Rebuttal to Article "Local, State GOP at Odds Over Censure"
To the Good People of Person County,
I cannot agree more with Trump’s assertion that the news media is fake news! Anyone still trusting that you are getting real news from a television station, radio or newspaper is perhaps very naïve.
Regarding the Courier Times 10/23 article entitled Local, State GOP at Odds Over Censures that included my comments, it is time to set the record straight.
Simply put, the article was misleading, especially when claiming “that sanction was overturned earlier this month by the state party” referring to the PCGOP’s censuring of two county officials. Below, I state the truth in response to the newspaper’s false assertions.
1) The PCGOP censured Wilborn and McFarland in early June due to their false statements in a 44-page complaint they took forward to the NCGOP Credentials Committee regarding our March 1st annual county party convention. The NCGOP Credentials Committee TOOK THEM AT THEIR WORD regarding the PCGOP convention since the evidence package I provided was held back from the members. That committee allowed the two to be placed as alternate delegates to NCGOP convention held in early June. But, delegates should never be seated after a GOP convention so the NCGOP failed us in allowing their committee to do so.
2) The PCGOP Executive Committee reviewed the details in the complaint and compared those claims to the 5-hour video record of the event. Since Wilborn’s complaint to the NCGOP was wrot with blatant falsehoods, the PCGOP ExComm voted unanimously to censure both as these are actions against the county GOP and their own party.
3) Notable is the fact that Mr. Snow would not print the PRESS RELEASE which I sent on June 4th to announce their censure. The paper suppressed the negative news about the officials. Why?
4) Also relevant, the two officials never bothered to appeal the PCGOP’s ExComm decision (our Plan of Organization allows for a 14-day period of appeal). Also, neither individual ever made an appeal to the District13 GOP either.
5) But, Ms. Wilborn and McFarland decided to appeal to only the state NCGOP instead. Apparently, the appeal involved insisting on having the NCGOP Arbitration Committee review the validity of the PCGOP Convention. So, in late June, I received a “request for arbitration” message from NCGOP.
Thereafter, the NCGOP communications expanded scope of the hearing to include “THE CENSURE OF TWO INDIVIDUALS” but failed to provide any complaint beyond the 9-page excerpt of their original 44-page complaint centered entirely on PCGOP actions up to and during the March 1st convention. Logically, I never prepared a defense against a complaint of ‘censuring individuals’ at all, besides complainant names had also been redacted.
6) On August 25th, the NCGOP arbitration hearing was conducted and I defended the PCGOP Convention actions against the specified details laid out in the 9-page complaint. In fact, no information was ever provided to me regarding any 'censure' concern. We only had to listen to Ms. Wilborn whine about having been censured during the hearing itself.
So, to be clear, I did not make an argument at all to defend the PCGOP ExComm actions of 'censuring the two individuals' since there was 1) no written complaint on that matter was ever provided to us for which to prepare a defense for and 2) I understood the state GOP has no actual jurisdictional oversight of such local matters so the point is just moot.
7) So, the PCGOP Censure of Wilborn and McFarland still stands despite the NCGOP Arbitration Committee’s release of an opinion. Why? Because the NCGOP Arbitration Committee weighed in with an opinion ruling overstepping their bounds. The NCGOP has never really weighed-in to assert themselves in such local, county-level matters until Ms. Wilborn pushed them to. They has upset their conservative base across the state.
8) It is clear, in my opinion, that the NCGOP is regretting their unprecedented behavior to weigh-in on a local censure at this time. You see, county GOPs across the state commonly censure local, state and federal officials at will. County GOPs develop formal Resolutions to articulate their positions against officials whose behavior deviates from the Republican platform. Those Resolutions are then voted on at district and state party level.
9) Is there truth to the idea that Person County GOP is “AT ODDS” with the NCGOP as the CT implies? NOT REALLY. But, it is fair to say that the PCGOP are feeling very targeted by those in the ‘special club’ and have ‘connections and sway’ at the state level.
10) Make no mistake, the PCGOP are not taking up a victim position at all, despite the attacks from the ‘special club’ locally and beyond. Rather, we are honored to take a stand for what is right and do good instead. In my observation, the PCGOP seems to be the only organization in this county that hold ourselves accountable for calling out lies, fraud and abuse by our officials when they do wrong. Fellow God-fearing conservatives, we invite you to stand with us as it takes an army and your help is very much needed.
Please see the separate news item GOP District 13 Chair Statement Regarding NCGOP to read a statement I received from our GOP District 13 Chair (Roger Farina) concerning the NCGOP’s opinion-ruling on the censuring of Wilborn and McFarland. It’s quite enlightening how others outside the Person county perceive what has occurred!
Kathy Lawrence
PCGOP Chairwoman