GOP Rivals pull punches

Bill Currie, State GOP head

They appeared. They spoke. They behaved.

The Western Liberty Conference, a meeting of about a hundred vocal libertarian and GOP activists, spent the day talking about "taking the offensive" against government regulations, government waste, and government by Democrats. The underlying premise was that small government activists needed to win back power in Oregon, starting with local offices.

Democrats had won the governorship and supermajorities in both the Oregon House and Senate. The GOP candidate for governor lost areas in Portland by 7 to 1 margins.

Showdown? The two rivals for head of the Oregon GOP were on the agenda to speak. Bill Currier is the current chair of the State Republican Party. His rival and detractor, Sam Carpenter, was also on the agenda. They spoke one after the other. Each had spent money to get prominent and equivalent notice in the funding credits.

Carpenter has his story, which he has been telling since the day after the November 2016 election. He even wrote a book he distributes for free. He says the current Party leadership is too moderate, too reserved about endorsing Trump and the pure conservative message. He said the leadership displayed its error when they sat back and let him lose the 2018 governor primary he should have won. Instead, thanks to a rival conservative candidate, the primary victory was won by a RINO--a Republican in Name Only, Knute Bueller. The existing leadership represents the Ruling Class, and establishment of people content with the status quo. He wants them replaced, by him.

Bill Currier spoke first. He struck a hopeful note. The Republican loss plants the seeds of future victory. "Democrats will over-reach", he said. The bad government they will create without the constraints of Republican reason will cause "the full weight to come down. People will say 'enough is enough.'"

He said the State Party created a task force that made five recommendations which would return to power the voices of limited government, free markets, and opposition to socialism.

1. Identify voters who share our values and recruit some of them to run for office.
2. Share common resources between the Party and like-minded groups.
3. Locate and use opposition research.
4. Create a "farm team" of people moving up.
5. Avoid a divisive litmus test for candidates and work with allies. This means being strategic about when certain issues might go onto a ballot, which may mean coordinating with other Republicans, and recognizing that some things might be politically possible one year and not the next.

Here is what did not happen. He never mentioned the current Party struggle. He never mentioned Sam Carpenter.

Sam Carpenter spoke next. He had a Power Point presentation. At the direction of the Northwest Liberty Network he had removed slides that mentioned Trump by name, according to its Executive Director, Richard Burke. Carpenter voiced his brand of muscular conservatism. "I'm not middle of he road. If I go across the middle of the road it's to slap someone."

He spoke the populist message that Carpenter has made familiar. Taxes are too high; that there is a battle between the Ruling Class and the real people, the "Country Class;" that we have "been devastated" by international agreements; that we need to restore American greatness.

"We live in a generation of weak people who want everything watered down because it's offensive, including the truth."

Here is what did not happen. He never mentioned Bill Currier by name. At multiple times he seemed eager to engage in direct criticism, but was constrained by the rules of the organization, that this was supposed to be a 501-C-3 compliant event. Speaking of his primary election loss, "it was diabolical in the end, but I can't talk about it."  A pulled punch.

The Western Liberty Network event turned out to be a convocation of substantially like-minded people. There was widespread, often-voiced consensus thinking: Democrats are socialists, Democrats are corrupt, that "we" are honest and fair minded, that "they" are socialist meddlers, that "we" need to elect more good people, e.g. libertarian Republicans. Photographs of Obama got jeers and guffaws.

The glue is what they did not like.

On open display was a sign saying "Drain the Swamp," but I never saw a photo of either president Bush nor of Donald Trump, and in eight hours of meetings I never heard the word "Bush" uttered even once, and Trump only rarely.

Candidate Display at the convention

I had expected this meeting to be an opportunity to see a head to head meeting of the two rivals for the GOP leadership. It did not happen.

Instead, I stumbled upon something equally interesting:

The conflict I observed was one between a vibrant political organization and its convention, versus its obligations to the IRS and American taxpayers to avoid "the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates."

 It is prohibited by law. 

I was surprised to see that multiple instances of violations were rampant and visible, as in this open display. "Violation may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes," according to the IRS guidance. Click: See for yourself

By odd coincidence and circumstance, the Executive Director of the Western Liberty Network is a member of the Oregon Ethics Commission. It disappoints me that a person who holds such a position would be so careless about behaviors so central to his organization, its tax exempt status.

In upcoming posts we will look more closely at the Convention and examples of the violations I recorded and photographed, and will share with readers.