Budget Committee Denies Thousands of Dollars Funneled into Lying John's Cronies

Great news came in on Saturday afternoon.

 

 I got a text announcing that the Budget Committee has refused to pay the Project 46/Miles Rahimi invoice for the second month in a row. Chairman John Bennett made a contract with a crony for $4,000.00 per month for videos, for four videos per month, most of them glamorizing Lying John and pleading for money.

 

 

At the bottom is the story from earlier this week covering the massive amount of cash that Chairman John Bennett had been funneling to Rahimi who also serves as the Communications Director for the Party. The Party had already paid out $12,000.00 to this Bennett crony. And how does a staff member also be a vendor?

 

 

And Lying John paid out that money illegally as the contract was never approved by the Budget Committee, in fact Lying John Bennett withheld the existence of the Rahimi/Project 46 contract for months, denying it even existed, claiming it was a "gentleman's agreement".

 

 

The procedure for spending in the GOP is clear, the State Finance Committee does a guesstimate of what funds can be raised similar to what the State Equalization Board does, who hands off the information to the State GOP Budget Committee who sets the budget for spending the estimated income, then to the State Treasurer who is supposed to actually write the checks and transfer money to pay the approved expenditures.

 

 

But Lying John and his cronies see checks in the check book and a little money in the bank and bang, it is Christmas time for the cronies.

 

 

And have no doubt about this, the Budget and Finance Committee are well ran, hard working, and honest. Honest to the point that the head of the Finance Committee resigned a few weeks ago in protest to his information being cut off by Lying John's staff and cronies. Remember that this man doesn't work for Lying John, he works for the State Committee and was confirmed by them. Tough luck for Lying John if he nominated an honest man that couldn't be bullied.

Lying John Claiming the "RINOS" Are Out to Get Him. No John, it is the Ones You Betrayed

Old Lying John! 

 

On Youtube and Rumble begging for donations again claiming that everyone is out to get him.

 

It isn't the "rinos" trying to hold him accountable, it is many of the people that fought to get him elected. Why? Because he has covered up multiple cases of sexual harassment, two perverts, five cases on just one of them including text messages as proof. Lying John may have covered up possible massive, massive financial mis-dealings by his predecessor. 

 

Right now Lying John is funneling $4000 per month to one of his cronies on his staff for videos like this. Lying John has allowed a witch of a woman to pretty much run the Party and she has ran off the majority of the dozen or so movers and shakers that recruited John and got him elected. People thrown off the email lists, projects funded with thousands of dollars in donations were shut down for no reason, volunteers pushed away. Look to the right for the archive of previous articles on this sordid mess.

 

And the fundraising collapsed months ago and they are running out of cash because no one trusts Lying John and no one believes he has any morals. The General Counsel nominee withdrew his name due to poor leadership and the lack of transparency after Lying John closed the state committee meeting for the first time in GOP history in the state. And you know what Lying John told the crowd the day that this man was to be confirmed? That the nominee was too busy with his other legal work. Yeah, that made the nominee look bad but Lying John saved some face. His Finance chairman quit a few weeks ago after months of being abused by Lying John and his staff and his access to data removed.

 

And the mention of fighting in the courts? Lying John is being sued in district court for what he has done including his staff and GOP officers libeling people! And Lying John brought three attorneys to court claiming that he couldn't be held accountable because it was internal Party matters. No matter how bad it was his attorneys said, he couldn't be held accountable by the judge. 

 

So yeah, Lying John needs your hard earned money! He has three lawyers to pay and needs to shut down any attempt to expose how crooked he and his staff have become.

 

Donate now, hiring high priced lawyers to hide your dirty deeds do not come cheap!

 

After 12 years of supporting this "man", being threatened of being sued in every race I helped him win, after being threatened with arrest along with a bunch of his supporters for distributing newspapers going after his opponents, after 12 years of protecting him from House leadership, I say it is time for Lying John to be kicked to the curb in shame.

 

It ain't the RINOs coming after you John Bennett, it is the people that you betrayed.

Lying John Covering Up Possible Embezzlement by the Previous Administration in the GOP?

Rumors of financial mis-dealings started floating around in early May.   Sources were claiming that Bennett and his staff had met with legal counsel over possible felony level embezzlement charges against the previous Chairman and/or his staff.  Sources were tight lipped, tiny amounts of information was filtering out, tantalizing but not enough for a honest story.

The rumors are focused upon the end of the Chairman McLain administration.   Sources claim that tens of thousands of dollars were paid out or transferred AFTER Chairman Bennett was elected.  Indeed the FEC reports show that thousands of dollars were paid out or transferred between April 13th 2021 and when Bennett got possession of the GOP headquarters building around April 27th.  The convention was on the 10th of April, David Mclain was no longer Chairman at the end of that convention so how could he legally spend or transfer money to anyone for anything?

