WHOA! Did you see that rabid left turn?

[Arizona Freedom Alliance]

We reluctantly reported on the antics of the AZGOP Chairwoman, thinking she might have just been listening to her few supporters (you know, the ones she selected to be Electors to the Electoral College), but alas, we were too kind.

NOTE:  What is claimed here is our opinion.  It is not about the character of anyone, although character certainly counts, but about competence to do the job.  Period!

The Arizona Republican Party is in trouble of its own making.  Sometimes, things spiral out of control due to a bad decision or two.  That seems to be what happened at the January Mandatory meeting where State Committeemen came together to elect new mandatory officers: Chair, Secretary and Treasurer.

While the body had an opportunity to take a turn to the right and elect a different kind of Chairman, they passed on Bob Lettieri.  Lettieri was by far the most competent candidate but he was rejected.  Why?  Perhaps because he's quiet spoken, no-nonsense,  not a cheerleader to rally the troops to get up and dance.  Nonetheless, the current situation is because the body acted by type: they wanted the charismatic cheerleader without looking behind the curtain. 

So, now the party is in a conundrum of a mess.

The picture looks like this:

1.  Incumbent and uber cheerleader, Kelli Ward

2.  Charismatic Sergio Arellano, part and parcel of the McCain stronghold.  Read: pocket buddies with Robert Graham, the most destructive chairman maybe ever, and Jonathan Lines, married theologically to GrahaMccain.

3.  No nonsense Bob Lettieri, the man who was Treasurer, who found the corruption committed by GrahaMccain/Lines in the finances (our opinion from studying the FEC reports), corrected the mess and put the books in legal order.  For his own reasons, he kept quiet about the mis-deeds, even though it is public info.  We found the massive mis-management in 2015 during Graham's first term.

Unsurprisingly, the body split the vote between the two unqualified cheerleaders.  Happens all the time.

Now, no one believes the count was accurately reported.  Some deny that but all indications is that is the situation.  So, we are left with a pretender to the Chairmanship ala Biden or a GrahaMccain chairman.  Two pits of destruction.

If the pretender holds on to the chairmanship, we will see a repeat of 2018 and 2020 in 2022.  What would be different?  If the GrahaMccain becomes chairman, we get more corruption, mismanagement of the finances but this time without the honest treasurer that was Lettieri.  We are not saying the current treasurer would not be as diligent.  It's that we don't know and what's it worth to find out?

Question:  Do you think AZGOP will get support from donors or others under such a cloud?

Question:  Will either of the two be able to raise money to support electing Republicans in 2022?  The Chair represents all 1300 or so state committeemen.  Are they going to work with either of them? Or will it just be those in their separate camps and no one else knows what is going on?

Question:  Is this one reason Republicans are fleeing the Republican party?  There is more than one attempt to form a new party for conservatives in Arizona who have been shafted by the Republican party once too often.  It doesn't matter whether these attempts work.  The point is - they are going to be AWOL in 2022.  Conservative Republicans are 110% fed up!

Question:  There are By-laws that govern AZGOP.  Like the U.S. Constitution, you can't adhere to those you like and ignore those you don't like.  We suspect that the count went to Sergio Arellano but let's face it, Sergio is a lefty McCainite and conservatives do not want to go back to the Graham/Lines days which will happen with Arellano at the helm.  Nonetheless, IF the votes went to him, don't they have to give it to him?  Chaos reigns when we pick and choose which rules we follow and which we don't.  Don't like the rules?  AZGOP and Ward had two years to modify the Bylaws, but didn't. 

So, when did that whip-lash left turn by Ward happen?  Recently?  Or was it always there? 

The message below is the latest attempt to skate out from under the cloud of suspicion.  It reads like a dem justification for bad behavior.  There is little real truth, as we see it, in the entire message below - which by the way, we posted just enough for you to get the attitude.

NOTE:  Ward is capitalizing on Trump's "endorsement."  Bulletin: Trump would have endorsed an orange if it had come from a Republican's garden.  Those endorsements are part of the game.  We ASSURE you he did not vet her - he let the state committeemen do that.  Did he vet either of the other candidates?  Of course not! He could not pick her out of a crowd today, chances are.  So get over that idea!   

