How Things Really Work

 

By Gretchen Garrity

Don't think the RINO Establishment is only on the state or federal levels. It's firmly entrenched in your local Republican party, too. Local party leaders enjoy their status, part of which includes selecting candidates for the voters.

How does this work? The Missouri GOP is a private organization. While its members include Republicans elected to public office, it nevertheless is not held to transparency standards like our elected representatives in their official capacity. For instance, citizens have no intrinsic right to expect Sunshine requests to the state or local GOP because they are private organizations.

What you see on their websites and in their communications is what they want you to see. If you want an idea of what goes on, you need to attend their meetings, get to know the individuals involved, and watch how the sausage is made. And even then you won't know everything simply because you are dealing with groups of people who have friendships, alliances, etc.

Image: Wayfair

 

Grassroots individuals and groups across the nation have been running into the comfortably-rooted apparatus on local levels that resent the upsetting of their apple cart. The Establishment has their ways, their people, and their views. And they aren't going to share power if they have anything to say about it. They know better than you. Because.

Additionally, the Jefferson City gang includes various state level elected officials as well as their ball-and-chains--the lobbyist cabal. These work the local organizations and people quite smoothly.

Sure they agree with some things the grassroots activists are firm about. They've given up on opposing President Trump (at least openly). They pay lip service to conservative causes like Initiative Petition Reform, Abortion, Tax Reform, local school control and so on. Some of them even care about those things.

However, when push comes to shove, like a secret society, they protect their own, and often fail to live up to their expressed convictions. 

Case in point: some in the Christian County Republican Central Committee had been involved in efforts to thwart wins that grassroots workers across the state fought for, namely the duly-elected delegates and other officers to the RNC. Not to rehash the events leading up to the attempted coup of the State GOP Convention by establishment individuals, but it was several members of the CCRCC who were involved.

These individuals were instrumental in Towgate (info HERE and HERE and HERE), the quashing of the 2024 platform, and later challenging the slate of delegates that Missourians across the state had voted for. Yes, some in our Christian County political apparatus were hard at work to overturn the will of the people in order to reward their friends.

And what has happened since they were exposed? Were they rebuked? Did they resign? Did they apologize? Is there no explanation on the CCRCC website for what happened? Nothing.

This is how the local machine works. And if you go against them, they do all they can to squash you. Instead of reflecting on their behavior, on the larger goal of saving our state and helping Missourians live better lives, they circle the wagons in order to keep their control grid functioning.

Not everyone in the CCRCC has this issue. Many are honest folks who are also frustrated. But, if the leadership of the CCRCC does not hold members accountable for their actions they sure as heck aren't going to go to bat for citizens in any meaningful way--unless it's no skin off their noses.

There has been particular intra-party fighting about the governor candidates--Bill Eigel and John Ashcroft. Few people in Christian County are Mike Kehoe fans so the race down here is Eigel versus Ashcroft.

The establishment Republicans are firmly in Sec. Ashcroft's corner, and they resent any positive news about state Sen. Bill Eigel, or any negative information about Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. In fact, an app called Team Reach, which is for active citizens to share information and post events, has as an administrator Mrs. Sandy Karnes, one of the people involved in Towgate. And her husband, Jack, attached his name to the Derrick Good challenge against the grassroots slate. That challenge was defeated because the evidence proved the challenge had no merit.

Last evening, Mrs. Karnes saw fit to delete my Team Reach post of the article regarding alleged lawfare on the part of the SOS's Office. It was posted below a pro-Ashcroft flyer Karnes had posted. Is the cardinal rule in the primary season that candidates supported by the Establishment shall have no open opposition? Are the issues addressed in the article not to be given an airing because we have to be respectful of others' choices? Karnes has apparently posted on Facebook about the situation, although she is careful not to name names. Why? Name names. Let us dialog and see who is lying and who is telling the truth.

That our Secretary of State's Office has had troubling interactions with dedicated grassroots patriots over election integrity, is a real issue that should be grappled with in order to determine the best candidate for Missouri Governor.

And Karnes is not alone in her "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" attitude. The local Establishment has circled the wagons. Incidentally, both Sandy and her husband Jack are again candidates for committee man and woman. See all the candidates here.

The Establishment dictum is thus: We are a Team, as long as you think like us.

Instead of having the guts to face the opposition, Karnes took the easy way out and censored my post and then admonished me to be respectful. Here is Karnes being "respectful" to an Eigel campaign worker not too long ago at an Independence Day parade. Notice the campaign worker simply continued on his way. He didn't attempt to stop her. Why? I think it's because he believes in his candidate, Sen. Bill Eigel. 

When the tables were turned, and Mrs. Karnes was "handing out" an Ashcroft flyer on Team Reach, she didn't behave as the Eigel campaign worker when someone came along behind her. She didn't just move on. She actively censored important information pertaining to the race for governor. Truth was not as important as Team Establishment. If the document in question was erroneous, Karnes has the opportunity to refute it. She knows she can't refute it so she attempted to squash it.

