And so it goes … right down the drain
The sane among us have seen it coming for awhile, and now it’s here. On Saturday, the death knell of the GAGOP sounded, as we made the collective decision to give up on looking forward. With the election of new officers, our vision is firmly fixed in our rearview mirror. For many of us, this was our last state GOP convention because, to paraphrase the great Ronaldus Magnus, our party has left us. We’ll still vote Republican and work for our chosen Republican candidates, but our participation in the red bubble circular firing squad is over. You will find us enjoying our Saturday mornings hanging out with our families or our TVs rather than suffering through another interminable GOP breakfast with people who call us RINOs.
David Shafer’s handpicked successor, Chairman Josh McKoon, seems to be a nice enough man. However, he has very little grassroots organizing experience, and I fear he is entirely ill-equipped to deal with the new cabinet of officers who were elected. I honestly don’t know how he will herd these cats and raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to continue the work of the David Shafer Legal Defense Fund (formerly known as the GAGOP). I don’t think any General Assembly members, even if they are deemed to be “Republican enough” by this new crew, will be seeing any campaign contributions from the state party because there simply won’t be any money left over to give. Below is a rundown of our new GOP officers who will be known collectively as “the Establishment” in about a year.
1st Vice Chair Brian Pritchard seems to have a felony record from Pennsylvania and, from what I can ascertain, voted illegally in Georgia a number of times while he was still on probation. This came to the forefront of the discussion when he ran for the seat formerly held by the late Speaker David Ralston. I thought we were about election integrity and following the law, but apparently not.
2nd Vice Chair David Cross surely did us a favor by defrosting Georgia. However, he seems to be an election denier of the first order and is in league with not-a-Republican Garland Favorito from the Constitution Party who Scot and the guys discussed in a podcast the other day. A quick tour through Mr. Cross’s unlocked personal Facebook page (not a smart idea to leave those things lying around unlocked for just anyone to look at), shows that he rarely meets a conspiracy theory he doesn’t like. I’m guessing he could care less about what happens in 2024 because, as we know, re-litigating 2020 is the most important thing.
Secretary Caroline Jeffords and former congressional candidate Assistant Secretary Suzi Voyles are also election deniers with ties to not-a-Republican Mr. Favorito. They, too, will be looking backward while the car speeds over the cliff. From hearing Ms. Jeffords talk about her views, she doesn’t tolerate dissent of any kind and doesn’t enjoy the opinions of others unless they agree with her in lock step. Maybe someone should warn Chairman McKoon and the others that they will have to watch what they say, lest they be savaged in her emails to her “constituents.” One would hate to get on her bad side and be called a RINO.
Treasurer Laurie McClain seems to be a competent person in the accounting field. She’s primarily known for straightening out the Gwinnett County GOP financial fiasco, so maybe she can help with that tiny little transparency issue involving missing treasurer’s reports we’ve heard so much about lately. Maybe she’ll also be able to help people understand that the 2024 money that does come in will be money that passes through from the RNC to help the federal candidate and won’t be actual money that was “raised from grassroots donors” as a previous chairman has led everyone to believe. I think we should wish her the best of luck in her efforts. I hope that she will be the most transparent treasurer the GAGOP has ever had, but I suspect she’ll have a fight on her hands to get that job done.
Assistant Treasurer Jennie Eckman seems like a nice person. She beat GRA endorsed candidate Alton Russell by one vote in his hometown of Columbus. Perhaps Mr. Russell just got caught up in the anti incumbent, throw the bums out sentiment of the day, but that’s got to sting a little bit.
So, fellow Georgia Republican political watchers, pop your popcorn and watch the show. I think it’s going to be fairly entertaining in a dystopian movie sort of way. Will the finale be a slow burn and fade to black with no people to be seen, or a big explosion the likes of which this globular world has never seen? Maybe you can sit down with the Grifter and take bets on that.
