Sore Losers

And the GOP purges continue, this time in the Alaska GOP.

Yesterday, after reviewing a list of trumped up "charges" against duly-elected incoming Chairman Russ Millette, the ARP Executive Committee voted to remove Millette, pending a review by the State Central Committee.

Dave Nelle of the Republican Liberty Caucus reports:

During the lame duck tenure of the outgoing State Executive Committee, party insiders raised various charges against Millette and his Vice Chair Debbie Brown, which observers categorized as "trivial" and "irrelevant," amounting to little more than vague financial questions and accusations of not being enough of a party loyalist. No actual rule violations of any substance were raised.

A plan was put forward to hold a hearing on the charges at the installation meeting of the Executive Committee on February 1st.  Then, to the surprise of party members who described the action as "a sham" and "a witch hunt," the hearing was moved forward a day so that the new committee members would not yet be seated or have a vote on the accusations.

Even more troubling to many party members was the notification right before the meeting that outgoing Chairman Randy Ruederich had cleaned out the party treasury of $35,000 and transferred the money to a bank in Juneau out of control of the Executive Committee, a classic "rule or ruin" tactic designed to make sure that if the new leadership takes over they will have no money to fund party operations.

This news comes not two weeks after Wisconsin C4L state coordinator Todd Welch was denied membership in his county GOP.

While Reince Priebus has recently made overtures towards the liberty movement, particularly following his reelection as RNC Chairman, it's time for action to back up the rhetoric.

The RNC should weigh in and put an end to these sorts of shenanigans. They ought to urge the Alaska State Central Committee to do the right thing and seat the duly-elected Chair Russ Millette at their February 9th meeting, and send a notice to state parties across the country to stop the party purges and respect the will of the voters.