Heard on the Tom/Toms
Stephen Frank, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 11/21/24 www.capoliticalnewsandviews.com
CAUTIONARY TALE FOR COUNTY CENTRAL COMMITTEES/CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES
This is a VERY sad story about Ventura County Republican Party. It could happen to you.
The Ventura County Republican Party did not have a voter registration program, no GOTV, no financial support of candidates. They did list, on their website, the candidates they endorsed. The candidates were on their own.
John Anderson, the Jessica Patterson Chair of the County Party did distribute ballot boxes around the county—using the HQ’s of local Republican groups—the VCRP did not have its own HQ.
In Simi Valley, my hometown, Anderson used the CFRW Simi Valley/Moorpark club HQ for the ballot box, to harvest votes. A Patterson type Central Committee member, John Absmeier was in charge of the boxes, taking them to the ROV office, bringing it back and collecting more ballots—then repeating the process. On the weekend before the Nov. 5, he collected the box. A sign was put up saying NO MORE BALLOTS ARE BEING COLLECTED AT THIS SITE.
As per the procedure, Absmeier returned the ballot boxes to the ROV office in the city of Ventura. HE DID THIS ON NOVEMBER 7 (not a typo). The ROV refused to accept the late ballots. His attempt to deliver the ballots on Nov. 7 is on a County security camera.
How many ballots were in the box? The President of the local CFRW told me 33 ballots. Joe Piecowski, the Secretary of the VCRP and ITS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, says there were 73 ballots—all collected at a GOP HQ in Simi Valley. That number is VERY important.
Joe P. was running for the Ventura County Community College Board of Trustees. Over 75,000 votes were cast for this office. As of Tuesday, Nov. 19, Joe was behind by 21 votes. In other words, you have to know all the ballots in the box Absmeier did not return in a timely fashion could be the difference between Joe winning and losing, to a Democrat. Of course, Joe has been part of the Team keeping conservatives out of the VCRP—and not allowing them to participate in the VCRP. Karma?
I have called, several times and emailed John Absmeier for his side of the story, but so far, no comment. If he comments, I will report his statement. In the two weeks since this incident neither VCRP Chair John Anderson nor John Absmeier have issued a statement about what happen OR AN APOLOGY!!
Many of the new VCRP want John Absmeier to immediately resign from the Committee. That would be the right and decent thing to do.
IT GETS WORSE
As mentioned before, John Anderson is the Jessica Patterson Team Chair of the VCRP. In March, after he and EVERY member of his slate, countywide lost, he was still Chair. At the March VCRP meeting, all 19 of the 22 conservatives that won attended the meeting. They all volunteered to help precinct operations, fund raising, voter registration, GOTV and other committees of the VCRP. He informed them they were not needed.
Conservatives had total control of the VCRP or so they thought. They did not know that one of their “Team” was also working with John Anderson. Anderson does not want to lose control or give up control for the Patterson wing. So, he is now supporting Don Brodt for Chair, so Patterson can keep control of the Committee. Brodt is also chair of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association, ask him if he provided after one year in that office, a single fund raiser, ask if he followed the Business Plan or implemented the Business Plan, and much more. Were he to become VCRP chair, along with VCTA chair, he would be signaling that the taxpayers association is part of the Republican Party—since he would be the spokesperson for both.
Do we want county chairs handpicked by the Patterson wing of the Party? Worse, he claimed to be a conservative—what role will Anderson and his do-nothing Team play? Or like the VCTA, Brodt plans the same non action for the VCRP—in other words imitate John Anderson.
Two weeks before the organizational meeting Brodt is using the same “leadership” style he has for the VCTA—no budget, no Political Plan, no new by-laws, no agenda for the organizational meeting. He has had SEVEN months to put that all together, and nothing. In many organizations you would call Brodt a resume builder—and does not care if he has the Anderson/Patterson Team running him for office and in office.
Ventura County taxpayers need an aggressive chair of that organization, without a conflict of interest with a partisan organization.
Ventura County
(Periodically the California Political News and Views will publish tidbits of political news, to keep you in the loop of what the pooh bahs know. The phrase “tom/tom’s” comes from my mentor, Lorelei Kinder who never passed a rumor, just called to tell me what she heard on the “TomTom’s”. This column is named in her honor.)
