The Quiet War Raging Within the Florida Republican Party (Edited 05/05/2022) All around the State of Florida, a quiet war is raging in the Republican Party, and it’s being played out in the county GOPs. The Republican Party has been known as the “Grand Old Party” or “GOP” since the 1970s, because we saved the Union.
May 3, 2022·edited May 3, 2022Liked by Florida News Report
never should a chair or vice chair be an elected official- this is the party of Bush which is the party of Clinton which is the party of Obama= uniparty
This war between the establishment and the Constitutional and limited government grassroots has been going on for decades. It took me about eight months to get into my local REC in Charlotte County. They finally kicked me out years later when I broke may ankle and didn't make it a priority to send an excused absence.
I encouraged about six of the strongest campaign workers that I have ever worked with in our county (with an average age 25 years younger than the controlling group) and the chairman at that time threw their paperwork out because they were "strangers." Now you have to have a sponsor and go through an interview process to get into the REC. I know of at least one couple that was denied membership.
I recently heard, the chairman just recently kicked a candidate out of an interview because he didn't like what that candidate had to say. Should an REC even be interviewing candidates during the primaries when there are two or more Republican candidates running?
Great article. Thank you for a truthful report. We have been calling out our REC for months on "missing" new member paperwork, inaccurate membership rosters and so much more. Voices of challenge are accused of siding with Democrats and are labelled as trouble makers. They've even called the police to silence and intimidate. It's astounding.
In 2021, the Chairman of the Volusia County Florida REC, held every county Republican Club’s charter hostage by inserting a “Quid-Pro-Quo” document in their RPOF charter renewal packet. The document (if signed by the club’s boards) would give his REC complete control of each club’s communication platforms, require any and all events be approved by them, and give them authority to determine what constituted a violation of the REC’s or the RPOF’s standards while accepting the REC’s incontestable punishment. None of the other 66 Florida RECs included this additional document in their charter renewal packets. It was later established that the RPOF’s George Riley (designated Charter Renewal Director) was unaware of it’s existence. Three of the five Republican Clubs filed complaints with the REC, the RPOF and Senator Joe Gruters (RPOF Chairman) and submitted their completed RPOF approved charter renewal packets as they had done every odd year of their respective charters without fail or issue. All communications were ignored until an “Invitation” to appear at an RPOF’s upcoming meeting where a Grievance Committee was scheduled. All three Club Presidents and Vice Presidents appeared in hopes of keeping their charters without having to sign Paul Deering’s unapproved document. The RECVC leadership (Chairman Paul Deering, Comitteeman Vic Baker and Committeewoman Debbie Phillips - ALL “Trump Hater” Deb Denys supporters) disparaged each club with unsubstantiated, unproven and outright false accusations. And when the Grievance Committee Chairman asked each one if he/she felt that the clubs had “tarnished the Republican brand”, they each replied “Yes”. The following morning the Grievance Committee Chairman called two of the club Presidents and said, “Why don’t you all just sign his document and get on with your lives?” All three Republican Clubs chose to leave the RPOF and join Constitutionally Conservative Republican organizations. The Daytona Beach Club (the first and oldest continuously chartered Republican Club in Florida @ 66 years) joined the Republican Liberty Caucus while the Republican Club of West Volusia (45 year charter) and the Republican Club of Ormond Beach (25 year charter) joined the Florida Republican Assembly. To this day, Paul Deering continues to falsely tell anyone who asks (and even those who don’t) that the three clubs refused to follow the RPOF’s rules and their charters were terminated. Each club has documented evidence to prove otherwise!
I would love to speak with the author about attacks called "MAGA Alerts" on local Republican anti-Establishment candidates and their teams by Joe Gruter's business partner. As far as I know, this is only taking place in my county. The Establishment is obviously worried. Please message me.
Tom Leek and Paul Renner are two RINOs who think they are going to run the House next term so we need true Republicans across the state to help get them out!
