Chairman Jim Greer Continues Strong-Arming Florida Republican Party

This evening Brevard County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Jason Steele was interviewed about Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer's attempts to shut down the 2010 Republican Party Primary process. Greer has been trying to shut out former House Speaker Marco Rubio from opposing Gov. Charlie Crist for in the US Senate race (link to broadcast below).

I wanted to add my comments as well, because this ominous trend of Republican brass attempting to intimidate candidates in primary elections holds tremendous challenges for us as Party grassroots activists. Greer contends that some primaries are just to expensive and distracting. Instead he wants to go ahead and pick for us the candidates that we should vote for.

The problem with this is that now, especially when the Party is trying to figure out if it wants a more moderate (some call it Democrat Lite) Republicanism or a more conservative brand, the decision is not going to be made by the Party members themselves. This is precisely what Primaries are supposed to solve. But Boss Greer has other intentions.

In this interview I was struck by the lack of any coherent or logical argument by Greer to support his position. His constant 'uh's' and superficial replies either show him to be unable to argue his position or else he just considers that his opinion is the only one that matters.

Unfortunately the interviewer did not ask the hard questions of exactly what voice do the Party members have in this system. We must challenge Greer and the rest of the Party bigwigs that they are not to strip us of our rights to have fair and open primaries.

I commend Chairman Steele for beginning a drive to get county chairman to pass resolutions against these tactics. But even more I think that we as Florida Republicans have just as much right and duty to make sure our voices are heard as well.

Here is the phone number for the RPOF in Tallahassee (850)222-7920. And here is their email form http://www.rpof.org/contact.php (caution: you must go to this link and then use their form to email). I'd like to ask everyone to tell Chairman Greer to keep out of the Florida Primary.

Chairman Greer also makes a 'misstatement' of fact in the interview. One was that no resources of the RPOF have been used to favor Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio. Actually the RPOF has utilized it's massive email lists to repeatedly trumpet Crist as the best choice for the US Senate. Not one email has gone out reminding members of Rubio's candidacy.

Please listen to the interview below and draw your own conclusions.

http://www.wmfe.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=9501&news_iv_ctrl=1441

P.S. I'm writing this immediately following the interview. As yet the podcast is not yet loaded onto the site.

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Liberty Organizer

Congratutlations Lew Oliver! You Once Again Showed Your True Colors!

After canceling our regular April Orange County Republican Executive Committee meeting, Lew Oliver demonstrated how he is able to win elections and keep power even with insurmountable odds. First, change the meeting date and location to the outermost end of Orange County. I expect his plan was to confuse and discourage attendance. But our coalition of disenfranchised Republicans showed how much they wanted to restore the Party.

The second piece of skulduggery came by way of not calling a quorum when one was clearly present. We have multiple witnesses that saw Jonathan Swift (an executive of the Party) acknowledge that we did indeed have the requisite number of members present to do business. The problem was that if Oliver called a quorum with so many opponents present, we might be able to bring a vote of 'no confidence' against his shenanigans.

To thwart this outcome OCREC brass engaged a highly unethical procedure. Quickly Jonathan Swift instructed a dozen or so Oliver stalwarts to leave the meeting immediately, dropping attendance below the quorum requirement. This maneuver is forbidden even by OCREC's Model Constitution so we may file a formal complaint with the Republican Party of Florida.

More questionable actions by Oliver were exposed when Doug Guetzloe started asking questions about large undocumented checks. It was determined that Lew Oliver drew more than $13,000 out of OCREC coffers on the pretense of them being 'office expenses'. When pressed in the public meeting, Oliver sheepishly admitted that they were not office expenses at all but transfers of cash from various accounts. Readers should bear in mind that some of these 'transfers' were from OCREC's Federal Campaign funds which carry very strict disclosure requirements. Filing false campaign expenditure reports is a felony and punishable by fines, jail time or both. An investigation is continuing.

Our first guest was State House Representative Brian Nelson. He purports himself to be a Republican, and started begging a stunned OCREC audience to 'support commuter rail because there's going to be a station built right here in Apopka'. He followed that outrageous affront to Republican sensibilities, with the equally outrageous claim that there was no more money to be cut from the Florida 2009/2010 budget.

