Boone County Republicans’ controversial budget earmark causes party debate
A move by the Boone County Republicans at a special meeting last week has some party members questioning the leadership’s decision-making, transparency and commitment to party unity.
Based on testimonies from attendees to the meeting, Boone County Republican Committee Chair Chet Hand, who also serves as a Boone County Commissioner, made a motion to earmark about $45,000 (LINK nky was not able to confirm the exact figure) of the local party’s $50,000 operating budget to marketing for primary candidates, a move that, although not necessarily prohibited, is highly unusual and has drawn criticism from certain wings within the party.
The motion passed by a wide majority, 21 to 2, and has prompted one Hebron Republican, John Fredrick, to appeal the decision to party higher-ups.
“I consider myself aggrieved by this process and as a Republican voter in Boone County, I am appalled by the actions of the Chair,” Frederick wrote in his appeal letter. “I am asking the 4th District to consider these actions. Furthermore, the purpose of the meeting was to allow the money to be withdrawn. However, because it was a special called meeting no other action could be taken. Therefore, no action was taken to determine who would be the beneficiary of the funds. I do not believe it to be appropriate for the Chairman to have unilateral control over where those funds are disseminated.”
The actions at Monday’s meeting are emblematic of a factional split within the Kentucky Republican party between the organization’s more libertarian, culturally conservative wing and the Reaganite, neoconservative old-guard. Hand, along with figures like Kentucky Rep. Steve Doan (R-Erlanger), Kentucky Rep. Marianne Proctor (R-Union) and Kentucky Rep. Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington), typify the former faction, which is often referred to as the Liberty wing of Kentucky Republicans.
The move was controversial in that county parties tend to take a hands-off approach to primaries because it can cause rifts in party operations down the line; losers of primary elections will probably still have to work with the winners in the future.
Yet, Hand endorsed TJ Roberts, a candidate for Kentucky House District 66 who was recently accused of making anti-Semitic remarks, a charge he denies, and other Boone County candidates earlier in April. For Frederick and others, the move seemed to indicate that the local party was throwing its weight–and money–behind a certain set of candidates.
“I asked him first if he felt that endorsing the candidate earlier in the day–and then coming in pulling a special meeting for that night to take most of the funds out of the coffer–if he felt that that was a conflict of interest, and he said, ‘not at all,'” Fredrick told LINK nky.
Chris Pavese, Proctor’s primary opponent, also attended the meeting and corroborated much of Fredrick’s account. He added that Hand had earmarked the money with an eye to weeding out RINOs, a common acronym used by Hand’s faction that stands for Republican In Name Only.
“He’s asking the Boone County Republican GOP to help him in stopping the infiltration… of the Democrats in the Republican Party,” Pavese said.
For Pavese and Frederick — in addition to sources who wished to remain on background — the budgetary change is but one move that signaled an unwillingness to be transparent. Pavese, and other sources, confirmed that a reporter from Local 12 WKRC-TV, James Pilcher, had attempted to sit on the meeting but was made to leave. Local 12 confirmed with LINK nky that Pilcher was not allowed to observe the meeting, although Pilcher himself was not immediately free to comment.
Frederick’s letter also states that Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore had asked to table the motion for fear that it might open the party up to legal trouble.
“That request was denied,” Fredrick’s letter reads. “Mr. Hand said action needed to be taken right away.”
“They have gone rogue,” said Ed Massey, who formerly served as Kentucky representative for House district 66 and who’s running against Roberts in the primary.
Massey did not attend the meeting but said it tracked with behavior that Hand and his allies have exhibited before. According to Massey, they’ve even gone as far as to refuse to circulate information to voters about candidates they didn’t like, namely Duane Froelicher, who’s running for Kentucky Senate district 11 against Rawlings, Pavese and himself.
Moreover, Massey argued, the party’s funding comes from contributions from a variety of sources, and in his view it was unfair to shunt the money to particular candidates over others.
“Many people have contributed to that fund,” Massey said.
Roberts did not attend the meeting either, so he could not speak to the specifics of what occurred. Furthermore, he challenged the idea that the move might undermine party unity.
“When you look at the way that Boone County’s Republican Party overwhelmingly conducts itself, it is practically in unison, so long as the principles of the party are being upheld,” Roberts said.
Additionally, he said that many of the criticisms of the Liberty Republicans, both within the party and without, stemmed not from a principled conservative stance but rather as a means of squirreling left-wing agendas into Kentucky politics.
“We can see who is working against myself, Rawlings and Proctor, frankly, it’s the uni-party,” Roberts said. “It is the most far left-wing organizations that have lobbied to keep gender mutilation legal, that have lobbied against parents’ rights. I think it’s largely coming from those who believe that government should be supreme over faith and family.”
When asked if the motion on Monday might cause problems for disseminating funds or other party operations down the line, he said, “I can’t control what they are doing. I’m only one vote in the county party, and I wasn’t even at this meeting.”
He reiterated that he couldn’t speak to the specific events of the meeting, concluding by saying, “I’m gonna let the Boone County Republican Party do what they do.”
In an email statement, Hand said the following:
“The Boone County Republican Party Committee (BCRP) exists specifically to elect conservative Republicans to office. In accordance with the [Kentucky Revised Statute] and [Kentucky Registry of Election Finance] regulations, our funds are raised and spent on this effort. The strategies employed by the BCRP are not public, nor are they subject to public enquiry. The amount of money raised and how the monies are spent are public record and can be found on our approved reports on the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance website.”
LINK nky has reached out to 4th Congressional District Republican Chairman Jon Park for comment.
Posted on 22 Apr 2024, 06:33 - Category: News
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