It depends on who does the electing!! The RINOS are 10x's worst than the democrats. You know where the democrats aka. liberals are coming from, but a RINO??? They're a wolf in sheep's clothing and many committeemen & women do not take the time to vet these scumbags. In 2014 I moved to Collier County with a strong recommendation from the county Chair in Erie County NY who is now the State Chairman. I was the Chairman of a town outside of Buffalo NY that was totally decimated in a town wide election. I took control of the committee starting with 2 committee people and resurrected it to one of the strongest committees in Erie County. I ran for assemblyman and passed on an opportunity to run for congress in the 26 district of NY. Having said all that, I was unable to et an appointment with then the county chair of Collier County!! When I finally was finally a committeeman, it was obvious as to why I was given the bums rush. The committee was and still is RINO based! They did all they could to keep me from becoming the county chair. The meetings are a joke. I thought moving from NY to Florida would be an incredible opportunity for me be a part of a solid Constitutional Conservative committee. Instead, the committee was made of of smaller committees that were ran separate of the county but yet still involved. As for strategy for the committee is nothing more than a coffee klatch event every month. Their meetings are tantamount to Bidens excuses of the Afghanistan debacle or the excuses of the borders running rampant with illegals. They don't know how to fight and that is what we will need to do whit the upcoming elections midterm and the bloodbath of 2024! Make no mistake, BHO, put Biden in office for a reason, Caveat Emptor!!
When elected officials comment on my comments on an REC FB page and call me a democrat, they’ve lost my respect completely! I even door knocked for one of the two elected officials who did that.
I don’t use the term “RINO.” I don’t find that useful. But the establishment in our area is unfortunately molded by and sustained with developer money. Conflict of interest; it must be stopped.
After reading your article and realizing the RPOF isn't going to set an agenda for candidates in line with the National RP platform, I devised my own "America First Candidate Pledge" that would by-pass the establishment by asking candidates to sign the pledge and then advertising who did and who didn't.
I, _______________________________, running for the office of ______________________ in the state of ____________________ and the county of ____________________ do hereby pledge my allegiance to the beliefs listed in the Republican Party Platform document written in 2016 and re-adopted in 2020. Specifically,
We affirm – as did the Declaration of Independence: that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe in the Constitution as our founding document…[and] was written not as a flexible document, but as our enduring covenant.
We believe our constitutional system – limited government, separation of powers [into branches], federalism [separate government levels], and the rights of the people – must be preserved uncompromised for future generations.
These beliefs lead us to the following stands on issues we vow to confront in the next election cycle (Jan 2023-Jan 2025):
Reduce the power, size, and cost of government at all levels by voting/signing into law:
1. require 5 pages of existing legislation be removed for every 1 page of legislation added.
2. cap the spending on total government employee salaries/benefits per capita and reduce that cap every year by 10%.
3. make tax cuts automatically adjust to budgeted expenses so there is little or no revenue surplus at the end of the fiscal year (federal candidates pledge to vote ONLY for a balanced budget).
4. eliminate in their entirety departments and agencies whose powers are not granted by the U.S. or state constitutions as originally intended and amended.
Ensure separation of power into branches by voting/signing into law:
1. a detailed budget that removes funding from unconstitutional bureaucracies and executive actions to control executive overreach AND PROMINENTLY POST THAT BUDGET ONLINE in a user friendly format!
2. an executive line item veto that allows the executive branch to remove special interest funding by legislators.
3. require all legislative decisions to take place in our legislative branch and all judicial decisions to take place in our judicial branch instead of the executive branch bureaucracy.
Ensure separation of power into levels (federalism) by voting/signing into law:
1. eliminate mandates to lower levels wherever possible
2. eliminate funding grants to lower levels when strings are attached, or accepting grants from higher levels with strings attached.
3. return political power to lower levels wherever possible, with most power kept by your constituents as individuals.
Ensure the rights of the people by voting/signing into law:
1. any legislation that removes existing barriers to the Bill of Rights
2. any legislation that removes existing restrictions on property rights.
Vote against/veto any bills that do the opposite of the above!
You give too much credit to Governor DeSantis. His donors and appointees are the very people you talk about, ROMNEY Republicans. As far as the redistricting, DeSantis was happy to sign the original map that the Establishment wanted. The Patriots FOUGHT HARD to convince him to do the right thing.
A couple years ago I started designing a crowd-sourced site with aims, among other things, of vetting down to the most local levels including judges and school boards. That was when I was developing websites, then I took work driving trucks and simply haven't had the time to pursue the project. It wouldn't be hard, but it would take time and buy-in by the people.
