Democrat Infiltration into MassGOP Has Finally Taken Its Toll

Democrat Infiltration into MassGOP Has Finally Taken Its Toll

by Mary Lou Daxland

President, Massachusetts Republican Assembly, the “Conservative Wing of the Republican Party,” and
Candidate for Re-election, Republican State Committee

The MASSGOP has been on life support for years. I don’t like to say that RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) are in control of the party because it is far worse: Democrats with Democrat values have had the keys to the MassGOP for years. You don’t become a one-party state without infiltration of the opposition into the Party.

Before getting elected last year in a special ‘caucus’ vote, I spent eight years sitting in the back of the room at State Committee meetings and have witnessed a most dysfunctional group of people. As state R enrollment ticked downward, Membership Chair and State Committeeman Matt Sisk reported “nothing to report,” meeting after meeting. Then one meeting he reported that “they tried doing something with the college kids, but it didn’t work out.” Really?  Maybe the problem was bow-tie Matt (Matt is noted for his bow ties). The Democrats have been winning over college students for years, but it didn’t work out for the Republicans. A very lame excuse for doing nothing.

I have watched two party chairs, Jennifer Nassour and Kirsten Hughes, make fools of themselves because they did not have a clue on how to conduct a meeting. Vice Chair Kangas usually came to their rescue. It seems that meetings were only to get together and drink – there is a constant flow of in-and-out at the meetings to the bar. Many members over the years have been clocked as spending more time at the bar then at the meetings. I sat behind two state committeemen who were retiring in 2012. They lamented that they really didn’t drink enough over the years at the meetings. Can’t make this stuff up.

Committeeman Luke Noble conducted a candidate training program up on the North Shore in 2013. The guest speaker was a Democrat! The main theme of the speech was that Republican candidates need to be more like the Democrats. So what happened to: “Let’s be more like Republicans”?  Luke – as one of the Baker/establishment-endorsed candidates for State Committee – was somehow chosen to be the spokesperson for a MassSave energy savings commercial this past month. So Luke’s face is all over the local TV airways. Nice way of getting free advertising for your State Committee race. Vote Lawrence “Lonnie” Brennan in the First Essex and Middlesex District. Noble has to go.

The new crop of State Committee men and women that came in 2012 was a breath of fresh air. They took their jobs seriously and helped to make some changes these past few years. One very obvious change was less time spent at the bar. They’ve worked the bylaws and platform and worked hard to get local candidates elected; they spent days getting signatures for Tank the Gas Tax and End Common Core ballot questions. They debated and stood their ground on principles that the Republican Party has always stood for.

I myself was caucused in this past July by the RTCs and RCCs in my district because the previous state committeewoman resigned. Very strange, I might add, not sitting in the back of the room with people who come to see just how bad things have become. The Party leadership is now the west wing of the Democrat party.

So how are all these hard working Committee members, including myself, being rewarded?  With a challenger to our seats this election cycle on March 1st.

Governor Baker has declared war on conservatives and wants to rid the Committee of them. But he really did not do a good job vetting his “team.” You really want to keep the Democrat Party in control when you recruit candidates that work for the state or the Baker administration and can’t fundraise (according to state law). So how are you going to build a Party that is flat- lined when you have a State Committee dominated by members who can’t help the Party?

It is bad enough that we have Sisk, Cordeiro, Ussach, Davis, Barstow, Leombruno, Casey and McGrath, who are currently on the Committee and can’t raise a dime. But there again they all have their photo albums with pictures of themselves with elected Republicans who have slowly turned into Democrats as the years pass. Remember Scott Brown who promised to be our voice, but as soon as he got to Washington he voted with the Democrats 47% of the time? Or Governor Weld, who endorsed the Democrat candidate over the Republican Caroline Colarusso in 2014 and Caroline lost that Rep. seat by less than 200 votes?

Some of the challengers Baker and Co. have put up against conservatives are recently-enrolled Democrats! There is a carpet bagger from New York, Neil St. Clair, who was registered as a Democrat in New York before he moved to Mass. and registered as a Republican. He has no track record of helping a candidate get elected or even making an appearance at a Republican town committee meeting.

Nancy Stanton-Cross, an attorney who has a track record of giving to Democrats, is another notorious establishment-backed candidate. She made donations to Democrat Rep. Carol Fiola, who ran against Republican David Steinhof in 2013 and 2014. Nancy is on record for giving a donation to Fiola for both campaigns. Nancy has not been to a town meeting in over three years including one of the most controversial town meetings on December 1, 2015 when over 450 people attended. She is rated as a “B” voter which means Nancy doesn’t vote every election. She has never attended a Republican town committee meeting in over eight years, nor has anyone seen her help a Republican get elected to anything… But she will donate to the Democrats. This is who Governor Baker feels would make a great addition to the State Committee? Someone better inform the governor that it is against the State Committee bylaws for any member to support a Democrat.

Norman Orrall, husband of Rep. Keiko Orrall, has made it very clear that he is too busy as treasurer of the Lakeville Republican Town Committee to attend a monthly meeting. The Lakeville RTC – if you follow the rules – is non-existent. Norman has made the statement: “no one from the State Committee is going to tell him what to do.” Maybe that has something to do with it. Last summer the RTC had not had a meeting in over a year – way overdue for being re-organized. If Norman were to get elected he would have to attend meetings in seven towns. Is he really going to have the time or make the effort???  OR will Norman join the club with Senator Vinny de Macedo who only shows up to a State Committee meeting when he is told to, and votes the way Baker and Co. dictates? Will Norman make an effort to organize committees in his district or help local candidates in other towns get elected? Voters should be very leery of Mr. Orrall and the reason why he is running for State Committee. Mr.Orrall is Establishment at best.

Rep. Sheila Harrington has resurfaced again trying to get onto the State Committee. She lost her bid for national committeewoman back in 2013. Sheila is truly a Democrat with an R next to her name. After signing the bill that Reps. Lyons and Lombardo introduced in the spring of 2014 to release Justina Pelletier, she then ranted against the bill she signed, taking to the floor of the Legislature and telling everyone that the government knows better how to take care of a child than parents do. WOW. Sounds like Bernie Sanders, a proclaimed Democrat socialist.

Republican voters on March 1st need to look very closely at who is running for State Committee in their district. With today’s technology you can check anything on your phone. VoteCoreValues.org will have all the candidates listed that have someone challenging their seat. Information is the best weapon especially against an Establishment that has taken over the MassGOP and turned it into the west wing of the Democrat Party.