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Showdown at the Mass. GOP corral! Traditionalists & Tea Party vs social liberal RINO establishment.

Facing off in election this Wednesday for party chairman.

See Video below

POSTED: Nov. 28 2011

Frank McNamara

Will one of the most liberal State Republican Parties in America start to get turned around? Like the rest of the country, the grassroots flood of conservative change is banging on the door in Massachusetts. And the RINO establishment is fighting hard to stop it.

This Wednesday, Nov. 30, will be the first big showdown.

That evening at the Newton Marriott the Republican State Committee will be voting on an interim Chairman to fill out the unexpired term of Jennifer Nassour, who stepped down last month. The term will last until January 2013 — thus encompassing the crucial 2012 elections (including the Republican primary where Mitt Romney wants to take Massachusetts). Elections for Party Chairman always attract various candidates. But they probably weren't expecting this big of a fight.

Two prominent candidates facing off

When Nassour resigned, a lot of people were taken by surprise when Frank McNamara, the former US Attorney under Ronald Reagan and a well-respected figure across the state, stepped up to run.

McNamara is a conservative's dream candidate who understands politics, can raise money, and is an unapologetic conservative. When it comes to the spectrum of difficult issues pressing us today — both social and fiscal — McNamara "gets it." (See video below.)

But the GOP establishment is taking no chances. They have responded with their own high-profile candidate: Bob Maginn. Maginn worked with Mitt Romney at Bain Capital and ran for State Treasurer in 1998. He is heavily endorsed by the usual RINO crowd, particularly the Romney people. A multi-millionaire, he is running an unusually well-funded campaign to get the votes of the 80 State Committee members.

How left-wing is the Massachusetts GOP establishment?

For years the conservative grassroots in Massachusetts have complained that the pro-abortion, pro-gay Republican establishment has dominated the party.

For example:

• Outgoing Chairman Jennifer Nassour did a front-page interview with the hardcore Boston homosexual newspaper "Bay Windows" in 2009 promising them that the Republican Party will no longer oppose same-sex "marriage," abortion, other "social issues".
  
  

  Mass GOP Chairman Jennifer Nassour on front page of homosexual newspaper "Bay Windows"

• The recent (establishment-picked) GOP candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor — Charlie Baker and Richard Tisei — both supported "gay marriage" and abortion rights. Baker marched in the Boston Gay Pride parade. Tisei, an "out" homosexual endorsed the "transgender rights and hate crimes" bill.
• The previous GOP candidate for Governor, Kerry Healey, supported abortion and civil unions, and spoke at "Republicans for Choice" events with Planned Parenthood.
• The most recent GOP Governor, Mitt Romney, campaigned for office with a pro-abortion, pro-gay rights message. (See "Mitt Romney's Deception.") Maginn donated $25,000 to Romney's campaign.
  
  

  The infamous "Pride Weekend" flier from the Romney campaign for Governor.

• US Senator Scott Brown ran for office publicly opposing the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell." Since getting in, once he got in he not only voted for it but he (1) invited the hardcore homosexual activists from "KnowThyNeighbor" to the signing ceremony, and (2) attended a fundraiser for the homosexual group "Log Cabin Republicans" to receive an award for his vote.
  
  

  US Sen. Scott Brown speaks at homosexual group's fundraiser in October. Tells them that repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was "in the best interest of our state and our country."

Many people across the state have complained that pro-life, pro-family candidates are openly shunned by the state party and given much less support than liberal candidates.

Debate between the candidates: McNamara came; Maginn refused

Over the summer, Tea Party activists and principled conservative Republicans from across the state met to re-organize the Massachusetts Republican Assembly (MARA). With chapters across the country, the state Republican Assembly groups promote traditional Republican values — describing themselves as "the Republican wing of the Republican Party" — and since the 1960s often have been quite influential.

On November 13, MARA organized a debate in Worcester between all the announced candidates for State Party Chairman. It was the only debate set up for this election. MARA invited all four currently announced candidates for Party Chairman to take part.

For the debate format, they asked four statewide activists to be panelists to ask questions of the candidates:

1. Lonnie Brennan - Founder of www.VoteCoreValues.org and former Candidate for the MA State Legislature.

2. Linda Rapoza - State Committeewoman of the 1st Bristol & Plymouth District, and President of the 4th Congressional District Chapter of the Massachusetts Republican Assembly.

3. Brian Camenker - Founder & Director of MassResistance

4. Richard Howell - Founder of the Pioneer Valley Tea Party

Facing the panel. Right to left: Richard Howell, Brian Camenker, Lonnie Brennan, Linda Rapoza, Frank McNamara.

Prior to the debate date, two of the candidates, Kamal Jain and Phil Dann, dropped out of the race, leaving McNamara and Maginn. (Jain subsequently endorsed McNamara.)

