Nevada Republican dysfunction, Part CCCXXXII: Southern GOP wants Northern GOP ousted

Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012 | 9:34 a.m.

So this is what Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald meant by party unity.

In a news release (sent about 1 AM!) stunning for both its civil-war message and its very existence, the Clark County Republican Party declared its intent to boot the Washoe County GOP from the state organization, as well as demanding Chairman Dave Buell's resignation, because of the northern group's move to become its own federal PAC.

McDonald can distance himself from this move all he wants, but he requested this opinion at the direction of his executive board folks, as I previously reported. And as you can see from the release below, the state party executive board already voted "to take whatever actions necessary to protect the NRP from the WCRP's actions."

The release was sent by Carl Bunce, who ran the Ron Paul campaign in Nevada and is now the county party's vice-chair, for Cindy Lake, the chairwoman of the Clark County Republican Party and a dedicated Paul person. This comes a few weeks after the Republican National Committee let loose $166,000 to McDonald's organization for voter registration -- and one day after I reported that the Democrats have now extended their registration edge to 50,000 voters.

So the Paul divisions still exists. But not to worry: This is only about Washoe County, which may be THE swing county in THE swing state. No big deal.

The conclusion from this nonsense is inescapable: The Republican apparatus in Nevada is a total mess -- still -- and the shadow GOP, a k a Team Nevada -- has its work cut out in trying to win the state for Mitt Romney. How this affects the overall effort, including the U.S. Senate race -- is unclear. But don't forget: The National Republican Senatorial Committee was part of the effort to have the northern GOP become a federal PAC because Buell is trusted while McDonald and Lake assuredly are not by the national folks.

I bet Reince Priebus regrets sending that $166,000 check....

Here's the release:

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Clark County Republican Party Seeks Disaffiliation of the Washoe County Republican Party from the Nevada Republican Party

At its August 7, 2012 meeting, the Executive Board of the Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) voted to call upon the Executive Committee of the Nevada Republican Party (NRP) to disaffiliate the Washoe County Republican Party (WCRP) from the state party. This call was expressed on August 11th by a letter sent from CCRP Chairman Cindy Lake to members of the NRP Executive Committee informing them of the CCRP Executive Board's resolution.

In late June, the WCRP, led by Chairman Dave Buell, filed with the Federal Election Commission and claimed to be unaffiliated with the NRP; despite this, the WCRP simultaneously continues to retain direct influence over the NRP. Under NRP Bylaws, the Washoe affiliate of the state party is granted significant control over NRP operations and finances. The WCRP chairman sits ex officio on the NRP Executive Committee, and it has the second-largest county delegation to the Nevada Republican Central Committee (the governing body of the NRP).

The CCRP Executive Board finds it impermissible that the WCRP be allowed to remain a part of the NRP after they have declared themselves unaffiliated with the NRP and are competing for federal donors and influence against the state party. Not only does such a situation strike at the core structure of the Republican Party; it also puts the NRP (and, by extension, all of its county affiliates) in danger of receiving FEC complaints for appearing to "coordinate" with the WCRP's federal activities.

The Nevada Republican Central Committee previously voted at its biannual meeting on July 21st to empower the NRP Executive Committee to take whatever actions necessary to protect the NRP from the WCRP's actions. For all of the aforementioned reasons, the CCRP Executive Board has called on the NRP Executive Committee to use the authority granted by the State Central Committee and completely separate the NRP from the WCRP via disaffiliation, thus eliminating the ability of the WCRP to affect NRP business and, consequently, eliminate the potential of "coordination" complaints to the FEC.

The CCRP Executive Board has also called upon Chairman Buell to immediately resign as WCRP Chairman for his actions that have endangered the Nevada Republican Party and all of its county affiliates.

The CCRP sympathizes with those Republicans in Washoe County who have been caught in this situation by the decrees of autocratic party leadership, and hopes that if the WCRP is disaffiliated from the NRP, those Republicans in Washoe who truly seek to elect conservatives will help to rebuild and form what can become a new, efficient NRP affiliate in Washoe County.