And there are tales of eight different bank accounts ran by the previous administration.   I can see one for the FEC, one for the Ethics Commission, perhaps another for the non federal donations, but eight bank accounts?

But what is really troubling is why none of this has been reported to the State Committee or the public at large?  There are tales of stormy staff meetings where Bennett staff argued against exposing the potential corruption or mis-spending.  There are tales of a stormy Central Committee meeting, Bennett, Shane Jemison, Pam Pollard, and Steve Curry make up the Committee, where there were arguments over the need to disclose this or have it investigated.  The rumor is that both Miles Rahimi and Leslie Nessmith were against the disclosure to the State Committee, then there is another rumor from last Saturday's executive meeting where Pollard and Nessmith squared off shouting at each other of this not being exposed long ago.  Who knows what the truth is?

The good news is that despite the disaster that has been John Bennett the State Committee confirmed a few good men to run the Finance and Budget Committees and the money was found to start an audit that ought to be out soon.   I have high confidence in two of these men and I believe that the truth will be found but the question is, will Lying John allow this audit to see the light of day?

You can see some of the data at this FEC link for the Oklahoma Leadership Council which appears to be the main FEC account for the Oklahoma Republican Party.  

Update on the Sexual Harassment Cases Being Covered Up By the Oklahoma State GOP

First it was one pervert harassing one victim, a very lady like petite young married woman, to the point where the lady had to quit volunteering for the GOP.   Then around early August rumors or more cases coming out.  Then a few weeks ago sources claimed that National Committee Woman Pam Pollard had taken five sexual harassment cases to John Bennett and then Executive Director Bob Dani and were told "I will not Brent Kavanaugh ______ ________."  Insert the name of a high ranking GOP staffer who shall remain unnamed until this is investigated.

Was the first lady who told of the sexual harassment one of the five victims known to Pam Pollard?  Were the text messages Pollard had as evidence and had shown to Bennett and Dani proof of this first known case?

Later another name popped out, another GOP staffer, accused of a milder form of sexual harassment but as in the first known case it was severe enough that the young woman quit in disgust.  Now we have two undisciplined and dishonorable horny men taking advantage of volunteers.  

As we are unsure if the first victim was named in the five cases, some with text message proof, there might be six cases for the one pervert.  Two names have surfaced, potential victims that might be members of the five cases known, perhaps they bubbled up because they had said something to someone and the word got around.  Perhaps these are two additional cases?

And at the court hearing last Wednesday, a source claimed that at least one victim was present, supposedly accompanied by her husband and a lawyer, with the source claiming to overhear whispered comments explaining the law on sexual harassment cases.   Now the source wouldn't know who the first five or six victims were and they wouldn't know anyone in the GOP or at least very few.  Could this mysterious court room couple be another victim of sexual harassment at the GOP headquarters?

Lying John's video today pleaded with the watchers of the video to donate and come volunteer at the GOP.  Would you send your daughter down to the GOP?  Would you allow even your son to volunteer as the morals and decency at the headquarters has sunk to abysmal lows?  Would a son follow the example being set or would he himself become a victim as we are not sure how many of the victims are women and if any are men.  Pretty far fetched, yeah, but so is this administration.

At this point we appear to be dealing with between six and eight sexual harassment victims and two perverts but only Pam Pollard, John Bennett, and Bob Dani know the truth.  We know of two names that are pretty darned solid and two names that are alleged.   Will others come forward?  What will the cost be to the Party if some of them decide to sue?  Or will Lying John and the rest of the GOP staff and leaders insist that this is an internal Party matter so no one can hold them accountable?

Lying John Funneling Thousands of Dollars Per Month to a Cronie

                                                                    Have you seen the latest fund raising video from Chairman                                                                            John Bennett, AKA Lying John?

John is telling all that will listen that the "RINOS" are coming for him and you must donate because they are trying to remove him from office.

Well....... the truth is that old Lying John has been funneling $4,000.00 per month to Project 46, which is ran by Miles Rahimi, the "Communications Director" for the GOP.  Now how can you be a staff member and a vendor at the same time and not have financial and ethical conflicts?

The interesting thing is that Project46.com showed a maximum rate of $1500 per month for their services including unlimited video.  So what is the extra $2,500.00 for?   And the GOP is getting only four videos per month according to the contract between Bennett and the GOP.  Sounds like the GOP is getting bent over a barrel and gang raped.  

