Central Caucus Has Not Endorsed Val — This statement from Pennsylvania State Republican Central Caucus co-chairs Dick Stewart and Katherine Wood-Jacobs has been placed on Facebook and declares that their group has made no endorsement in the race for Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman despite claims made by the Val DiGiorgio camp that they have tapped him.
The other leading contender is respected attorney Lawrence Tabas who is general counsel of the state Republican Party.
Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2017 4:11 PM
Dear State Committee Members,
Last night, an email was sent out deliberately misrepresenting the truth about yesterday’s Central Caucus meeting. It is such a complete distortion of the facts that we cannot stay silent.
When it comes to the statements made about the State Chair race, there was NO VOTE by the Central Caucus.
The vote was about whether to allow time to hear from Lawrence and Val yesterday or wait until our February caucus breakfast. The vote had nothing to do with showing support for one candidate or the other but only to allow them time to speak. Val’s email claiming victory is a misrepresentation of the facts.
We made the decision in mid-December when we called the meeting that the sole purpose of the meeting was to interview statewide judicial candidates and to have a straw ballot with respect to those candidates. Both candidates for chairman were advised that they would have an opportunity to address the caucus at our caucus meeting in February.
In order to consider business not called for in the notice of the meeting, the bylaws would have to be suspended. A vote was taken and it failed.
As it was, in order to give all of the judicial candidates a full and complete vetting we skipped lunch and still had to inconvenience the hotel by extending our stay past the hotels deadline for vacating the room.
We believe the most important task of the day was to find the best possible candidates for our statewide courts. We didn’t think we needed to change our long standing practice because it didn’t suit Val’s timetable.
The Central Caucus takes pride in being the first to vet the candidates for public office in our Commonwealth. We take our role very seriously and understand the importance of this year’s judicial elections.
The truth is simple. There was no straw poll and any statement inferring otherwise is just wrong.
Sincerely,
Dick Stewart & Katherine Wood-Jacobs
Central Caucus Co-Chairs
Shameful that someone seeking leadership of the State Party would “deliberately misrepresent[] the truth.” That should tell people all they need to know about that leadership contest.
That ought to be sufficient to disqualify him for the position.
What’s shameful is that ole ‘Billy one-sided Lawrence’ published this letter but failed to publish the one signed by Greg Rothman and 3 other central caucus county chairs. That letter was likely not published because it doesn’t fit his narrative. It’s sad because as a conservative I always thought that we stood for something more in how we reported facts and news.
Well, correct us if we are wrong. Was there a vote by the Central Caucus to make an endorsement? Dick Stewart and Katherine Wood-Jacobs flat out say there wasn’t.
Send us the letter. We will run it.
Also, if you want to avoid moderation stick to one handle.
Knowledge lover, why don’t you share the letter with Bill’s readers? By the way, too, you mention Greg Rothman. Is he the Greg Rothman who was guilty of a conspiracy to commit forgery charge concerning an election years ago? Maybe YOU left that out because it doesn’t fit your narrative, I hope not. If he is the same person and is supporting Mr. DiGiorgio that would denote a groundswell of support from Republicans convicted of politics-related crimes because I read that Bob Asher, with final convictions for: one count of conspiracy to violate the federal mail fraud and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering (“ITAR”) statutes; five counts of mail fraud; three ITAR counts, and one perjury count, also wants Mr. DiGiorgio to win.