I, along with four others, was charged (Ted Carr’s denial notwithstanding) by the Haywood County Republican Party (HCGOP) with “party disloyalty”. This was done through a resolution passed by HCGOP at a meeting of the HCGOP Executive Committee. Just what is “party disployalty”?
The North Carolina Republican Party’s Plan of Organization states:
2. Party DisloyaltyAny registered Republican attempting to influence or influencing the outcome of any election against a Republican candidate or Republican endorsed by the appropriate Republican Executive Committee or Legislative Caucus, other than by supporting an opposing Republican Candidate in a Republican primary, may be declared ineligible to hold office under the State Plan of Organization at the State, District, and Precinct level for Party disloyalty by 2/3 vote of the State Executive Committee. Charges of Party disloyalty may be brought by petition of 50 members of the State Executive Committee, or by resolution of a County or District Republican Executive Committee. The State Executive Committee may declare a Republican found to have engaged in Party disloyalty as ineligible to serve in any office under the Plan of Organization for a period of time between 6 months and 5 years.”
So, HCGOP wrote up a carefully crafted resolution attempting to avoid the fact that they were charging five people with “party disloyalty”.
Notice that reference is made to exhibits. Those exhibits did not exist at the time the resolution was passed. The HCGOP Executive Committee actually voted to approve a resolution without seeing the evidence. I’m not making this up. Check out the minutes:
Next, HCGOP got NCGOP District 11 Chairman Aubrey Woodard to write up a resolution. This resolution was circulated by mail, also without the exhibits which would have provided evidence.
So, HCGOP’s resolution and District 11’s resolution were sent to NCGOP, and I received the following in the mail:
Note that I received the Notice of Charges without a hint of what the evidence against me might be.
So, I drove four hours to Cary to “stand trial” before the NCGOP Executive Committee on the charge of “party disloyalty”. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the “evidence” against me was:
I posted a picture of a funny t-shirt! No, I am not joking. A black and white version of the image above was the sole piece of evidence presented against me.
Does that qualify as “attempting to influence or influencing the outcome of any election against a Republican candidate”?