The videos produce so far are frankly not that good and consist mostly of Lying John begging for cash and trying to act sincere while reading off a teleprompter.  And those of us that know what is going on know that for months the existence of this Project 46 contract was hidden from the GOP committees that oversee Lying John's spending.  They were told for months that there was a "gentleman's agreement" between the Party and Project 46, AKA Miles Rahimi.  Only to find out  not that long ago that the contract was real and was signed in late May of this year.

Project 46 was paid $4000.00 on September 3rd 2021, again on August 20th 2021,  and again on July 13th 2021.    So $12,000.00 paid to Miles Rahimi's company in roughly 53 days, and if the contract was monthly, he is owed another $8000.00.  June, July, August, September, and October, $20,000.00 in debt or expense racked up in just five months.  And can the GOP get out of the contract or is it even valid since the State Committee has never heard of the contract?

Another interesting point, during staff meetings Chief of Staff Leslie Nessmith was said to be demanding that the Project 46 invoice be paid first, in front of other creditors, long before the 30 day due date.  Why?  Why would Miles Rahimi be paid first?  One has to wonder what the Chief of Staff is getting out of this deal?  Perhaps her own videos processed?  Something else?  Who knows?

Fundraising collapsed a month ago or longer.   Once news that Bennett and the GOP were being sued the donations went further down to a trickle.  The videos mostly promote Lying John, with Lying John  stuck in campaign mode pretty much, pushing an anti vaccine, anti mask, save the babies kind of message.  Not pro life mind you, but the abolitionist message that ultimately will lead to the outlawing of birth control if these crazies get their way.

So with the bulk of the money raised each month being funneled to cronies, the Party is behind despite heroic efforts by the Budget and Finance Committee members who have worked hard since late May to fund the Party.  But videos and fundraising emails were going out talking about "prepping", "crypto currency", and other fringe topics has pretty much put off most normal people.

Yesterday we were treated to a single line message from the GOP email system, well I wasn't, they threw me off the email list months ago for no reason.  But the message announced that the fundraiser was canceled and you know, it just wasn't their fault.  The fund raiser was at first to be something big, Steve Bannon or someone of his stature brought in, someone what would sell tickets.  In the meantime both the OKC and Tulsa GOP groups were running fund raisers non stop and competing with the State GOP effort.   The State GOP found that they literally couldn't sell the tickets, most likely not because of competition, but because Lying John had lost all credibility and people started saying "Let's go Brandon" to John Bennett and the few left supporting him.

None of us in the team that recruited John Bennett, and you heard the video of Bennett agreeing to run in last Sunday's article, thought he would turn on us like he did.  But now that he has betrayed not only us, but the entire Republican base, the same people will take his lying butt out of office kicking and screaming if that is what it takes.

Lying John Gets Caught Again; Thousands of Donor Dollars Blown on Useless Videos

Lying John, has a nice ring to it and twelve years ago had I known the man was like he is I wouldn't have supported him.  Literally no other person in the state has as much invested in Bennett than I did, so if I am going after him you know he has it coming.

Many of you delegates had asked John Bennett during the GOP Chairman race who he was associated, some asked him directly if he was "my guy" or closely associated.  Well, listen to this tape and make up your own mind. At 2:54 he says he will run.

The first tape is the day that Bennett agreed to run for the Chairman slot, a few minutes into the audio file.  It is an interesting audio file, you get to see how things like this are done, the planning of the campaign team that generates the initial support, how and why people are considered as members of the team, a bit of how the sausage is made.

One interesting part is where Bennett and I talk about Speaker Charles McCall and Floor Leader Jon Echols flying down to Tahlequah to give Bennett thousands of dollars in campaign funds just to get him to speak to me about getting off their butts.  Bennett had ran against McCall for Speaker of the House and I had been hammering McCall pretty hard.  I laid off the guy and aimed at Chris Kannady instead, the #3 guy, as McCall could have stripped Bennett of his committee chairmanship.  I understood the message even if Bennett didn't.  Sometimes it is good tactics to pivot anyway.  But how many people can say that the Speaker of the House wanted you to leave them alone bad enough to fly down and shell out serious cash to see if it could be done?

The second tape is just the back half of the first conversation.  

For those that still think Bennett can be salvaged, well if anyone would think that it would be me after putting myself out on the line protecting him for twelve years.  But some times you just have to realize you made a bad investment and to cut your losses.  And if I put someone in office and they betray our movement, I feel morally obligated to take them out and fix my mistake.

The scandal on Miles Rahimi's Project 46 contract finally blew this week.  We have known about this for months but you know, we just weren't ready to trash Bennett, thought he could be salvaged or others that helped him thought so so we were holding off on him personally.   So around the end of May John Bennett, no doubt aided by his staff, signed a $4,000 a month contract with Miles Rahimi for video services.  If you look up that project 46 website you will find it is some sort of pay to play activist or candidate thing.  You spend between $500 and $1500 per month and get all sorts of campaign help and "unlimited" videos made for your campaign.  I guess he was soaking Bennett and the GOP because the contract was for three times that amount and change and was for only four videos per month.

