The executive committee of the Georgia GOP has been summoned for an emergency Feb. 13 meeting to discuss the party's dire financial problems, several people with direct knowledge of the situation said.
The party filed an end-of-the-year report showing it had just over $11,000 in cash and more than $230,000 in debt – a startling revelation for a party that controls all the levers of power in Georgia and commanded millions just a few election cycles ago.
One Republican insider described the upcoming meeting as an "accountability session" -- a chance for party chairman John Padgett and his team to outline how they will right the ship. Click here to download the summons.
“It’s good to see the district chairs calling for an accounting of what has taken place over the past three years,” said Justin Tomczak, a Republican activist informed of the decision. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been wasted with little to nothing to show for it.”
He said he’s hopeful the meeting will result in “significant changes” ahead of the November election.
A party spokesman declined to comment.
It's unlikely that Padgett's tenure is in the immediate crosshairs, given that the 2016 primary candidate qualifying period (beginning March 7) is fast approaching. The Athens businessman survived a narrow re-election campaign last year against a challenger who claimed the party had lost its edge, and he's faced recent criticism for his financial stewardship.
Padgett has relied upon former congressman Jack Kingston to help the party restock its bank account, and the Savannah Republican has organized events around the state featuring national figures and statewide leaders that have brought in more than $250,000.
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Turmoil in Republican ranks isn't limited to state headquarters. From the Covington News:
Jason Shepherd, general counsel for the Newton County Republican Party, said the o…key to figuring out the jumbled mess is that party rules dictate that most of the power lies in the county committee, not with the executive officers.
"The executive officers (chair, vice chair and secretary-treasurer) cannot do much without county committee approval," Shepherd said. "One ad went in and was approved by the county committee (Feb. 20) and another ad that went in was for a different date, time and location (Feb. 16), which we don't see any evidence or possibility that it was ever approved by a county committee."
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The Georgia presidential primary is exactly one month away. If you're not registered to vote by the close of business today, you'll be a mere bystander.
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One of your Insiders, Greg Bluestein, is on the road in Iowa. On Sunday, he shared travel logistics with WSB Radio's Jamie Dupree. A key line from Dupree's diary:
But there was that one moment on the road when Bluestein confessed that he had been listening to me on the radio since he was a kid in Atlanta – and that certain members of his extended family think I'm a big, fat liberal.
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Look who's giving money to Becky Gerritson, a tea party challenger to U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.):
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Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who hasn't said what he'll be doing in 2018, has teed up the Georgia High School Athletic Association as a bastion of secular humanism. From his op-ed in the Calhoun Times:
Adding insult to injury, GHSA recently banned dozens of Christian schools from playing competitive sports with their public and larger private school counterparts. To anyone observing from the outside, there's simply no good reason why two schools who equally want to compete with one another should be barred by a third party from playing sports.
Making matters worse, GHSA issued its denial in a curt letter, giving minimal explanation to these Christian schools, essentially saying "we don't want to play sports with you." Bear in mind this "association" is private in name only: much of its funding tied to your tax dollars and public education, giving it control over millions of dollars in public investment in athletic facilities that ought to be available for the benefit of our communities.
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