There might already be such a project, but information like this exists in silos with one segment not knowing what's goin on in another. That was one of the problems I had hoped could be overcome.
never should a chair or vice chair be an elected official- this is the party of Bush which is the party of Clinton which is the party of Obama= uniparty
This war between the establishment and the Constitutional and limited government grassroots has been going on for decades. It took me about eight months to get into my local REC in Charlotte County. They finally kicked me out years later when I broke may ankle and didn't make it a priority to send an excused absence.
I encouraged about six of the strongest campaign workers that I have ever worked with in our county (with an average age 25 years younger than the controlling group) and the chairman at that time threw their paperwork out because they were "strangers." Now you have to have a sponsor and go through an interview process to get into the REC. I know of at least one couple that was denied membership.
I recently heard, the chairman just recently kicked a candidate out of an interview because he didn't like what that candidate had to say. Should an REC even be interviewing candidates during the primaries when there are two or more Republican candidates running?
Great article. Thank you for a truthful report. We have been calling out our REC for months on "missing" new member paperwork, inaccurate membership rosters and so much more. Voices of challenge are accused of siding with Democrats and are labelled as trouble makers. They've even called the police to silence and intimidate. It's astounding.
In 2021, the Chairman of the Volusia County Florida REC, held every county Republican Club’s charter hostage by inserting a “Quid-Pro-Quo” document in their RPOF charter renewal packet. The document (if signed by the club’s boards) would give his REC complete control of each club’s communication platforms, require any and all events be approved by them, and give them authority to determine what constituted a violation of the REC’s or the RPOF’s standards while accepting the REC’s incontestable punishment. None of the other 66 Florida RECs included this additional document in their charter renewal packets. It was later established that the RPOF’s George Riley (designated Charter Renewal Director) was unaware of it’s existence. Three of the five Republican Clubs filed complaints with the REC, the RPOF and Senator Joe Gruters (RPOF Chairman) and submitted their completed RPOF approved charter renewal packets as they had done every odd year of their respective charters without fail or issue. All communications were ignored until an “Invitation” to appear at an RPOF’s upcoming meeting where a Grievance Committee was scheduled. All three Club Presidents and Vice Presidents appeared in hopes of keeping their charters without having to sign Paul Deering’s unapproved document. The RECVC leadership (Chairman Paul Deering, Comitteeman Vic Baker and Committeewoman Debbie Phillips - ALL “Trump Hater” Deb Denys supporters) disparaged each club with unsubstantiated, unproven and outright false accusations. And when the Grievance Committee Chairman asked each one if he/she felt that the clubs had “tarnished the Republican brand”, they each replied “Yes”. The following morning the Grievance Committee Chairman called two of the club Presidents and said, “Why don’t you all just sign his document and get on with your lives?” All three Republican Clubs chose to leave the RPOF and join Constitutionally Conservative Republican organizations. The Daytona Beach Club (the first and oldest continuously chartered Republican Club in Florida @ 66 years) joined the Republican Liberty Caucus while the Republican Club of West Volusia (45 year charter) and the Republican Club of Ormond Beach (25 year charter) joined the Florida Republican Assembly. To this day, Paul Deering continues to falsely tell anyone who asks (and even those who don’t) that the three clubs refused to follow the RPOF’s rules and their charters were terminated. Each club has documented evidence to prove otherwise!
I would love to speak with the author about attacks called "MAGA Alerts" on local Republican anti-Establishment candidates and their teams by Joe Gruter's business partner. As far as I know, this is only taking place in my county. The Establishment is obviously worried. Please message me.
Tom Leek and Paul Renner are two RINOs who think they are going to run the House next term so we need true Republicans across the state to help get them out!
