Guest Post: Doug Grammer on the Catoosa County GOP

Doug Grammer is a long time Republican Activist from North Georgia. He has held so many leadership positions within the party over the years that it may be impossible to name all of them. He is a passionate conservative who has dedicated much of his life and treasure in the cause of limited government. This post originally appeared on his Facebook timeline and appears here with his permission.

Let’s discuss the Catoosa County GOP situation. The CC GOP adopted an “accountability rule” a few months ago and the goal of the rule was to limit who can qualify to run for office as a Republican. Candidates for office did an interview with members of the CC GOP and afterward, a vote was taken to decide if they were Republican enough.

There was no set criteria, just a gut feeling, according the the Chairman when she was on the stand during a court hearing brought on by their refusal to allow Republican incumbents to get on the ballot for the May GOP Primary. I’m not even sure that the same questions were asked of each candidate. My understanding is that if a County Commissioner was in favor of allowing citizens to vote on continuing a SPLOST (special purpose limited optional sales tax) they were considered being in favor of tax increases and therefore not Republican.

The repeated claim by the CC GOP was that the candidates were not barred from running for office, they were just barred from running as Republicans. They could run as Democrats or as independents. Here’s the nugget that they don’t brag about; they didn’t tell any candidate that they couldn’t run as a Republican until they came to qualify. That’s not much time (4 days) to get the signatures required to run as an independent. The Georgia Secretary of State website says petitions may not circulate for more than 180 days. Again, these candidates had all previously been elected as Republicans.

The state GOP rules state that a county may not adopt rules that are inconsistent with the state rules. OCGA 21-2-111 c “No such rule and regulation shall be effective until copies thereof, certified by the chairperson, have been filed with the superintendent of the county.” Were the rules that were changed filed properly? Time will tell. I have the written State, District, and County rules. I believe in following the rules, and that includes the rule of law. When a Judge issues an order and says that the County rules are not consistent with State rules, it’s time to call it a a day. It is not time to openly defy a court order and risk being fined thousands of dollars and or jail time for contempt of court.

The CC GOP are testing a theory and they will have to take note of the results.

They are earning what will come next. These are not brave souls fighting the system. They think because they were elected as members of the Catoosa GOP, they know better than voters in the primary on who would best represent the GOP.

The Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA) has referred to primary voters as low information voters. The Catoosa GOP tried putting questions on the Primary ballot that were deemed as unlawful election activities. Party members and others tried to get the election board to remove the candidates from the ballot. They failed.

I’ve heard of people saying that the judge made judicial mistakes and was unethical in his rulings. If anyone can prove that the judge did anything wrong, they should file a complaint with the judicial qualifications commission. If they don’t do that, they should cease saying things that they can’t back up. And sitting there not saying anything while others run down the Judge is just as bad. It’s not that hard to say that I disagree with the ruling but I can’t cite where he was in conflict with the law. And if one could cite where he was in conflict with OCGA, say that we plan on bringing this up at appeal.

Calling anyone who disagrees with them a RINO, cheerleader for the system, and other propaganda is just sad, fifth grade behavior. I recently posted that those who ignore the rules to get the outcome they want are otherwise known as cheaters. These are not the actions of patriots. These are anarchists who are trying to cheat to remove people from office that they have failed to beat in a primary. It’s arrogance that they think that they know more than the voters. It’s pride, and that is a sin. It’s fine to hate the sin and love the sinner.

They have lost their way. I hope they find it again.