Russian Roulette Pt 6 – Chester County Chair Honors His Word and PA Patriot Coalition Sends Another Letter to Chairman Tabas

Over the past three weeks, I wrote a total of five article, which are all linked in the first paragraph of the most recent article – Russian Roulette Pt 5 – An Infiltrated and Divided Party, The Puppet Masters Of The PA GOP Press The Nuclear Button – regarding numerous PA county GOPs that have been investigating committeemembers, holding hearings, and removing duly elected committeemembers simply because those committeemembers supported unendorsed Republican candidates or refused to support an endorsed candidate. Even though these committeemembers are the unpaid workhorses of the Party every election cycle, a number of county GOPs see them as a threat because they didn’t rollover and just support whomever the puppet masters decided would be the anointed…err…endorsed one.

After publishing the original version of my first article – Russian Roulette – The Death Of The PA Republican Party By Its Own Hand – Chester County Chair Raffi Terzian reached out, explained that pursuant to the Chester County Bylaws, anytime a complaint is lodged, there is a requirement for an investigation to occur, and that all that was occurring was that investigation with no intention to remove any members. As the original version of my article was not sufficiently clear in this regard, I revised it, consistent with Chair Terzian’s request, to reflect that “in Chester investigative hearings of four comitteepersons are being scheduled based on complaints received regarding the omission of a local endorsed county Republican candidate.” Since that time, Chair Terzian and I have had a couple of cordial discussions regarding the investigations and each time he emphasized that there was no intent to remove any of the committeepersons.

Early this morning, I heard that after the investigatory hearings scheduled for yesterday, Chair Terzian stated that no comitteepersons would be removed. As such, I reached out to confirm directly with him that such was the case and he graciously responded that it indeed was true, but that he was disappointed that there was “still misinformation swirling out there” and would appreciate my help in setting the record straight in relation to Chester County. And I feel that is only right, as the truth is what truly what matters.

In that vein, I believe it only fair and appropriate to relay exactly what Chair Terzian relayed to me:

This was never about purging people from the Committee….this issue primarily concerned the omission of ovals on a sample ballot for local county endorsed candidates AND that Committee people were provided sample ballots. The issue is misrepresentation of who we actually endorsed.

And being fair to all involved, I understand from the committeepersons involved that the sample ballots they handed out specifically identified that they were paid for by that individual (i.e. not the Chester County Republican Committee (“CCRC”)), that they were merely acting in their private capacity and exercising their First Amendment rights, that at no point did they suggest to anyone that they were acting on behalf of the CCRC, and that at the time they provided their ballot cards, the CCRC had not yet provided ballot cards. This last point seems to be the point in greatest dispute between the CCRC and the four committeepersons, as Chair Terzian told me that that the sample ballots were made available on the CCRC website months in advance of the primary; however, even if true, I question whether a committeeperson loses his/her own First Amendment rights to be supportive of their own candidates in the primary, provided they do not, in any way, shape, or form contend that such is representative of the county/state GOP, when it is not.

Regardless, I feel it important to acknowledge that Chair Terzian honored his word to me and that while he may have some heartburn over what occurred with these committeepersons, he recognized – unlike others – that we need to unify in advance of the November election. For that, he should be praised.

And related to unifying the Party, Sam Faddis, on behalf of the PA Patriot Coalition, has sent a second letter to Chairman Tabas. As our readers likely remember, I wrote about PA Patriot Coalition’s first letter in my article – Russian Roulette Pt 2 – A Coalition of Patriot Groups Takes Action While County GOPs Put 5 Rounds in the Revolver And Begin To Pull The Trigger.

As the letter lays out, while “[t]here is already a significant amount of talk across the state about in some fashion boycotting these elections and allowing the Democratic Party to win…out of sheer frustration,” neither Faddis nor PA Patriot Coalition “support the idea of boycotting the elections and…are, in fact, doing everything possible to ensure people remain involved.” Faddis, again, calls upon Chairman Tabas “to direct county GOP committees statewide to stop disciplining members who support non-endorsed candidates… [and to] advise those county committees that have already removed members that you want them to immediately reinstate those individuals,” as that will assist in unifying our Party. Let’s all take a moment to pray that Chairman Tabas carries through on that request and takes this opportunity to unite our Party, so that we can be victorious in November.