His question/answer period was the kind usually reserved for tax and spend liberals. This reporter stood up and asked, 'How can you support commuter rail and growth in government without walking away from core beliefs of the Republican Party.' Nelson's answer was a hodgepodge of 'nothing else can be done'. Then a second and third question came about the reckless spending of Tallahassee. By now the crowd was hooting and clapping each time someone challenged Nelson to defend his positions. Unfortunately there were no Democrats available to cheer Nelson.

Funniest line of the night was when one respected member of OCREC told us that commuter rail in South Florida lost so much money that taxpayers would have been better off hiring Rolls Royce's complete with chauffeurs to drive individual riders around.

Senator Mel Martinez sent a legislative aide as well to sing the praises of his 'boss'. He actually ended every statement with, 'well that's what the BOSS says.' After a while this metaphor seemed more apt, especially after another OCREC member was visibly upset with Mr. Martinez not listening to constituents complaints and voting for bills that were clearly out of sink with the majority. I was just about to yell, "Tell the BOSS that the peasants back home are getting restless," when he beat a hasty retreat.

With that Oliver quickly gaveled the meeting to a close. Textbook lesson on what's wrong with OCREC and why we must never stop fighting for our Party. Very soon the jig will be up for Oliver and we will finally win one for lower taxes, limited government, and personal freedom.

Nick Egoroff
OCREC Precinct Committeeman #319
Orlando Liberty Campaign Organizer

The Revolution Has Started! Did You Miss It??

We have witnessed something truly phenomenal here in Orlando. On Saturday between 5000 and 6000 people assembled at Lake Eola Park for the biggest Tea Party in the USA. The City Park Service and police have said they've never seen anything like it. Disregard the low-ball number found in this article. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locteaparty21032209mar22,0,426670.story The higher number comes from local talk show host Bud Hedinger who talked to municipal staff immediately following the event. Please check his site as well for more video and pic's. http://www.540wfla.com/pages/bud_hedinger.html

Now for the story behind the story...

This was a rather peculiar event with the particulars giving all of us in the LIBERTY movement ample lessons to learn and repeat. They start with having someone in the local community feed off an event, in this case the legendary Rick Santelli Tea Party Rant (google it if you haven't seen it). This one local person in turn got the ear of a very popular talk show host, Bud Hedinger.

Bud decided to start urging his listeners to get involved. This led to more collaborations with various groups, which in turn... you get the picture at this point, right?? End result was a HUGE turnout of people that broke all previous records for Tea Party's so far. Has anyone called the Guinness Book of World Records?

The lesson that we can all take home and study is that it is not just ONE group that can lead a large movement. Indeed it is only through various groups putting aside their differences that we create something much bigger than what we separately could ever accomplish on our own.

I know that for myself I have those favorite one or two issues that I think are the key to unlocking the current mess. But you know what, that key only unlocks ONE room and it will never be large enough to accommodate the crowd of people we'll need to change the political landscape.

Hopefully we will all now see how important each cause, each group, and each individual person is to victory. Enjoy your new found friends and fellow patriots. You'll need them in the days ahead.

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Liberty Organizer

Sunny Skies Cast Shadows Over OCREC Member Deon Long

Weather could not be better for Saturday's Tea Party protest rally at Lake Eola. At 12noon the amphitheater will fill with thousands of patriots staging a peaceful revolt against the powers that be: namely our elected officials that with bailouts and stimulus money are ruining our economy. Come early as the rally starts promptly and ends at 2:30pm.

But just a couple of short hours later the Republican Party of Florida will convene the star chamber (also called the RPOF Grievance Committee) for a trial of Deon Long. Mr. Long has been a consistent supporter of the Republican causes as both the leader of the Black Republican Caucus and fundraiser for the RPOF. Appointed to positions by former Gov. Jeb Bush and serving with distinction as a spokesman for the Party, he has cut an impressive image of minority growth within RPOF.

Unfortunately Deon Long has incurred the wrath of Orange County Republican Chairman Lew Oliver and state RPOF Chairman Jim Greer. After daring to question the questionable practices of Chairman Oliver in last December's Board election, Chairman Greer was called into staunch opposition to Chairman Oliver. Thus the smear campaign of Long began replete with unproven allegations of financial misconduct and lack of loyalty to the Party.