We are not interested in one GOP chairman out of 50.  We are interested in performance and we must have it in 2022.  Ward did not fully work with BoS to staff all Observer slots from the day the first early ballot hit a mail box.  When the few that were on the job were being pushed back out of range to see, did she intervene?  Would Arellano be any better?

Here is the beginning of her latest message. from AZGOP on this topic.  This is a bad attitude for a leader of a major political party:

NOTE: "intent in overturning the elections results..." shows a guilty conscience.  In our view, it's intent to clarify the results.  Big difference.

We would put our reputation on those who legitimately gathered the signatures and lawyers have already thoroughly debunked all of these allegations as false. 

NOW THIS IS THE REST OF THIS STORY:  If there is a runoff between just Ward and Arellano, there is little upside to having the meeting because Arellano is deep in the pocket of the Graham/Lines/McCain camp.  If Ward stole the election, how is that different from the democrats?

AZGOP is in big trouble and may well be dead beyond redemption.

[Karen Gevaert]

If this is all true, maybe a conservative party should be considered!!

[Patricia Gillenwater]

Gosh conservatives have a knack for destroying themselves. Now I was present at the  state meeting and I  heard NO call for a vote count that would have bypassed printed ballots and vote counting machine. That happened the previous state meeting to elect a  Chair much to the objection of the then  Chair. 

I witnessed no improprieties.

[RR Parson]

Exactly; I rest my case.

[Jaspersgoat]

Why can't republicans get along? It's not just things like this it is also too much tribalism between the establishment and conservatives.  I think this entire thing has been screwed up from the beginning and now it's going to be a miracle to get it straightened out.

Let me just say this: unless you were in the tabulation room for the count and re-vote you don't know what happened so to take a stand is irresponsible. Let the votes be counted correctly or re-vote for all candidates.  After this, the committeemen may not want either of them but could jump to the third guy.  I don't.

[Patricia Gillenwater]

I reject your accusation of irresponsibility. So what this is about is the "third guy" get him at all cost. I carefully looked at Lettieri concluded that he just was not an exciting candidate for Chair. Yes "exciting" must be in ones DNA  to actually rise $$'s and speak to people while looking them in the eyes.

Kelli has made blunders -- Given the slate for Chair I voted for her on the 2nd ballot. No NOT sorry. Was I and others irresponsible NO. Is it irresponsible to now be trying to burn the house down? Yes.

[Mike Bertocchi]

What is it about the AZGOP?  Can't we get along even when we get what we said we wanted.  We needed to rid our party of the McCain people but in doing so we ended up with someone no one has confidence in to raise funds and have party unity.  We still have McCain  people hanging around like vultures waiting to feast upon the carcass of the republicans.  Is it no wonder now that we are getting some new blood in the party and starting to grow the conservative branch, you hear from the new people if we are always at each others throat.

[Patricia Gillenwater]

I have always believed and stated many times to change the GOP's, state and county,  the grassroots PC's are the key by recruiting dedicated constitutional conservatives to overwhelm the RINO's. Not useful to hide as a registered independent,

Swing the pendulant right as if the republic's very life depends on it, for it does.

[Pat J]

(thumbs up, Mike)

[Pat J]

well you just made the case for voting for the wrong person.  My friend knows Bob well and he's a very very successful fundraiser without the rah rah BS.  I expect he's looked in the eyes of all those he approaches.  And a very successful business executive.  Exciting is not part of the DNA needed to be good at what he's good at.  I reject your idea that following the rules is "burning the house down."   That is different from what the dems are doing how?  All I see is there is a mess made by KW for badly handling this situation.  For me, raising the money to election GOOD republicans is pretty "exciting."  You clearly can't see the difference from electing competent people instead of cheerleaders and if it takes a third or fourth person, so what.

[Patricia Gillenwater]

Pat  J. Have you become a PC? Just asking, I just simply do not get why there was no one, not one that I ran across who were out and about promoting their candidate.

I did want a Chair who is both exciting and can raise $$'s. I wanted a Chair that likes to win. I had no idea if  Lettieri was a Trump supporter nor if he was America First guy.