After Clark County Chairman Ed Williams resigned from the state party's executive board, citing Chairman Michael McDonald's problems, the leader who bankrupted the state GOP, was hired in a six-figure no-work job by the state treasurer and is enmeshed in a scandal fired back.
In his missive sent to Republicans, McDonald attacked Williams, the Review-Journal for reporting on his latest depredations and then wrote this, one of the funniest paragraphs I have read in a long time:
Chairman McDonald and the Executive Committee have worked hard over the past few years to solidify our relationship with the Republican National Committee, and they have been successful. The state party and the RNC are working more closely than ever before to build an organization in Nevada that will result in the Silver State gaining a Republican Senator in 2016, as well as delivering Nevada's electoral votes for one of our fine GOP candidates for President of the United States.
Really? The RNC has zero respect for McDonald. The question: When will Republicans in this state excise this cancer? (Maybe Michele Fiore has some baking soda?) He is up for re-election on Nov. 14.
Here's his full letter:
A response to the CCRCC Chairman's resignation from the NRCC Executive Committee
October 4, 2015
On Thursday, Chairman McDonald received an email from Clark County Chair Ed Williams relinquishing his duties as Clark County's representative on the NRCC Executive Committee. Since that time, we've learned that the other 16 County Chairs, selected Executive Committee members, other members of the NRCC and apparently, the media were copied on the letter. Unfortunately, the political motivation became much clearer today when the LVRJ reported that Mr. Williams had "intended" for the letter to remain internal and not be made public. It's hard to believe that the letter was meant to remain internal when he secretly copied so many other people. Mr. William's letter contains false and misleading information, it is important to make sure that you have the facts.
There are several inflammatory remarks made by Mr. Williams in his resignation that are deeply rooted in his own personal opinion and are completely false. It is unfortunate that a member of the Nevada Republican team would choose to not only abandon his duties in a crucial election cycle, but in doing so release inaccurate information that could be damaging to our party's goal of electing Republicans in 2016.
Mr. Williams has been told many times that the Nevada GOP does, in fact, carry D&O insurance to protect our officers, as any prudent non-profit organization should. Interestingly enough, inside sources have advised us that the Clark County GOP has allowed their own D&O insurance to lapse. While we have not been able to confirm this fact, if it's true then it's disingenuous for Mr. Williams to make such an issue of this, knowing that the state party has coverage while he does not provide the same protection for his own officers. Unfortunately, Mr. Williams is grossly misinformed as to his potential personal liability related to his volunteer elected position, but all of our members can rest assured that there is no personal liability for the actions of others.
As to his other allegations, the state party Secretary maintains minutes of all meetings of the State Central Committee, including meetings of the Executive Committee. Similarly, the Treasurer produces a monthly financial report, which is distributed and discussed on every monthly meeting of the Executive Board and the monthly meeting of the County Chairs. As a county chair and a member of the Executive Committee, Mr. Williams receives this information twice every month. As you're aware, we also file our financial information publicly with both the Nevada Secretary of State and the FEC. All of these reports have been filed in a timely manner, and can be viewed publicly on the internet.
A Treasurer's report was presented at the spring meeting of the NRCC in Carson City in March, as is standard practice at all regular meetings. Although the August NRCC meeting was a special meeting where a Treasurer's report is not a normal order of business, accurate historic budget numbers were presented to the membership at that meeting as well as part of the budget approval process. If Mr. Williams believes that he has not received sufficient information to exercise his oversight duties, it can only be because he hasn't been paying very close attention.
Mr. Williams wrote of his fear of personal liability relative to a civil lawsuit in which he is neither named nor involved in. Additionally, the Nevada GOP is not party to the lawsuit cited, and has no involvement in the dispute between the parties named in it. Referencing media reports of the lawsuit, Mr. Williams stated that "regardless of the accuracy of these reports" he was concerned about the unfounded accusations against Chairman McDonald. Of course, as we all know that if it is in the paper - it must be true!
An opinion columnist and an anonymous "editorial board" wrote the aforementioned "articles" based on one-sided accusations, before the parties have had their day in court. It's disappointing that Mr. Williams would blindly accuse a fellow Republican of wrongdoing and echo unsubstantiated claims before getting any facts. Fortunately, no member or officer of the NRCC needs to fret over being personally liable for accusations stemming from a civil lawsuit in which they are not named.
It is regrettable that Mr. Williams has chosen to abandon his duties on the Nevada GOP Executive Committee at this critical time of preparation for the 2016 caucuses. However, we've taken steps to insure that Clark County will continue to be represented at the state level. Clark County's bylaws specify "The Vice-Chairman is required to perform the duties of the Chairman if the Chairman is unable to serve for any reason." Based on this, we have invited Vice Chair Steve Esh to represent Clark County on the Executive Committee as Mr. Williams is unwilling to fulfill his responsibilities. We're confident that Vice Chair Esh will be a pivotal part of the team as we move forward towards the goals of our State to produce and deliver a flawless caucus.
Chairman McDonald and the Executive Committee have worked hard over the past few years to solidify our relationship with the Republican National Committee, and they have been successful. The state party and the RNC are working more closely than ever before to build an organization in Nevada that will result in the Silver State gaining a Republican Senator in 2016, as well as delivering Nevada's electoral votes for one of our fine GOP candidates for President of the United States.
With the assistance of the RNC, we've hired more people than ever before this early in an election cycle. We've already held our first grassroots Republican Leadership Institute training in Clark County to give our volunteers the tools and knowledge they need to be effective at identifying our supporters and turning out the vote. We've a date set to offer that same training in northern Nevada, and we'll continue to build our organization and train our volunteers so that the electoral success the GOP saw in 2014 is duplicated in 2016 and beyond.
The state party has forged excellent relationships with all of the presidential campaigns, culminating in an unprecedented unified letter of support from a wide cross section of the active campaigns in Nevada for our Presidential Preference Poll and delegate binding rules that were passed by our membership last month. Under the capable direction of long time Nevada political activist and Former RNC Nevada State Director Greg Bailor, we expect to hold a very successful First in the West caucus on February 23, 2016.
Thank you for taking the time to read this response. It's unfortunate that we needed to take time that could have been spent electing Republicans to respond to an obvious political distraction, but baseless accusations that include a number of members of the Executive Board cannot be tolerated.
After Clark County Chairman Ed Williams resigned from the state party's executive board, citing Chairman Michael McDonald's problems, the leader who bankrupted the state GOP, was hired in a six-figure no-work job by the state treasurer and is enmeshed in a scandal fired back.
In his missive sent to Republicans, McDonald attacked Williams, the Review-Journal for reporting on his latest depredations and then wrote this, one of the funniest paragraphs I have read in a long time:
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