Members and Friends of the Republican Professionals Network, It is my sad duty to report to all of you of the travesty that occurred at the 2nd Congressional District Republican Convention on Saturday. I must apologize in advance for the length of this analysis; however, there is much to cover.
You probably have already heard, at the least for the moment, that Frank Wagner was cheated out of the Chairmanship of the 2nd District Republican Party on Saturday. This will be appealed to the Republican Party of Virginia. I want to give you a chronological order of events in order for all of this to make sense.
As you remember, Frank wanted to challenge the incumbent 2nd District Party leadership due to their inactivity and poor decisions. The embattled, incumbent chairman, Gary Byler, then decided not to run and instead asked his then 1st Vice Chairman, Curtis Colgate, to run for Chairman. The stage was set and the shenanigans, lies and eventual cheating was about to begin.
The 2nd Congressional District is comprised of 6 municipalities – Accomack and Northampton counties, parts of Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and all of Virginia Beach. Knowing that Frank was capable of bringing out large numbers of activists and supporters in Virginia Beach & Norfolk, Gary Byler decided to move the location of the Convention to the 3rd Congressional District part of Hampton in order to make things difficult (with the provision that he could change the location again at any time). Virginia Beach alone comprises 63% of the vote for the whole district. If you win the support of the Republicans in Virginia Beach, then you can conceivably win the whole district. This is why winning the Virginia Beach Mass Meeting was so important.
Now, in order to participate in the 2nd District Convention to vote for Chairman, you had to be ELECTED as a Delegate from your respective municipality. The reason for the elections are to give the Republicans in their respective municipality the opportunity to select their representatives to the Convention as well as to weed out any non-Republicans – such as Democrats, Libertarians or people who have done harm to the Republican Party. In Virginia Beach, over 1000 people applied to be a delegate to the District Convention; however, a significant number of those who applied were not Republican. Now, add in the fact that Gary Byler could move the location of the District Convention at any time; and it was decided by the Wagner Team to legally propose a slate of delegates to represent the Virginia Beach Republican Party and elect Frank Wagner as Chairman.
Now we fast forward to the March 10th Virginia Beach Mass Meeting. 647 Republicans VOTED to send Frank Wagner’s delegation to Hampton. Only 305 voted against. Folks, when we have an election for any type of office and we win by just 10% we call that a landslide. In this case, Frank won 68% to 32%. This was not even close, it was beyond a landslide! Curtis Colgate and Gary Byler knew this and were in trouble unless they could find a way to invalidate the will of the Virginia Beach Republican Party and steal the 2nd District Convention. And steal is exactly what they did.
Curtis Colgate’s cronies filed an appeal with the 2nd District Republican Party claiming that ballots were stuffed and there were no vote on the Rules (even though nearly 1000 people witnessed the vote). Gary Byler then put together a secret “appeals committee” / kangaroo court to hear the appeal. It was no surprise when Gary’s cronies voted to accept the bogus appeal. Then Gary appointed a Convention Credentials Committee (with not ONE member from Va.Beach) who decided to invalidate the Virginia Beach Mass Meeting. Now the unbelievable part begins.
On Tuesday, April 22nd, Gary convenes a meeting of the 2nd District Republican Committee to decide the appeal. Instead of holding a vote on the appeal, he claims the appeal had to be refiled and decided to “recess” the meeting until 11:00am, Saturday, April 26th (the day of the 2nd District Convention). Instead, Gary allowed some limited discussion on the matter. It was heated and Gary ignored the concerns of some of the Committee Members. After the meeting recessed, Gary, illegally, fired the Secretary of the District Committee (who is a voting member) because she decided to side with the Virginia Beach Chairman.
