend the precinct meetings in late January and early February, then the County Conventions, and the State Convention in 2021 so we can claw back our rights and our responsibilities as guarantors of a honest and decent Republican Party. Yet we believe that McLain and the rest of the Washington insiders will want to be fighting to unseat delegates and rig any elections in order to maintain control so we will have to come out in overwhelming numbers.
August 15, 2020
- Cox Convention Center
- 1 S. Oklahoma Ave., OKC, OK 73104
- Check-In is 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
- Convention convenes at 10:00 a.m.
Interestingly, several weeks ago McLain sent out emails requiring delegates to re register for the August 15th convention, asking if you planned on attending in person or would attend online using Zoom. So today, while I was writing this article, in comes another demand for registration and asking the same questions as last time.... Perhaps an attempt to winnow out a few more delegates by claiming they didn't register the third time for the same event? In the past you registered one time via email, after you became a delegate for your county GOP, paid your fee and were done with it. Why these multiple demands for re registering?
Indeed I had several people, well connected activists and Party leaders, tell me that they never received the initial emails to register for the Trump visit day online convention. And scheduling a convention on the day that Trump was visiting? An online convention meaning you needed to be home at your computer that morning? What a way to blunt the turn out at the Trump event.
And if you think that Lankford and McLain aren't serious, see this invitation to meet prior to the convention so you can be buttered up and supportive of the take over of the GOP. I just RSVP'd for the event and Alex encouraged me to spread the email and ask others to attend the event so it would be great if we had a crowd there to ask Lankford about his intentions with this power grab? I would call early, tonight even, and leave a message if needed, as they might claim the event is sold out. Even then folks can come and hang out outside as the building only has two entrances and you might get to meet Lankford anyway. Can you say Juneteenth anyone? Remember that assault on American principles?