And you might ask, why do we need videos and why do we need to pay $4000 per month?  Well they were mostly videos promoting Bennett and begging for donations.  So I guess we really didn't need the videos, we being the GOP members.

Some people had asked about  this deal for months and we are told that both Bennett and Executive Director Bob Dani denied that there was a "contract", it was said to be a "gentleman's agreement".  In order to do the budget they needed to know how much was being spent, in fact that contract ought to have gone before the State Committee before a dime was paid.  But in fact, these folks were lied to by John Bennett, the contract was signed in late May but people were told that there was no contract.

And those of you that have seen the Bennett videos, remember how he was telling us all that "no one was getting paid down here..."?  Well Lying John strikes again.

Ya'll remember the chant "Lets go Brandon"?

How soon till it is "Lets go Bennett"?

Time to go to War on Bennett ------ Chairman Bennett and Pam Pollard Refuse to be Held Accountable Under the Law? Fine, Hardball Politics it is Then

Wednesday's Oklahoma City District Court hearing was a pyhrric victory for the four Central Committee members. Going in we knew just how tough it is to get a temporary injunction, you have to literally be certain to win the case and have an immediate need before a judge will prior restrain someone or an organization from going on about their business. When the motion for Temporary Injunction was filed, the October meeting was billed as the second State Committee meeting which then was turned into an Executive meeting so that took away some of our moral high ground.

These Executive meetings are rarely a big thing, the notice goes out to a few dozen people that are either appointed by the Chair and Vice Chair or have a seat as a consequence of an office they hold. They are not big positions, more of a peacock position. Among their abilities or duties are announcing a County Chair or other County GOP slot abandoned or open, advising the Chairman, or advising the Chairman for the next State Convention time, location, or advising on organizing the convention. A quarter of them at the County level can call a vacancy in an office and call for a County committee meeting. At the state level the executive committee can advise the Chair and provide advice and consent to the Central Committee meeting on the running of the day to day activities. .

Which is all soundly ignored in most administrations. The reality is that the executive board has been a no work peacock post for a long time, a symbolic post that does telegraph to everyone where your loyalty lies. Bennett has few actual executive meetings but a lot more partial meetings, many times at Leslie Nessmith's house, at least the dependable ones in Nessmith's opinion it seems. Those executive directors placed by the Vice Chair aren't as …. shall we say... notified or present or wanted.

But I drove us off into the weeds, didn't I? Back to the court hearing.

There were four attorneys present, three for Bennett and the GOP, and one representing Pollard, Jemision, and Curry. All the attorneys ought not to have been there as none of them had the required conflict waivers needed from the State Committee. We were offered to hear the motion to disqualify which we filed against Ferate but it was scheduled to be heard in very late December. We simply were not expecting to or ready to do a good job of it. And the other three bozos, well they just entered Entry of Appearance late last week, no time to do multiple motions to disqualify.

So despite having zero path to become legal counsel they just ignored the fact that they owed their allegiance to the Party first before any new client. Ferate by virtue of being a current executive board member and his recent past as a GOP executive director and despite the other three legal beagles attempting to represent Bennett and the Party who have very different interests. Bennett is accused of breaking the Bylaws, the Party's interest is in following the Bylaws and not causing liability.

I would speak for two to four minutes, then usually three of them would speak for two to four minutes in turn. Point being, they had three to four times the opportunity to get their point across. As you can imagine our one hour hearing done by the excellent judge on her lunch hour, was over before we got to introduce our witnesses and exhibits. There were some exhibits filed with the initial complaint, another few dozen that the court didn't have time to hear due to time constraints.

And not unsurprisingly we lost the temporary injunction battle with all six injunctions being turned down. The judge did allow us to go over what our witnesses would say and what the exhibits would prove but she ruled that none of it would change her need to not approve the temporary in junctions. On that point, knowing the time constraint, we asked for just one temporary injunction: follow the GOP rules and by a simple reading of the text. And didn't get it. Not because our request wasn't moral and right, but because the four stinking lawyers said she couldn't.

Why? It seems that we were somewhat wrong about some unincorporated associations. Congress and the Courts ruled long ago that political parties were under limited jurisdiction of the Court. If the state had state laws that directed political parties to appoint vacant positions so they were filled then the state was allowed a minimal amount of questioning and supervision of the Party by the Judiciary. And the Supreme Court recognized that individuals possessing offices are valuable property, a contract by right even, but the Court also realized that since taking sides in a political party fight over another side caused strife, there was simply little time in a busy docket to to deal with normal cases and even less for dealing with party squabbles.