It depends on who does the electing!! The RINOS are 10x's worst than the democrats. You know where the democrats aka. liberals are coming from, but a RINO??? They're a wolf in sheep's clothing and many committeemen & women do not take the time to vet these scumbags. In 2014 I moved to Collier County with a strong recommendation from the county Chair in Erie County NY who is now the State Chairman. I was the Chairman of a town outside of Buffalo NY that was totally decimated in a town wide election. I took control of the committee starting with 2 committee people and resurrected it to one of the strongest committees in Erie County. I ran for assemblyman and passed on an opportunity to run for congress in the 26 district of NY. Having said all that, I was unable to et an appointment with then the county chair of Collier County!! When I finally was finally a committeeman, it was obvious as to why I was given the bums rush. The committee was and still is RINO based! They did all they could to keep me from becoming the county chair. The meetings are a joke. I thought moving from NY to Florida would be an incredible opportunity for me be a part of a solid Constitutional Conservative committee. Instead, the committee was made of of smaller committees that were ran separate of the county but yet still involved. As for strategy for the committee is nothing more than a coffee klatch event every month. Their meetings are tantamount to Bidens excuses of the Afghanistan debacle or the excuses of the borders running rampant with illegals. They don't know how to fight and that is what we will need to do whit the upcoming elections midterm and the bloodbath of 2024! Make no mistake, BHO, put Biden in office for a reason, Caveat Emptor!!
When elected officials comment on my comments on an REC FB page and call me a democrat, they’ve lost my respect completely! I even door knocked for one of the two elected officials who did that.
I don’t use the term “RINO.” I don’t find that useful. But the establishment in our area is unfortunately molded by and sustained with developer money. Conflict of interest; it must be stopped.
After reading your article and realizing the RPOF isn't going to set an agenda for candidates in line with the National RP platform, I devised my own "America First Candidate Pledge" that would by-pass the establishment by asking candidates to sign the pledge and then advertising who did and who didn't.
I, _______________________________, running for the office of ______________________ in the state of ____________________ and the county of ____________________ do hereby pledge my allegiance to the beliefs listed in the Republican Party Platform document written in 2016 and re-adopted in 2020. Specifically,
We affirm – as did the Declaration of Independence: that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We believe in the Constitution as our founding document…[and] was written not as a flexible document, but as our enduring covenant.
We believe our constitutional system – limited government, separation of powers [into branches], federalism [separate government levels], and the rights of the people – must be preserved uncompromised for future generations.
These beliefs lead us to the following stands on issues we vow to confront in the next election cycle (Jan 2023-Jan 2025):
Reduce the power, size, and cost of government at all levels by voting/signing into law:
1. require 5 pages of existing legislation be removed for every 1 page of legislation added.
2. cap the spending on total government employee salaries/benefits per capita and reduce that cap every year by 10%.
3. make tax cuts automatically adjust to budgeted expenses so there is little or no revenue surplus at the end of the fiscal year (federal candidates pledge to vote ONLY for a balanced budget).
4. eliminate in their entirety departments and agencies whose powers are not granted by the U.S. or state constitutions as originally intended and amended.
Ensure separation of power into branches by voting/signing into law:
1. a detailed budget that removes funding from unconstitutional bureaucracies and executive actions to control executive overreach AND PROMINENTLY POST THAT BUDGET ONLINE in a user friendly format!
2. an executive line item veto that allows the executive branch to remove special interest funding by legislators.
3. require all legislative decisions to take place in our legislative branch and all judicial decisions to take place in our judicial branch instead of the executive branch bureaucracy.
Ensure separation of power into levels (federalism) by voting/signing into law:
1. eliminate mandates to lower levels wherever possible
2. eliminate funding grants to lower levels when strings are attached, or accepting grants from higher levels with strings attached.
3. return political power to lower levels wherever possible, with most power kept by your constituents as individuals.
Ensure the rights of the people by voting/signing into law:
1. any legislation that removes existing barriers to the Bill of Rights
2. any legislation that removes existing restrictions on property rights.
Vote against/veto any bills that do the opposite of the above!
Signed:___________________________________________________ Date__________________
You give too much credit to Governor DeSantis. His donors and appointees are the very people you talk about, ROMNEY Republicans. As far as the redistricting, DeSantis was happy to sign the original map that the Establishment wanted. The Patriots FOUGHT HARD to convince him to do the right thing.
AMERICA 1st = MAGA = TRUMP!
A couple years ago I started designing a crowd-sourced site with aims, among other things, of vetting down to the most local levels including judges and school boards. That was when I was developing websites, then I took work driving trucks and simply haven't had the time to pursue the project. It wouldn't be hard, but it would take time and buy-in by the people.
There might already be such a project, but information like this exists in silos with one segment not knowing what's goin on in another. That was one of the problems I had hoped could be overcome.
This is exactly what's happening in Marion County. Exactly!