GA GOP Convention Results

1513 Delegates were seated in Athens GA to elect State Officers for the Georgia Republican Party.  County GOP Chairs, Officers and their delegations met on May 15 and 16, 2015 at the Athens Convention Center. Attrition of delegates started early.

John Padgett won re-election as State GOP Chair with 807 votes to Alex Johnson’s 612 votes with a total of 1419 votes cast by written ballot. 94 delegates had suddenly disappeared. Voting was easy and took 10 minutes, but our luck was about to run out.

Before we had a chance to zip through the next 6 ballots, the motions to unravel the process and objections began.

Randy Evans led the convention using Roberts Rules of Order, designed to arrive at a pre-determined outcome and objections are dismissed.  Delegate attrition ensued at the rate of 100 delegates escaping every hour.

At 4PM the horses were ready to “run to the barn” and with the quorum disappearing the meeting was adjourned. 

The first unraveling of the convention began with a motion to elect officers by slate, despite the fact that individual ballots had been distributed to have a secret ballot vote. This motion failed, but took 30 minutes to wallow in.

The next unraveling came with a motion to vote by standing and not use the ballots.  This passed because nothing is more irritating than Robert’s Rules disputes eating away the afternoon. This took another 30 minutes of point-counterpoint.

The final unraveling came with a motion to use voice votes and approve all Resolutions as a block. 

So John Padgett will lead the GA GOP for another 2 years, but according to the following 2^nd message from retiring GOP treasurer, John Padgett may have overspent on consultants and may have some ‘spleenin” to do:

Bob Mayzes response to John Padgett’s defense

John has since issued his response. To be clear, my decision to not support John Padgett’s re-election does not diminish my appreciation for John’s extensive service over many years to the Republican Party. I would like to provide my own clarification and reiterate my enthusiastic endorsement of Alex Johnson’s candidacy.

Some have alleged that I didn’t write the endorsement of Alec Johnson, but instead simply allowed my name to be used. I thoughtfully considered and reconsidered every written word of the original endorsement and this response. However, I strongly suspect that John’s response was written by a GAGOP staffer or possibly their communications consultant ($5,000 per month/$55,000 in 2014).

Reading my endorsement of Alex Johnson, there is no way one could construe that I remotely questioned the hard work of GAGOP staff, grass-roots leaders and volunteers. Anyone that has any knowledge of me, knows that is false and a veiled attempt to misdirect and spin my statements endorsing Alex Johnson.

My statements challenged Mr. Padgett’s campaign claims regarding his administration’s fundraising and stewardship of GAGOP resources. He claims they decided to spend reserves to avoid run-offs in the Governor and U.S. Senate races. My response is what farmer eats his seed in the winter so there is nothing for spring planting? Or what business consumes its working capital reserves so that it can’t survive the business cycle?

Side note: As State Treasurer, I found the easiest times for the GAGOP to raise funds is when there is a run-off. The candidate doesn’t like being in that position, but every Republican wants to win and coughs up cash. Funds roll in quickly from small and large donors.

I complement Mr. Padgett for raising $6.5 million in 2014. Now compare that to 2010, a comparable year during Chairman Everhart’s administration. In 2010, she raised $9.1 million with virtually the same dynamics as both the Governor office and a U.S. Senate seat were on the ballot.

On the topic of outsourcing, the $55,000 paid in 2014 for communications consulting could have paid a full- time employee, who could do other things besides press releases. The monies paid for web services could have employed a full-time staffer, again capable of other tasks. In 2014, three companies received 42.4% of the $6.5 million (The Stoneridge Group 28.3%, Paces Direct 7.4% and Creative Direct 6.7%). The Stoneridge Group got $1.83 million; more than the total paid to the next top ten suppliers combined.

It has been 24 hours since I released the endorsement of Alex Johnson for State Republican Chairman. I am even more committed to the success of his election and his administration as the next Chairman of the Republican Party. I support MR. ALEX JOHNSON, the next GAGOP Chairman.

Sincerely, Bob Mayzes, State Treasurer (retired)

Comments

At the end of the day, the score was GA GOP Establishment 7, challengers 0, and John Padgett should take a hard look at his consulting expenses.  Our federal government will continue to be “top-down” until 2017, so a “top-down” state government will continue to collect its $21 billion a year in federal bribes.  The real necessity for the GOP now is to have “bottom-up” county organizations out listening to the voters, so there is no question about what bad laws were passed since 2008 that need to be repealed in 2017.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader