By Paul Gable
Noted historian, author and Tea Party activist Dean Allen added his voice to the call for ouster of SCGOP chairman Chad Connelly over the ongoing candidate ineligibility issues of this election season.
In his book “Rattlesnake Revolution: The Tea Party Strikes”, Allen compared and contrasted historical roots and interactions of socio-political movements that have shaped American culture and politics.
In a recent e-mail, Allen wrote of the totally political mess that has surrounded the South Carolina primary election season and put a temporary halt to many challenger candidates throughout the state.
“Our State Chairman, and our State Supreme Court are making South Carolina the laughing stock of the nation,” said Allen. “There are banana republics in South America with better run elections.”
Of the many errors made by S.C. Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly this election season, declaring Ed Harris to be an ineligible candidate after he won the primary election is the worst so far.
Harris won the nomination for House District 3 over incumbent B.R. Skelton by a 73 vote margin. When Harris’ eligibility was challenged by Skelton, the GOP Executive Committee upheld the Harris win.
Then Connelly stepped in, overrode the EC decision, declared Harris ineligible by e-mail and declared Skelton the nominee. The EC met in a several hour executive session several days after Connelly’s pre-emptive strike and voted to support the Connelly decision.
“I took an oath to support our constitution, five separate times,” Allen continued. “I believe in democracy (small “d”) and the right of the people to vote on elected officials. The people cannot vote if the courts strip them of 200 candidates to vote for. Even worse, if the voters in the Republican primary make a very clear choice known in an election, and the State Chairman of the party then certifies the LOSER, what was the point of holding an election?”
Getting candidates elected is the number one job of any political party. Connelly has shown himself and his administrative team singularly incompetent at this task with hundreds of candidates being declared ineligible during this election season due to party confusion over state law.
Grand Strand Daily and SC Hotline have called for Connelly to step down as the level of party incompetence has been uncovered during the spring nominating season. Now, Allen has added his voice to this call with the following e-mail to fellow Republicans:
From: Dean Allen
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012
Subject: State GOP Chairman violated rules and should be removed
Dear Friends,
The excerpt from rule 7(d)(5) of the SC GOP Rules is the most current version, copied from the SC GOP website Saturday, July 29, 2012.
SC GOP State Rules
Rule 7 (d)(5) in relevant part:
“…Should any officer or delegate publicly endorse or financially support a candidate for partisan office other than a duly nominated Republican candidate, unless there is no Republican nominee in the relevant race, they shall immediately vacate their Republican Party office.”
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Our State Chairman has failed to certify the candidate who +won a contested GOP primary; and certified the loser as the nominee instead. I believe this is a clear violation of SC GOP State Rule 7(d)(5) cited above.
In 2008 this Rule was cited as the mandatory requirement to remove two Precinct Chairmen in Greenville County, Ken Shields, and Chris Golden, because each man supported Flattop Bob, the Democrat nominee for US Senate, over Senator Lindsey Graham, who won our primary and had been re-nominated.
The Credentials Committee of the County Executive Committee at that time cited Rule 7(d)(5) which has remained unchanged, as a mandatory requirement to automatically remove any GOP officer who supports a candidate other than the candidate who won the GOP primary.
State Chairman Chad Connolly has violated this rule by certifying the loser of the GOP primary for a state house seat in Pickens County, instead of certifying the winner of that election. He should be immediately impeached and removed from office.
Please send this to every Tea Party leader, and to every Republican who cares about our party and the rule of law.
Respectfully,
Dean Allen
Link to Allen’s website: http://rattlesnakerevolution.com/home
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