The hearing of this case will take place in Lake Mary, Fl. Deon will not be the only one hauled up before this august body. Several other long time Party members from around the state will face similar charges of 'disloyalty.' A busy day for grievances to be sure.

Usually emails of this type end with some call to action. Sadly this does not appear to be necessary. According to my inside sources, the verdict has already been arrived at. If Mr. Long and others are to be hounded from the Party for merely questioning authority, think of what will happen in the future!

Nick Egoroff
Orlando Liberty Organizer
Orange County Republican Precinct Committeeman #319

Blame Game Continues At Orange County Republican Party Meeting

Controversial Chairman Lew Oliver again presided over an ever smaller meeting of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee at the Mark Street Senior Center. Attendance at last nights meeting was about 70 people, half of which were supporters of Deon Long who asserts that he, not Oliver, is the real leader of the local Party.

Mr. Long has been presiding over "Special Emergency" Meetings called by disaffected OCREC members at the Winter Park Civic Center. These meetings routinely have over 100 people in attendance. What is all the more remarkable is that Oliver continues to harass Deon's meetings with endless threats of illegality and warning precinct members not to attend. In spite of all that, people continue to put their support behind Long.

The contrast between the two meetings could not be more clear. The group at the civic center is excited and each person that wants to speak is given a chance to be heard. Plans are put forth for growth of the Republican Party and freely debated. Oliver carefully choreographs his meeting and drones on about minutiae never allowing for new business to be considered.

Last night at the Mark Street Center was a perfect example. For the first time in any ones memory State Committeeman Jerry Braley finally gave a report to those in attendance. Usually he defers to his counterpart, Nancy Paterson, to relay tidbits of state party information. This time however Mr. Braley unloaded on Deon Long. He read a letter sent by State Party Chairman Jim Greer, which Long asserts is untrue and one sided. Braley heaped more scorn on Long, saying he wants to tear the Party apart aided by a liberal media.

Mr. Braley made no mention of the altercation that occurred two weeks ago at Long's meeting when police had to be called. A paid operative of RPOF/OCREC was sent to video tape the meeting and later became abusive. Police were called and issued a 'no trespassing' violation to Robert Richmond who is alleged to have made derogatory racial insults to Long (who is an African-American lawyer).

It appears to this writer that the real question is 'who has the real following at OCREC.' Mr.Oliver cannot get but a few of his supporters to show up to small meetings that never seem to go anywhere, while Mr. Long seems to enjoy enthusiastic support of hundreds of people. This is a troubling question that will have to be answered. Unfortunately the old guard (which is an apt description for most of Oliver's aged supporters), seem determined to pursue a caustic and negative campaign against Deon Long and his supporters.

Further proof of what is really happening can be seen by tracing the lineage of the leadership of OCREC. While Mr. Oliver has been Chairman for many years, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Oliver gained his position after the previously mentioned Jerry Braley gave it too him after HIS years of leadership. We now have a picture of OCREC leadership that is more likened to a kingly coronation being passed from father to son, than a free and open civic body. Oh well, maybe someday the peasants will rise up with pitchforks in hand and cast the baron and his princes into the moat!

Nick Egoroff
OCREC Precinct Committeeman #319

Local Republican Party In Disarray

Last night, we as supporters of Deon Long (embattled opponent of Orange County Republican Executive Committee chairman Lew Oliver) gathered again for a legally called meeting of OCREC. Our venue was the Winter Park Civic Center for which Mr. Long generously donated the rental charges.

Having met the requirements for calling the meeting we proceeded to conduct business at hand. Tops on our list was to reinstate the 19 members that Lew Oliver expelled and barred from voting at the December 2008 OCREC Board election meeting. These disbarred members had met all the requirements mandated for voting status by the Orange County Supervisor of Elections. Yet Lew Oliver knew that should they be ceded their voting rights, they would most likely vote against him continuing as OCREC Chairman. So in order to preserve his chairmanship, Oliver refused to allow them to vote.