This is why Christian County Republicans are struggling right now. Ashcroft supporter interfering with an Eigel campaign person just for handing out a flyer. Can she do this across the state to save Ashcroft’s smoldering campaign?@JayAshcroftMO @BillEigel pic.twitter.com/T96zrOpwxj

— HickChristian (@hickchristnews) July 1, 2024

TOWGATE?

By Gretchen Garrity

Desperate people do desperate things. It appears the chaotic Missouri GOP Convention at the University Plaza Hotel in Springfield last Saturday fell victim to desperate people doing desperate things.

Oddly, what may have ultimately killed the stalled event and the hope of approving a platform for 2024, was the threat of convention goers’ vehicles being towed from the parking lot.

One of the strange occurrences toward the end of the GOP convention was the claim that tow trucks were standing by to tow vehicles out of the convention center parking lot. A GOP volunteer stated convention staff requested an announcement be read to the attendees that an event at the convention center was due to begin, and GOP conventioneers needed to move their cars.

Because the convention was nearly wrapped up, the chairwoman, Sophia Shore, continued moving forward with the final approvals for the platform. But a delegate from the 7^th Congressional District stood up and announced the request to move vehicles and that tow trucks were standing by. However, this conflicts with General Manager Brent Parker’s assertion that the Plaza does not generally tow cars. 

Although the convention had been thinning out for hours due to the extraordinary delays, this announcement caused more people to leave the event. It was at this point that Rep. Dan Stacy asked for a quorum count. When it was discovered that a quorum no longer existed, the convention came to a close—without a GOP platform for 2024.

Both David Rice and myself spoke to the Plaza’s general manager about the claim there were tow trucks at or near the Plaza on Saturday evening and that vehicles in the convention center parking lot were going to be towed in order to make room for a Billings High School prom.

Parker said no tow trucks had been called. He said the hotel would not have towed vehicles because there is no way of telling which car is associated with which event attendee. He stated that typically the only tow trucks that show up at the hotel are for vehicles that are being repossessed. He also said the Springfield Parking Company across the street works with the hotel to tow any vehicles, if needed.

Let’s focus on the parking for the event. For background, there were estimated to be about 1,200-1,300 people at the start of the GOP convention at the University Plaza, not all with their own vehicle. There were about 900 delegates/alternates with a few hundred observers and volunteers.

According to Parker, there are anywhere between 600-700 parking spots on the hotel grounds alone. Additionally, there is ample street parking, and a parking garage directly across the street from the Plaza, which has 971 parking spaces, according to Alex Scott of the Springfield Parking Company. All told, there are approximately 1,900 nearby parking spots for hotel guests, event goers, and others.

Parker said the Plaza intended to charge for parking that day because the Springfield Art Fest was also occurring a street away. But because the parking lot filled up so early in the day, they decided against it. 

Also, Scott said the parking garage did not fill up on Saturday, and there was plenty of parking throughout the day and evening.

 There was no call from the Plaza to the SPC to tow any vehicles at Saturday’s event.

The only parking lot issue came from a woman who thought her car had either been stolen or towed during the early afternoon, around 12:30 p.m. That issue was resolved within an hour when the woman found her car in the hotel parking lot.

The threat of towing announced at the GOP convention was hours later when the finalizing of the 2024 platform was happening.

Parker also said that because there were no events planned for the Plaza after Saturday’s GOP convention there was no hurry to get guests to leave the event. He did say that sometimes tow trucks are parked at the nearby Springfield Expo Center’s loading dock to load and unload vehicles, but again, there was not a threat from the Plaza that vehicles would be towed at the hotel. 

Google Earth: The Expo Center upper left, Plaza lower right

 

Parker said events often run over, and hotel staff are simply alerted they will have to stay a bit longer. Parker acknowledged that events like the GOP convention often take some time to clear out, and is a common occurrence.

The organizers of the GOP convention—State GOP Chairman Nick Myers and the Missouri Republican Party—have blamed the ultimate lack of an approved platform for 2024 on the day’s Chairwoman, Sophia Shore. Shore was not able to take the gavel and begin the actual business of the convention until nearly 3 p.m. for an event that was supposed to begin at 9 a.m. or shortly thereafter. Even establishment Republicans acknowledged her deftness in handling the event when she finally received the gavel

It is well known that the establishment Republicans were not happy with the election of Shore as chairwoman. They were not happy with the 26 amendments that Missourians across the state approved for the 2024 platform. They were not happy that grassroots Missourians were elected to attend the national convention.

From where did the threat of vehicle towing originate? If it did not come from the Plaza and it did not come from the Springfield Parking Company, where would the threat have come from? Did it come from the volunteer or the delegate who gave the announcement? In whose interest was it to shut down the 2024 Missouri GOP convention, which was on the verge of approving a platform the establishment did not want? 

So many questions.

Oh, that cryptic tweet at the top? That's from Rep. Ben Baker moments after the convention was shut down.

 

More on the towing threat at David Rice's Substack HERE and HERE.