The bottom line after the hearing was ended? John Bennett, Shane Jemision, Pam Pollard, and Steve Curry can do as they damn well please and the Court won't interfere. If married volunteers were sexually harassed, too damn bad, it is a political issue to solve the Central Committee is saying.

If the Bylaws aren't being followed, tough cookies, the Central Committee says it is up to the organization to sort things out. If Bennett or one of his staff decides to throw you out of the Party, too bad. If Jemison has been missing in action along with our two National RNC members, too bad. If Bennett or some of his staff decide they won't allow Nathan Damn to run as a Republican, too bad. If they want to tell the governor of the state to piss off and strip their right of association to run as a Republican, too bad sister.

When this became apparent, that we were not to be allowed to hold Bennett and crew accountable using the temporary injunction orders, I asked the judge to consider the consequences of the ruling That it is saying that there is no rule of law and it is the strongest that will come out on top. Why bother with recruiting delegates when you can just gather or rent fifty strong men with baseball bats and take over the convention. Giving a people no way of making peaceful change is to invite disorder and anarchy. If they cannot petition to follow the rules, well they can riot.

Rex Duncan came out of his seat when the idea of someone using force if there were no way to get the rules followed, finding it offensive. Then after the judge was out of the room he had the gaul to give friendly advice in a wavering voice not to say such things in front of a judge. No Rex Duncan, YOU were advocating that anarchy was the only way out when you fought to prevent Bennett and his crew from following the Bylaws of the GOP. You Rex Duncan were advocating to hide sexual harassment allegations.

Yet, it turns out that if Chairman Bennett wants to throw you out of the Party he now has a clear path to do just that. You or anyone he dislikes can be unilaterally removed from a meeting, from the email list, from the Party or convention itself and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. If the Vice Chair cowers in fear, unwilling to stand up and call for a State Committee meeting or if he does and the State Committee meeting is unwilling to do the right thing, you have zero rights despite the Bylaws and despite the contract between you and the Republican Party because Rex Duncan says the Party and the leadership team cannot be held accountable using the law.

So John Bennett wants to stick to politics instead of following the Bylaws? Has the dumb son of a Biden thought that through?

There were many years I admired Chairman John Bennett and fought to keep him in office and protected. I always knew he wasn't the brightest bulb in the string of lights but I thought he was smart enough to act in his best interests. He had other attributes that made up, he was thought to be loyal and honest, and was certainly a passionate speaker.

But since early June I first began to have doubts then realized the boy was more than a few bricks shy of a load. Some of the people that helped put Bennett in office still try to cling to a shred of hope that perhaps he is being misled by some of his corrupt and self promoting staff but when you point out that it is obvious they are speaking wishing to believe, not in belief , they figure out that is true.

I suppose it is time to go all out against John Bennett. After all, he turned on the man that got him elected in his first race and kept him safe for ten years, what the hell are a dozen people that got him elected as Chair? I think it is time to use twelve years of inside knowledge and not just peel the skin off him till he does the right thing, I think we need to get down to the bone.

John Bennett, you have been warned. You are out of time to do the right thing and Sunday night your sins of the past are going to rain down upon your sorry lying ass. You think the Sooner Tea Party was rough on the RINOs and Democrats? Wait till you see what we can do to a traitor that sheltered in our foxhole and stabbed us in the back. By the time we are done you will wish you were back in Afghanistan surrounded by horny,syphilitic Taliban soldiers and you were armed with just an October 2021 copy of the Official Navy Chief Petty Officer coloring book of the month and a box of half eaten official issue Marine Core crayons.

Staff Sexual Harassment? The Republican Party Demands No Interference In Party Governance

On Wednesday October 13th in the Oklahoma County Courthouse four lawyers hired by Central Committee members are going to try to eliminate anyone from attempting to hold them accountable on Party matters or from demanding an investigation into at least five cases of sexual harassment by  GOP staff members. If you are to believe their court filings, their autonomy trumps the right of anyone to interfere in the internal governance of the Party, claiming it is the Party's First and Fourteenth Amendment right to govern itself. 

 You can read the initial compliant and some of the filings at this link.   GOP lawsuit    The last filing by Chairman Bennett is yet to be uploaded, I can send you a copy if you ask.

The problem with their reasoning is that the Republican Party of Oklahoma isn't a legal entity, it exists under a charter from the RNC and does business as an unincorporated association which has no legal barriers in place to prevent any judgments or debts from falling upon the ruling body which is the State Committee or the registered voters of the state for that matter. AJ Ferate, R. Tom Hillis, Kyle Alderson, and "acting" General Counsel Rex Duncan filed entry of appearances with the court and filed two replies claiming a Constitutional right to boot out anyone the Party wishes, to be allowed to run the Party in contradiction with the Bylaws, allow zero financial oversight, and to deal with internal Party issues as they fit and that appears to include allegations of sexual harassment. 

 

 Who decides who is a member of the GOP? The state does, allowing anyone to register as a Republican. How does that make for a “private” group or an independent organization? There are a myriad of other ways the State of Oklahoma and the Federal government regulate or monitor political parties. The Party files Ethics Commission reports quarterly, it pays taxes on payroll, has to follow zoning laws, health and safety regulations, city ordinances. It reports to the Federal Election Commission on a quarterly basis and follows the laws of the U.S. and Oklahoma. Who pays for our method of picking our candidate in the general election? The state does, not a privately funded party caucus. At one point between 1979 and 1981 there was a law on the books allowing a one dollar check off on the State tax return. Party is an unincorporated association, it has no legal entity, yet lawyers claim it has 1st and 14th amendment rights. 

 The First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” 

 

 In this case that is the right to assemble and petition for the redress of grievances which has been adjudicated to mean the right to join and participate in a political party. And use our free speech.  

14th Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

 The 14th Amendment protects those 1st Amendment rights but in the current lawsuit it isn't the State of Oklahoma's power or that of the Congress that is at issue; what is at issue is how the Party has written its bylaws to regulate itself and is refusing to follow their own bylaws. What the Republican Party under the Central Committee is doing is refusing the Plaintiff and other Republicans from assembling with like minded registered Republicans. 

 Does the general membership of the GOP have these rights to association and assembly, then why are they forced to take just anyone into the Party? Do the other Party members have the right to choose who they associate with by voting to kick people out of the Party? No? Then the only one with true First and Fourteenth Amendment rights are the individuals in the Party including the Plaintiff asking the Judge to use the powers of the judiciary to enforce the Bylaws. 

 

So what was the motive for Chairman John Bennett to turn on a 12 year long political relationship and conspire to boot the Plaintiff out of the Party? Well, he was being surrounded by an ever increasing paranoid and power hungry staff but that alone ought not to be unexpected. We believe that what tipped the porta potty was allegations of a number of young, married, Republican volunteers reporting sexual harassment charges against two or more members of the Party leadership/staff. On the day that the Plaintiff was wrongfully removed by a uniformed off duty sheriff deputy from the State Committee meeting, he spoke to dozens of people in the parking lot of Paul Blair's church in Edmond. One was a young lady there supporting Lahmyer, who like the rest of us was denied entrance to observe the meeting. Most had been lied to and told that Bennett was to be removed, something I explained was impossible without following the requirements of a ten day notice before the meeting and majority vote and it had to be for cause, which sad to say existed.

 

 But this young lady asked a lot of questions and we came around to discussing one particular staffer/leadership team member and the Plaintiff was told of “wildly inappropriate” behavior by the team member against the young woman. She was reluctant to share the entire story but when asked if it was creepy kind of behavior she said yes. 

Well, nothing to be done as the Plaintiff had zero access to the Party according to then Public Relations Director Leslie Nessmith, now Chief of Staff, who bragged on Facebook that she, Executive Director Bob Dani, and Chairman Bennett had conspired and agreed to remove “all access” from the Party by the Plaintiff to “protect” the Party. The report wasn't a crime, sexual assault, so it couldn't be reported. The info was filed away. 

 Later other stories and rumors started popping up around the same theme and issue about the same staff member. Then last week a phone call came in and one of the issues discussed was Central Committee member Pam Pollard meeting with Chairman Bennett and Executive Director Bob Dani with a hint that others were present. Allegedly National Committee member Pam Pollard recounted five, I repeat five, separate allegations of sexual harassment including text messages proving the same. The alleged reply from the Republican Party leadeship? “We are not going to Brent Kavanaugh …......” and then they gave the name of the alleged sexual harasser. 

Some of the other rumors about this one person were centered around late night phone calls to married volunteers. Stories have been written speculating about why Chairman John Bennett turned on many of the very team that recruited and got him elected as Chairman. It was all a mystery but perhaps these allegations explain part of the reasons. Of all people, Bennett and the motley crew he had surrounded himself with knew that Al Gerhart would not allow this to fester and would demand investigation and if found to be true the removal of the harassers would be demanded and an apology from the Party, as well as rule changes for the next convention including the formation of a grievance committee. 