What Oliver didn't count on was, even with this underhanded trickery, his chairmanship was still very much in doubt. Final vote tally at the December meeting was 122 for Lew Oliver, 121 for Deon Long. Compounding this was the fact that 2 of the votes cast were 'for none of the above.' According to Roberts Rules of Order this should have prompted a second round of balloting. Oliver would not hear of it, and instead grabbed the proverbial 'crown' and placed it on his own head and called the election over.

We disputed this twisted process for some time by having separate meetings at the Winter Park Civic Center. It now appears that Lew Oliver and the the Republican Party of Florida are going to resort to more strong arm tactics. For the last two special meetings, Robert Richmond (a representative of RPOF) has been barging into our gatherings trying to disrupt them. At last month's meeting Mr. Richmond kept interrupting speakers with claims that we were having an 'illegal' meeting. He appeared again at last night's Winter Park Civic Center for our February meeting, this time toting a video camera.

After following people around before the meeting started, pointing the video camera at our members, I gently asked him to be respectful of our meeting and not to shout out statements while we were conducting business. He rudely told me that he could say anything he wanted and that he was there representing the RPOF. I reminded him that he was welcome to attend (we had sent notices to ALL OCREC members alerting them to this special meeting), but that he had to behave himself. I also reminded him that one of our supporters had tried to video tape the December OCREC meeting but was confronted by Lew Oliver's rented Orlando Police Department Officer and told that taping was not allowed. Richmond snorted "That was a different type of OCREC meeting. I'll tape whatever I want here." I decided that trying to reason with this guy was getting nowhere and that he seemed to enjoy picking fights.

We began our meeting and sure enough Richmond paced the room with his video camera zooming in on various people as they spoke. He then began to shout things and Doug Guetzloe (our parliamentarian and temporary chairman for conducting the meeting) ruled him out of order and 'not recognized' by the chair.

This was followed by more pacing and filming interspersed by loud cell phone calls Richmond would make RIGHT INSIDE OUR MEETING AREA. We all decided to ignore his boorish behavior and continue with our proceedings. Doug Guetzloe scanned the room and announced that we had met quorum requirements. We thereupon reopened the unfinished election of chairman and unanimously voted in Deon Long as our new chairman.

This was met by loud applause from the membership. Both Doug, Deon, Sef, and I all gave enthusiastic speeches about the future of the Orange County Republican Party. The atmosphere was one of celebration and anticipation of things to come. We dismissed and went on our way.

Unfortunately Deon Long stayed behind and tried to engage Mr. Richmond in a discussion on why the higher ups in the Party were hampering the growth of OCREC. Mr. Richmond by all accounts seemed to get more and more aggressive taunting Mr. Long as 'the worst example of a black Republican' and 'thinking that the Party owed him advantages.' Deon was surprised at this vitriolic language. Things got heated up after this and accounts vary on small details but the following events appear to have taken place.

Someone came running out into the parking lot yelling to Doug Guetzloe 'come back inside, the RPOF guy is might do something.' Doug rushed back inside to hear Richmond calling Mr. Long a 'n-----'. Doug and others tried to calm the situation but Richmond started either pushing or jabbing his finger into the chest's of both Guetzloe and Long. He also continued to make threats and racial slurs.

By this time the the Winter Park Civic Center attendant got concerned that a fight might breakout and called the Winter Park Police. Two squad cars appeared and they took statements from Richmond, Long, Guetzloe, and many other witnesses. A trespassing warning was issued and other charges are pending.

In closing this is a very sad commentary on the depths that Lew Oliver and others will stoop to in order to disparage our work. Remember also that Oliver is quoted in a recent Orlando Sentinel article as calling Deon Long and others 'Clowns and Losers'. This was in response to Deon Long having filed a lawsuit against OCREC over the rigged voting at the December OCREC elections.

This kind of childish and antagonistic behavior cannot be tolerated by the Republican Party. I urge everyone to call RPOF headquarters in Tallahassee ( 850.222.7920) and demand the removal of Robert Richmond from any official activities. RPOF Chairman Jim Greer asked for the resignation of another Party official for similar racial statements. If no action is taken we will appeal to our new national Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele (who is also African-American) for a swift and speedy resolution of this matter.

