Guillotine Falls On Trump Conservative Members Of The Republican Party Of Arkansas....Plea for help from Governor Ignored
Yesterday morning the Republican Party of Arkansas Executive Committee voted to remove its 2nd District and State Convention Chair Jennifer Lancaster from the Party.
In that same meeting, they also voted 16 to 9 to dissolve the Saline County Republican Committee and by doing so removed, according to rolls, 204 people from the Party of which 22 hold elected office.
While the two are somewhat connected we are looking at two separate stories…one on Lancaster and one on the SCRC….This story will focus on the latter with one to follow on Lancaster.
On September 9th a complaint was filed with State Party Chair Joseph Wood by SCRC member Clint Lancaster against eight members of the SCRC. There was no complaint filed against any other SCRC member or the Committee as a whole.
Despite that, Rules Review Committee member Belinda Harris-Ritter put forth a recommendation to the State Executive Committee to dissolve the SCRC as a whole. Arkansas 1st published my article detailing the facts surrounding the recommendation on Sunday. Here’s the link –
https://arkansasfirst.substack.com/p/documents-reveal-plan-to-remove-over
The RPA State Executive Committee meeting to hear the complaint was held yesterday at 10am by Zoom. As announced and planned at 9:30am dozens of RPA members from at least five different counties filled the hallways in front Governor Sanders office at the State Capitol with signs asking for her help.
Two SCRC members, Randy Sams and Kandi Cox, acted as representatives for the group and entered the Governor’s Office asking for her or a representative to come into the hallway and meet with the group.
While the Governor’s staff was cordial with Sams and Cox, they received little more than lip service and it became crystal clear that despite their pleas for help, Governor Sanders had no intention of giving any.
By mid-day the word came that the Executive Committee voted to dissolve the SCRC leaving dozens at the Capitol in disbelief yet unbroken and resolved to continue their mission of Conservatism.
RPA State Chair Joseph Wood provided KATV’s Daniela Dehaghani, who covered the event at the Capitol, a statement saying in regard to the SCRC the Executive Committee adopted the recommendation of the Rules Review Committee and Clint Lancaster, who filed the complaint.
Now if you are thinking to yourself that statement makes no sense, well it’s because it doesn’t….In fact it’s not true….Stay with me I’ll explain.
As the day went on, I was able to obtain what took place in the executive committee meeting. Committee member Ritter presented the case against the eight members John Newcomb, Frank Curtis, Scott Gray, Allison Gray, Angela Gray, Rene Almond, Thomas Harper and Stephanie Johnson.
Ritter read word for word from the recommendation she filed which is included in my article from Sunday….Not once did she in the written recommendation or during the meeting make a case for the entire SCRC to be dissolved….For those eight yes….For the entire committee nothing.
As complainant Clint Lancaster was given 5 minutes to speak, he wasn’t able to spend much of his time to bolster the case against the eight that the complaint was against because he spent most of his allotted time explaining why the SCRC should not be dissolved. Something, despite Chairman Wood’s false claims to Dehaghani, Lancaster never asked for.
He brought up the fact that the SCRC had not been provided due process or even any notice that they were suddenly going to be removed.
He then stated the fact that the County Board of Election Commissioners are by statute voted into office by the Republican and Democratic County committees of which the SCRC holds the majority. By dissolving the SCRC the RPA is handing over the entire Saline County Election Commission and all elections in that County to the Democrats….How is that in the interest of the RPA ?
One Executive Committee member Steve Smith stepped in and brought up the same fact as Lancaster….that the complaint was against those eight listed and not the entire SCRC. He stated dissolving them would send a bad message throughout the State to other County Committees….Who can argue that’s an understatement ?
At the end of the day, 16 executive committee members followed Ritter and without a complaint, investigation, evidence or allowing the SCRC to speak in defense of themselves, gave the Democratic Party something to celebrate by dissolving the SCRC and never giving a reason why.
In her interview with Dehaghani, Jennifer Lancaster stated the executive committee used the complaint as an excuse to dissolve the SCRC in a retaliatory action for their strong support of what was voted in at the State Convention.
She went on to praise the SCRC for being the strongest conservative voice in the State….Something Wood, Ritter and the RPA establishment have made clear they have no tolerance for.
In an interview with Dehaghani, one lady stated that the RPA is trying to silence every voice that’s articulate and powerful. That they are making the statement – You be quiet or we will shut you down.
That statement did not seem to faze any of the dozens gathered at the Capitol….The actions taken only seemed to inspire and embolden them as they vowed to march forward as true conservatives in defiance of the RPA establishment while they in President Trump fashion shouted Fight ! Fight ! Fight !
Much more to come in this story.
#FactsNotFiction
Is this the Establishment deleting a conservative agenda? 😡
This is just so wrong.........