But if the scandal was exposed Chairman Bennett gets a black eye, poor leadership and scandal, and losing an ally in a rapidly shrinking team of individuals willing to stomp on the rights of others to maintain their grasp on power and influence.. A National news story, scandal and shame was guaranteed, along with an increasingly paranoid leadership team cracking down on team members thought to be talking with outsiders. Closely held incestuous churches tend to act like this, where outsiders are kept at arms length to “protect” the congregation, and to prevent the cult like practices to create a sense of us versus them. 

 A choice was made; transparency, accountability, and civil and decent treatment of women volunteers was less important than holding onto power and influence. They seem to be saying that the Republican Party must sacrifice these young married women for Chairman Bennett and his team.

 And while the Sooner Tea Party is solidly Pro Life and against mandated vaccines, we have to remain consistent and non hypocritical in our arguments. What Chairman Bennett and his team are saying is “Your body, my choice on matters of sexual harassment and pregnancy, my body my choice on matters of public health such as masks and vaccines.” 

The hearing will on a Temporary Injunction to force the Republican Party to a) stop libeling the Plaintiff, and b) follow their own bylaws until the entire lawsuit can be heard on the merits or until the Central Committee calls a State Committee meeting and the entire mess be investigated and cleared up once and for all. When we pass bylaws and laws and regulations we always have to be aware that one day we might no longer be in power. So turning a blind eye to the current abuse and wrongful behavior is setting a precedent for future Party leaders. 

The hearing is at 12:00 pm, noon, in the court room of Judge Natalie Mai on the 7th floor of the Oklahoma County Courthouse in room 707. Bring as mask as they will surely require one once inside the courtroom. I know, yuck, but bring a mask and wear it or do not complain if Chairman Bennett and his team or the next administration of the Party puts a boot on your neck and laughs at you for trying to participate. 

My cell number is 405-942-2644 if you have any knowledge of any kind that you wish to share. Please don't call if you are upset that Party leadership is being held accountable, I could care less about you if that is how you see things. Please don't call if you are a victim and refuse to at least talk to a judge in private, the very least that is needed. If sexual harassment is to be stopped the victims HAVE to come forward and the law does protect them in many ways but at some point, if the accused is adamant, they have the right to face their accusers. 

 I would ask everyone to call their County Chair, Vice Chair, and both State Committee members and demand that they step up and deal with this mess immediately.  Probably little use to call the Vice Chair or the National Committee members, Shane Jemison, Pam Pollard, and Steve Curry.  You cannot get that contact from the Republican Party on their website, they pulled it down sometimes after July 4th of this year, about the time this controversy exploded, to prevent "phishing". However an email by replying to this email will get you what you need if there is no other way. 

This story was edited after news of a second abuser came in shortly after it was published.

The Sheer Incompetence of the Republican Party

So mistakes were made and like Hillary Clinton said the Party leadership of the Republican Party asked “What difference does it make?” Which led to the lawsuit filed on the 21^st of last month. And in the process we started looking for details on the GOP here in Oklahoma so we were sure we knew what it was and how it could be held accountable. And it turns out, very few people if any actually knew what it was legal.

You see the Republican Party of Oklahoma is a really weird duck. We first went to the Secretary of State to find out what its status was but there is no filing for the Party. Not in non profit, not in the domestic corporation side, nothing. So a trip down to the Capitol to visit with the Secretary of State, the Ethics Commission, and the Election Board, all of whom were as mystified as we were; exactly how was the GOP organized and what in the hell was it?

Back in junior high and high school days we had a study period, luckily with a library next door, and being a voracious reader I had pretty much gone through the suitable books for a young man in the seventies including hundreds of small biographies of the famous men from Colonial days forward. Many a time you would read about a soon to be famous man becoming a lawyer and taking a few years to “read the law”. And that was how you became a lawyer in those days, reading the few law books available and reading the decided cases. And it turns out that is a pretty good way to learn how the law works.

A good friend of the Tea Party would send us case law for the various Oklahoma statutes covering lawsuits that pertained to what we were looking for and before long the term “unincorporated association” became an obvious lead. Now normally in order to have a bank account and any property you need a legal entity. A corporation, a partnership, or a sole proprietorship, or just a person doing business as, AKA known as a DBA. Or you were a registered non profit corporation or as it turned out, you could be an unincorporated non profit association. Which turned out to be a vauge partnership of sorts, normally used for short term political PACs or fund raising for Aunt Jenny's son who needed an operation or some sort of charity.

Well, guess what? That is exactly what the Republican Party of Oklahoma seems to be. An unincorporated non profit association. And why is that a problem? Well, the directors as well as the members of an unincorporated association are liable for any liabilities incurred by the association.

