BOE member Bill Leonard has been asking a lot of questions about the CRP Victory ’06 operation. His latest is here. Someone doesn’t like what Bill has been asking and now he has been threatened with a lawsuit. I for one hope they sue, then Bill can get answers to his questions while the others are under oath. I posted the story from Bill’s site below.
***Is Someone Trying to Shut Me Up?***
By: Bill Leonard on: Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
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It is always nice to know that folks are reading my newsletter but last week was different. I received a threatening phone call from an Arizona attorney who said that I have libeled the California Republican Party and that he is going to sue me. He must be referring to my call for a performance audit of the CRP’s use of vendors. This is what I wrote:
“These paid vendors allegedly focused on registering voters in just 13 of California’s 58 counties. They were paid on an hourly basis, rather than on the verified number of voters registered. The results are in dispute, but it appears that the CRP paid the vendors about $17 per registered Republican. (At that price, many traditional volunteers would have quit their day jobs to register voters on a full time basis.) I am told that level of compensation amounts to around $68 per hour, for many locations. To make matters worse, sources report that only around half the alleged registrations are verifiable because the vendors have not yet submitted proof for the other half, pending resolution of a contract dispute. We are apparently supposed to take the word of the paid vendors that they registered as many people as they claim without proof of any kind. I am too familiar with this type of program to take their word for it. Thus, if the vendors only registered as many voters as we can currently verify, we may have been paying the equivalent of $120 per hour. How many great volunteers would have applied for those jobs?
Clearly, I do not have all the facts, but that is precisely the point. Republican donors, volunteers, vendors and nominees all need to know how the money was spent so that we can avoid committing the same mistakes next time.”
Normally I am against frivolous lawsuits because they do abuse our civil justice system, but in this case I would be pleased to explain to a judge my calls for an audit of the CRP, a review of whether or not we overpaid vendors, and an investigation into whether or not the CRP’s official publications were hijacked. I am not publishing the attorney’s name or phone number yet, but he lives in Tempe, Arizona.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Would an attourney acting on behalf of the CRP sue one of their longest serving elected officials? I don’t think Bill’s got anything to worry about. Even if they do sue him, it would just enrage the party base.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I would like to think that the call came to Leonard prior to Sunday, and — added together with your post on the CRP below, Mike — that we have a new sheriff in town, new lines of open communication, and pehaps a new phase of post-post-partisanship, at least between the GOP elected officials, the Republican volunteers, and the Party, all of whom may be as “partisan” with each other as they like.
February 14th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Yes the call came last week before the new CRP leadership took over. I am confident that no official of the CRP present or past sponsored this call. And I am still waiting for the strong letter to follow that was promised.
February 15th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Bill,
Just keep up the great work, and thanks!
February 16th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Mr. Leonard:
Yes, Keep up the good work. The new CRP Leadership is certainly going to shake things up and I hope someone will be held accountable.