On Saturday, April 26th, at 11:00am, the District Committee reconvenes in Hampton. The vote on the floor was to uphold the appeal and which would then give the Convention Credentials Committee the power to invalidate the Virginia Beach Mass Meeting Delegate vote. Gary then continued with his power purge to sway the vote in his and Curtis’s favor. Gary appointed (illegally) a new Secretary, (-1 vote), then he refused to recognize the legally and authorized College Republican representative (-1 vote) despite having rulings from the Legal Counsel of the Republican Party of Virginia stating he could not fire the Secretary. These two votes had decided to reject the bogus appeal in favor of Virginia Beach's legally elected Delegates. After Gary’s illegal tampering with the composition of voting members, the District Committee upheld the Appeals Committee by a vote of 8-7. Gary’s illegal tampering manipulated the outcome of the vote. That alone will be appealed and reversed by the State Party. By the way, Curtis Colgate should have recused himself from the vote; however, instead he gave his proxy to one of his supporters who voted against Virginia Beach (surprise surprise).
Now, let’s assume there was merit with the trumped up claims. What are the remedies to be offered? There are only two legal remedies the District Committee could have offered: 1. Allow the original ELECTED Virginia Beach Delegates to vote or 2. Disqualify all of Virginia Beach. With both scenario’s, Frank would have won the Convention hands down. So Gary and Curtis concocted an illegal third option – to allow everyone who “APPLIED” to be a delegate from Virginia Beach to vote in the Convention. This was totally, 100% illegal! These applicants were NEVER elected by the Virginia Beach Mass Meeting on March 10th! This decision was “officially” made at the Saturday District Committee; however, coincidently, Gary had name tags (days ahead of time) for all of the Virginia Beach “applicants”.
Curtis also knew all of these shenanigans were going to occur. Ever since the he lost the March 10th Mass Meeting, he had ramped up his campaign to focus on bussing the “non-elected” Virginia Beach applicants to Hampton. Frank Wagner’s campaign on the other hand focused on the legitimate elected delegates (as he should). At Saturday’s convention, Curtis had bussed 130 “non-elected” Virginia Beach applicants. Frank had 26 of the 32 legally Elected Virginia Beach delegates in attendance. Frank’s team, sensing the cheating that was about to occur, decided to bring out some of their own “applicants”. With only 2 days’ notice, Frank was able to get another 40 Virginia Beach “applicants” to attend the Convention, in case they were illegally allowed to vote (which was the case). Unfortunately, it was not enough.
Curtis’s whole argument was the Virginia Beach Mass Meeting “disenfranchised all of the applicants; however, after a 6 week campaign, all Curtis could round up of his so called 1000 disenfranchised applicants were just 130 (and he paid for busses). Frank, in the mean time in less than 2 days was able to get out 66 Virginia Beach applicants (of which 26 were legally elected delegates). Had he decided to cheat like Curtis and Gary, Frank easily could have brought out an additional 300 people. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Frank decided to follow the rules.
At the end of the day, Curtis Colgate is full of hot air. Curtis claimed that he had a 1000 people who were disenfranchised; however, all he could bring out to the Mass Meeting were 300 people and at the Convention the numbers dropped to just 130. At the Mass Meeting 647 Wagner supporters ELECTED representatives to attend the Convention. Unfortunately, Gary Byler, Curtis Colgate, cheated and ignored the will of the Virginia Beach Republican Party. This Cheating will not stand! This will be appealed and it will be overturned.
My next email (within the next couple of days) will give you a sense of the Convention and the other travesties that occurred. Stay tuned.
Thanks for all that you do for our Republican Party!
- Bruce Meyer - Chairman of the Republican Professionals Network
The Republican Professionals Network (RPN) is an organization of Business and Occupational Professionals who are Republican. In addition to being a Political Action Committee, the Republican Professionals Network also serves as a Networking Organization. The RPN was founded in 1997 by its Chairman, Bruce Meyer and holds a Dinner Meeting with a special guest speaker the third Monday of each month at the City Club located in the Virginia Beach Town Center. The RPN Board of Directors are the governing body of the Republican Professionals Network.
# # #
|