Capitol Alert: Tehama GOP pulls party chair's speaking invite over endorsement spat

There's no need for Tom Del Beccaro to R.S.V.P. to the Tehama County Republican Party's upcoming Lincoln Reagan Dinner.

The northern California GOP group publicly uninvited the state party chairman to its May gathering this week, citing a split over endorsements in the newly drawn 3rd Assembly District.

"The TCRP, by unanimous vote, has affirmed that our speaker must be someone that upholds our adherence to Republican values and principles," Chairman Ken Say wrote in a letter to Del Beccaro. "Unfortunately, we no longer believe that you meet that criteria and have voted to invite speakers that the TCRP believe to meet that standard."

Members of the Tehama group are upset that the state party's board of directors opted to endorse Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Marysville, over Tehama County Supervisor Bob Williams, the candidate who won the county party's endorsement. In an open letter circulated Tuesday, Say accused the party board of violating its own bylaws by invalidating his group's endorsement.

"We, the Tehama County Republican Party, at the local level, will continue to support the Republican candidates that represent our best interests and not some unknown person picked by a "star chamber" in an illegal procedure," Say wrote.

Del Beccaro defended what he called an "unprecedented" endorsement process created in response to the state's new primary system, saying in a statement that the "overwhelming majority of decisions the party made were well received."

"There were exceptions - proving the adage that you cannot please everyone, especially in politics," he said in the statement. "Going forward the Party will move toward a more broad based process that will engage Republicans voters directly."

CRP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro,

After serious discussion of the endorsement actions taken by the California Republican Party Board of Directors during their March 11th meeting, the Tehama County Republican Party has unanimously voted to rescind the invitation extended to you to be our guest speaker at the TCRP dinner of May 19, 2012. The TCRP, by unanimous vote, has affirmed that our speaker must be someone that upholds our adherence to Republican values and principles. Unfortunately, we no longer believe that you meet that criteria and have voted to invite speakers that the TCRP believe to meet that standard.

We realize that you are only one vote on the Board, but your personal leadership in the CRP Board endorsement process has convinced us that you were unable to guide the Board in adhering to the Board's own bylaws. The specific bylaw violation was the invalidation of Tehama County's February 9th endorsement of Assembly candidate, Tehama County Supervisor Bob Williams, which then allowed the CRP Board to disregard the clear requirement of a non-endorsement by the Board in Section 3.02 of the bylaws. The TCRP believes that their endorsements were invalidated by the CRP Board because it did not fit conveniently with the candidates that you wanted to support and we resent that CRP funds will be used to only support your candidates.

We are making our displeasure of the Board's and your action public to let the other Republican County Central Committees know that the CRP's leadership has placed their own interests above the individual interests of the local Republican voters as expressed by their duly-elected central committee members. We clearly understand the reason for the alienation that many California Republicans feel toward the State Party.

We, the Tehama County Republican Party, at the local level, will continue to support the Republican candidates that represent our best interests and not some unknown person picked by a "star chamber" in an illegal procedure.

Sincerely,

Ken Say, Chairman