Ken Warner, Current Oklahoma County Chairman
Politics is a strange thing, where people's character becomes obvious once they gain a bit of power. Candidates for office tend to fall into three piles; First those called fence turtles, you see one sitting up on a fence and you know he didn't get there on his own, someone put them there for their own reasons. Then there are the sociopaths that truly desire power, the most dangerous kind as they tend to hide their character before the election and once in power they abuse the power to grasp for a higher office, carrying water for others to incur obligation for the next election. Then there are the true public servants, the rarest kind, that just want to clean up a mess or serve their fellow man. These types get beat usually as they refuse to lie or call out the incumbent for corruption. Not a fan of old Charlie Meadows but he said one thing that was right or stole it from someone smarter; elections are tests of the voters character and not of the candidate's character.
Early on when I got involved in politics I learned to tilt the balance of things. Move a few of the right people and things slide a certain way. Estella Hernandez learned that the hard way when I outed the video of her husband working the illegal aliens unable to speak English and the audio tape of her shrill abuse of Randy Brogdon which blew her story of being picked on to smithereens. Pam Pollard was the beneficiary and as bad as Pam was we have had worse Chairmen. Next was the silly preacher up around Tulsa, whom the State Budget Committee and Finance Committee found cause to bring up allegations of financial wrongdoing, which the temporary General Counsel recommended prosecution but was vetoed by the then Chairman John Bennett. Mclain was like Bennett, hiding a checked past but others from his area vouched for him and were as taken in as the rest of us. But a coalition of us cleared a path for him at the time and got him elected. Next was John Bennett, old Lying John as we learned later. A man I had known and protected and kept in office for over 10 years before he showed his true character. Once again a coalition of us from around the state put the man in office only to see him turn on 80% of us, leading to a savage libel attack upon me personally, motivated we found out later by a ton of dirt that a retired Marine Major had on the guy. Bennett knew once I and the others learned of his dishonesty and the stolen valor he would be asked to resign so he struck first.
Like these others I backed Ken Warner two years ago and he also turned out to be a huge disappointment. Chris Martin had sent out an email to us a few weeks back and brought up the fact that the County Committee had not been allowed to meet, no approved budget to follow, preferring to rule by the Central Committee including funding candidates in violation of the GOP State Bylaws. He said this was no different than Obama's executive orders bypassing Congress and he was correct.
A woman by the name of Claire Kennedy, running for office I believe, emailed out a response to Martin's email that was disingenuous, misleading, and self serving. First she misquoted what Martin had written, claiming he had written there had been no county wide meetings in two years. What Martin had written was no County Committee meeting which indeed had not been done. Pretty easy to call something “flagrantly false” when you make up the statement yourself I suppose. Even if it was a valid argument once precinct meeting is dismal judging from the frequency of past County Committee meetings.
Then the claim of being “grass roots”. Ken Warner's entire administration took its cue from old Lying John Bennett, refuse to hold State or County Committee meetings so you are unaccountable, buddy up with the fanatical Christian Fascists such as the abolitionists, Ekklesia, or the City Elders, all of which are hated by the majority of the House and Senate. Together these Christian Fascists can garner maybe 8% of the votes in a General Election. And they are toxic to the general public.
And training precinct officials? As if they are allowed to do anything on their own? Ken Warner knew better than to empower us if he wanted to run the party as a dictatorship. You can call it education but most likely it was propaganda or pandering on hot button topics like illegal aliens getting drivers licenses, like the GOP controlled House and Senate are going to allow that to happen.
I looked up Warner's campaign pitch from two years ago and this stood out:
“To do this we need to:
Unify around our basic Platform principles: “Limited government, individual liberty, natural law and personal moral responsibility.” Republicans who don’t consistently support our principles do not deserve our support.
Build vigorous grassroots infrastructure. Recruit new activists into all our precincts. Inform, train, and activate them to become effective in educating voters and electing our candidates. Meet on a regular basis.
Be fair, transparent, and competent in all party operations. Our members need to trust the process at all levels. Publicize precinct meetings, conventions, and other events on a timely basis. “
Well Warner advanced the Christian Fascists agenda, not the Oklahoma Republican Party agenda. He denied all of us the chance to participate in the governance of the Party by refusing to hold County Committee meetings to allow others to have a say. He did train his kind of people at the expense of the majority of us. And I spit a bit of coffee on the laptop reading that #3 bullet point.
Claire Kennedy was quite honest in this part of her defense of Warner;
“..... Additionally,
Ken has advanced relationships with grassroots organizations like
Ekklesia of Oklahoma, OK School Board 4 Kids, OKHPR, OK2A, ROPE2,
Lion’s Den, and other organizations in the county.....”
Ekklesia, same ones that
attacked the House and Senate leadership along with the rest of the
abolitionists like T Russel Hunter, OK2A (Old Dollar Don), and ROPE
were always John Birch Society/OCPAC fronts, OKHPR I believe is the
anti vax folks who have alienated so many as single issue
organizations tend to do, this is a list that the Christian Fascists
support, not the general Republican membership. You remember Jenni
White of ROPE, John Bennett printed and paid for the fliers we
distributed at that last State Convention where Jenni's Facebook
tirades against the Republican Party and Donald Trump, even trashing
Mrs. Trump by comparing her to transvestite Katlin Jenner. I have no
idea who the school board group is so no opinion on them. Lions den?