Nick Egoroff
Orange County Republican Executive Committee Member
Precinct Committeeman #319

The Orlando Sentinel newspaper carried the story here: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2009/02/local-orange-gop-sinks-further-into-disarray.html

My Elected Office Is Bigger Than Your Elected Office!

If your email box is anything like mine, you get lots of requests for action. “Write your Senator!” “Help stop government waist!” You follow instructions and then the invariable disappointment. Occasionally a victory, but many more losses: and then the cycle begins again.

I’d like to suggest an alternative. Run for office yourself. I can hear the howls, ‘it costs too much…’ ‘I don’t have the time…’ and so forth. For the most part these are true.

But the name of this site is Science of Freedom, and you expect me to analyze politics to discover deeper meaning. Here’s my latest find.

Municipal elections. Again I can hear the grown, ‘Who cares about garbage collection and sewer treatment.’ But that is just the surface, let’s dig deeper.

First remember that old saying ‘all politics is local.’ Meaning that the bedrock of all organizing is done in smaller groups. These smaller groups should mold together to make larger edifices of political movement.

Running for mayor or city council should be viewed not for the job that you’ll have to do, but rather as your first baby step of building a political organization. You’ll be forced to do more than theorize, and instead concentrate on getting together lists of supporters.

You’ll no doubt think you can do that on any campaign; why waste time on such puny races. No one cares about them therefore they are inconsequential.

Not so grasshopper;-) You are a newbie in politics. You are starting your first days in class thinking you already know it all. Why mess with simple addition when I can just jump to calculus and save lots of time.

Back up. Learn to put two and three people together, give them a task and learn how to build a network. You’ll find that it is much more complicated than it would appear. Things like personality clashes and the true amount of time involved equals lots of mistakes.

Instead set aside your preconceived notions of what these so-called insignificant offices do. Concentrate on what these bureaucrats have accomplished. They’ve set themselves up in a small but powerful position.

Mr. Important Commissioner cannot only give thumbs up or down on a multi-million dollar public works project, he has something else under his thumb. People. He has to become a master at balancing thousands of constituent’s needs.

We would do well to study and practice these simple ‘equations’ of public thought and action BEFORE we decide to take on the sumo wrestlers of the political world.

Fortunately, our opponents in the municipal arena are not so good at their statecraft either. That is to say they make mistakes. Another vulnerability is that they play for relatively small audiences.

I now direct your attention away from the chalkboard towards an abstract building called the Supervisor of Elections office. Each county in the US has one. We’re going to learn some valuable lessons here.

Check out the numbers of voters in municipal races. I have and it is astounding. I live in one of the larger cities in America. It has 6 city commissioners. Most are elected by less then 2000 votes. Wow. To run for congress representing those same people requires 10,000 signatures just to get on the ballot.

How does the Commish accomplish this leverage? Simple, he/they collude to throw us all off balance by having the election on a day when no one is thinking of voting. We think of voting in November; MAYBE a major primary a couple of months earlier. The Commish goes one better. ‘Tell them only a couple of people will be on the ballot and it will happen month’s earlier than any major election. Brilliant.

Two can play this game. Why don’t you and I try our hand at one of these miniature elections? We’ll learn all sorts of useful lessons about keeping track of your supporters. And how much does it cost to run a campaign for 2000 votes. Plus we’ll see if we even have the time to run in the first place.

The most important lesson we will learn is not really a lesson at all. It’s why they say politics is local. When we run for municipal office we step away from theory and begin building long lasting political friendships. Our thoughts and dreams become structures made of telephone numbers and email addresses. If we build them strong and with the right bonds they will last long.

We then decide if we are happy with a one bedroom house (where we started), or a multi-family dwelling (analogous to State House), or if we are really ambitious a luxury 40 story condo on prime real estate (do I have to name the office here??).

So begin with the end in mind. Small regional elections are the point at which you become a serious student. Pay and the work ain’t so glamorous, but boy do they yield rich dividends later in (political) life.

Nick Egoroff
Science of Freedom Director

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/181631?recruiter_id=17938882

License to repost freely given. Just give me the credit and the link;-)