Yeah, the knuckle heads that set up the GOP here in Oklahoma never thought anyone would sue their dumb butts and they left everyone hanging in the wind. So when the hypocritical religious fanatics took over the GOP and squeezed out everyone not of the Pentecostal faith or other far right religious cult, they set up every member of the Republican Party and the Directors, AKA State Committee members, to take a hard fall.

Yeah, an association or corporation has bylaws that set out a board of directors, those that are the ultimate controller of the organization, our State Committee members in our case. And other state statutes lay out a Director's responsibilities and liabilities meaning as long as they are following state law the State Committee members are pretty safe and shielded from being responsible as long as they  act in the best interest of the corporation or association. But these folks weren't told this; many wanted the State Committee member slot for social reasons and were unaware of the massive responsibilities involved and the Party leaders either didn't know or didn't want them to know.

One of the whines coming from the Central Committee, at least three of the four, was “Well, we couldn't do anything so we should be dismissed from the lawsuit.” But then the responsibilities as an officer of the association/corporation bite them in the ass and we find out they didn't do squat to stop the madness nor address complaints that were sent to them months ago. And the responsibility rolls downhill to the State Committee members who literally might find themselves responsible for a judgement, personally responsible because they also either refused to act or were derelict in knowing what was going on. Ouch....

Then it gets very interesting because the lawsuit filed is itself a weird duck. It is part a lawsuit for damages for a horrendous false light/libel campaign perpetrated by GOP officers and staff, and part a derivative lawsuit; a lawsuit that derives its power to sue on behalf of the GOP itself to defend the Party from lazy or malicious acts or malicious refusal to act and do a duty and protect a right granted by membership in the association. Yeah, in fact the lawsuit is protecting the GOP, enforcing the bylaws, in fact should the judge find punitive or actual damages done by Chairman Bennett, Vice Chair Shane Jemison, or National Committee Members Pollard and Curry, the money goes to the GOP.

Even more interesting, by filing this derivative suit the judge is on notice that a problem exists in an organization and is not able to dismiss the lawsuit unless they notify the organization prior to dismissal and giving any single person in the GOP the right to step up and say “Hol on dere.”

This weird unincorporated association is ruled by the state statures on corporations for the most part and one enormous benefit that is coming out of this lawsuit will be that before we are done the State Committee members will be absolute beasts in total control of the GOP which is as it should be. No more waiting around for a chairman like Bennett to give them financial data or information. Any State Committee member already has the right to march into the GOP headquarters and look at anything and everything they have. Books, contracts, receipts, emails, even the normally solid Attorney/Client privilege cannot shield a scrap of info or communication from the prying eyes of a State Committee member. Any member of the GOP has the legal right to see financial records, all board minutes of any meeting, a list of the members, a list of the state officers including the state committee members including their contact info, and I mean march right in on Monday and ask to see the info.

Some in leadership are under the mistaken idea that they have five days to produce this info but that is actually when any member can file a motion before a judge, possibly even without having to file a lawsuit, and the judge can summarily write an order to force the GOP to follow the law.

And no one knew this or the ones that knew were making sure the GOP members and State Committee members didn't know. No longer, a new day has come for corruption in the GOP.

And the Democrats? A bit smarter than the Republicans. The Oklahoma Democratic Party, Inc. is a domestic not for profit corporation. As such the have an actual entity under the law and are shielded somewhat from liability should the directors or officers make stupid mistakes.

On October the 13^th there is an emergency hearing scheduled in Oklahoma City to force the current administration of the GOP to begin to follow the bylaws. And while so far no one has filed an entry of appearance to represent the GOP it is going to get interesting because legally we have no General Counsel approved by the State Committee due to the corruption of the Bennett administration. Yeah, there is one listed on the website but he ain't legal and if he were appointed by the State Committee after a ten day notice of a State Committee meeting he HAS to protect the Party itself, not the corrupt staff and officials that created this mess. Good luck convincing a judge that General Counsel needs to protect the association by fighting to continue to break the bylaws of the association. And a General Counsel cannot represent Chairman Bennett as he was the one breaking the bylaws.  Ditto on the other corrupt staff members and officers.

The outcome of the October 13^th hearing ought to be very short and solid; follow the damn bylaws or face contempt of court. And continue to follow the bylaws while the lawsuit is heard on the merits and order and decency is returned to the Republican Party of Oklahoma. After that, if we prove that the officers of the GOP either broke the bylaws or refused to do their duty to protect the Party then we can ask for their removal. So far the former general counsel AJ Ferate has filed to represent Pollard, Curry, and Shane Jemison but he isn't likely to survive a challenge to represent anyone as he will be a witness in the trial that uncovers the corruption of the Republican Party of Oklahoma. Unless common sense becomes common and the State Committee rallies to the defense of the GOP and joins us in holding these corrupt or lazy officials accountable.