Almost certainly another Christian Fascist group or offshoot of the
City Elders. They were the ones advocating a religious litmus test
for all primary candidates.
Check the facts, and vote
accordingly Claire wrote. Well we did Claire and they don't support
Ken Warner or you for GOP office.
John Bennett's administration was not one to copy Mr. Warner. First he was lying about his military record, covered up multiple cases of sexual harassment by his staff and former staff members of David Mclain, refused to forward an embezzlement case to the D.A. after the acting General Counsel recommended it, closed down the State Committee meetings to the vast majority of the delegates for the first time in history, hid a contract worth thousands of dollars to a former Mclain staff member and also a Bennett staff member, paying over $13,000 before the Budget and Fiance Committee put an end to the payments and this was a a time when the damn phone was turned off at the GOP headquarters because the bill wasn't paid. Then how many times did Bennett get disowned by the Governor, House and Senate leaders, hell even his own Vice Chair along with the Congressional delegation? Bennett had stripped ALL of the contact info for County Gop officers due to paranoia, demanding that all contact pass through his office, really Leslie Nessmith's office. And the complete dumb ass just had to violate the GOP Bylaws and endorse against an incumbent sitting U.S. Senator. I was all for punishing Lankford at a convention and so were most of the delegates but Lying John just had to try that at a State Committee meeting to distract from the disaster that was his administration. And Ken Warner thought Bennett was a good one to follow?
And you know, back in July of 2021 when so many of us were thrown out of the State Committee meeting Ken Warner or the other Oklahoma County GOP officials did nothing. When I was forced to sue John Bennett in a derivative lawsuit on behalf of the State Party they did nothing. Hell neither did Pollard, Jemison, or Curry, and the current GOP Chairman argued that I had contract rights with the GOP and Rights of Association from the U.S. Constitution but couldn't protect those rights. Their plan of course was to watch Bennett implode regardless of how much damage was done to the Oklahoma GOP and pick up the pieces after he ran away.
And when Bennett and the GOP General Counsel came after me for $30,000 in attorney fees and sanctions for daring to try to protect the GOP and the rights of all of us to participate Ken Warner and the Oklahoma County GOP did nothing. If you want to see the retired Marine Major's allegations and accusations against John Bennett click on this link to see the search results of Bennett's articles.
Politicians are no different than diapers and need changed often for the same reason.
In closing, at our House District precinct meetings all of us signed a resolution asking for a rule change that would put teeth into Rule 3A, the sacred and inviolable right to participate in Party matters. That resolution seems to have been stricken by Warner's administration and no surprise there. It was a very simple rule change, allowing any member of the Party to file a complaint and have it adjudicated in a few weeks or month at the most, with appeal rights to the State GOP if needed. Just like Chairman AJ Ferate argued in court, you cannot protect your rights or protect the Party in a court of law, they can do as they wish in violation of your rights and the bylaws even though the bylaws grant the State of Oklahoma statutes the right to cover anything not covered in the bylaws. If the State Central Committee refuses to do the right thing and the Chairman has removed access to the contact info of the County GOP officers, there is literally nothing to be done. We need to have a solid path to accountability to prevent the John Bennetts, the David Mclains, and the Ken Warners of the world from ruining the Party. If you support this idea please let me know and lets gather some signatures in the morning.
A copy of the actual resolution is below the signature line. Feel free to copy and modify and ask that it be heard and passed at your own County GOP convention.
Not endorsing Chris Martin but he isn't Ken Warner so I am going to vote for the guy.
Al Gerhart
al@thecarpentershop.net
Resolution for a rule change to the bylaws of the Oklahoma County Republican Party bylaws and the State Republican Party bylaws.
An addition to Rule 3 A at the end of the existing rule or where best placed:
Any member or members of the Party may file a written complaint with the County Central Committee for the breaking of any of the County GOP bylaws or State GOP bylaws. If the injured member or members cannot be made whole by the Central Committee to the member's satisfaction and according to the bylaws, the complaint shall be sent to the County Committee immediately and the item adjudicated within 45 days of the original filing of the complaint at a County Committee meeting to be held for that purpose if there is not a meeting already scheduled. If the County Committee cannot settle the matter to the satisfaction of the injured member or members then the complaint shall be forwarded to the State Central Committee immediately to settle the matter and the State Central Committee shall settle the matter to the satisfaction of the injured member or members within ten business days. If the State Central Committee is unable to settle the complaint it shall be forwarded to the State Committee for adjudication within 60 days of the forwarding of the complaint from the County Committee at a already scheduled meeting or at a meeting called for that purpose. Complainants have the right to furnish proof, documentation, and to question the accused and witnesses at all steps of the appeal process.
End of resolution.
Notes:
As in any resolution this will be debated and amended if needed before a vote is held. 9Am filing deadline. This can even be adopted for the County and a committee be appointed to iron out any details on the condition that they shall submit the rule change for consideration at the State Convention.
Movant:
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