But despite weeks of invitations and urging by phone, mail, and email, Maginn refused to take part in the debate. This left McNamara as the sole participant.

And what an event it was! McNamara REALLY came through as the person to lead the Massachusetts GOP into the future. WATCH this video of clips from McNamara's presentation and answers to questions.

Why didn't Maginn want to debate?

Why did Maginn refuse to attend the debate? Like most establishment Massachusetts Republicans, he likely sees conservatives with a degree of condescension. Many believe that Maginn did not want to give the conservative hoi polloi any "legitimacy" by being there.

But also, there were some uncomfortable things that they would have brought up which Maginn probably doesn't want to talk about:

• In 2009 Maginn donated $2400 to ultra-left Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). (How bad is Schumer? Here's our MassResistance video of Schumer marching in the New York City Gay Pride Parade, along with disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner.)
  
• Maginn's wife is a liberal activist who avidly supports the "Occupy Boston" movement and recently went to their encampment in downtown Boston to advise them "on strategies."
  
• In 2003 Maginn was reprimanded and fined by the state Office of Campaign Political Finance (OCPF) for improperly laundering $25,000 for radio ads for the Mitt Romney for Governor campaign, and misrepresenting their origin.
  
• Maginn is very candid about being pro-life (although he has given money to pro-choice politicians). But he hasn't posted anything that we can find about his views on same-sex "marriage," homosexual rights, transgender rights, and the like.

It's easy to see why he'd want to keep these under the radar while running for Party Chariman. He would very likely have been asked about these at the MARA debate.

Unprecedented money and energy to elect Maginn

We have never seen a race for Massachusetts GOP Chairman where this much money and energy has been spent by a candidate. Maginn is using his considerable wealth and the establishment is also pulling out all the stops:

• Maginn has a campaign website that boasts an impressive number of endorsements -- basically the RINO establishment but also some surprises.
  
• He has advertisements in several prominent Mass. GOP web sites and blogs.
  
  

  Pulling out all the stops. We don't recall ever seeing ads for a Mass. GOP chairman's race.

  
  
• US Sen. Scott Brown and (and others) have made videos for Maginn's election.
  
  

  SEE Scott Brown video for Maginn.

  
  
• He has organized campaign events and has lobbied Committee members relentlessly.

Outrageous: Bribing State Committee members for their votes?

It's one thing to lobby hard. But is Maginn actually bribing State Committee members to vote for him? It appears that way, and it's very troubling.

State Committee members run for election every four years in the Republican Presidential Primary in March. To run, they have to get signatures in during the previous October. The 80-member Republican State Committee (one man and one woman from each of the 40 state senate districts) is generally thought of as a collection of party hacks who will rubber-stamp anything, along with a minority of principled conservatives who try to hold the line.

But that may change because MARA has done something that is unprecedented. For decades, conservatives have talked about running non-RINO State Committee candidates across the state and taking it over. This year, MARA has done that. Over the summer they have recruited enough principled conservatives across the state that in the March elections the conservatives could very possibly win a majority of seats! It's exciting for us. But it has the party hacks on the committee very frightened about the March elections.

Maginn, a millionaire, apparently has an answer for that. Here is an excerpt from an email sent from Maginn to State Committee members and supporters on Nov. 16, posted on the VoteCoreValues.org website:

From email sent to State Committee members from Maginn:

What?? In other words, in return for their votes on Wednesday, Maginn is proposing to fund the re-election of RINO hacks in the current State Committee against principled conservatives MARA has recruited to run against them. It looks pretty sleazy. Maginn will obviously fit in just fine with the current Beacon Hill culture.

MassResistance will be there on Wednesday to cover it. We will be posting a report after the meeting on www.massresistance.org and also in an email update.

Not wanted: more of the same

According to recent press reports, the number of registered Republicans in Massachusetts is down to 11% — 474,798 out of about 4 million total registered voters. It's been estimated that there are now more illegal aliens voting in elections here than registered Republicans!

In the Legislature over the last decade, we've had much better luck working with conservative Democrats than with Republicans, who tend to be unreliable and afraid of their own shadows.

Something's got to change. Presenting a mushy brand of watered-down liberalism simply doesn't work. On the other hand, the recent elections where 20 pro-family Republican state reps were elected (despite virtually no support from the state party) shows that conservatives can win - even here. That's the future.

TAKE ACTION!

If you live in Massachusetts (or even if you don't) you can contact YOUR State Committee members and read them the riot act about selling out to the RINO establishment this Wednesday.

Here's what to do:

1. Find your district by going to the Secretary of State's website. Then look for the senate district name in the "Senate in General Court" box.

2. Look up that district on the list of State Committee members on the Mass GOP website.

3. Each district on that list has both a man and woman Committee member, along with their emails. EMAIL BOTH of them.Let them know that you are prepared to vote against them in March. (Tell them you want a response, also.)