Friday Night Fights at The Pima County GOP – Bring The Popcorn!

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

And they say running the Democratic Party is like herding cats…

If you have not been following this story, Pima County GOP chairman Brian Miller has got himself sideways with his fellow Republicans who recently stripped him of his powers and taken away his keys to the kingdom at Pima County GOP headquarters at 5447 East 5th St., Suite 100, Tucson, AZ. Leader of Pima County's GOP faces removal effort:

Pima County Republican Party leaders voted late Thursday [June 30] to take party chairman Brian Miller’s keys to the GOP headquarters away and call a special meeting to try to remove him from his post.

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After Miller refused to resign, the executive committee voted 10-2 to order Miller to cease and desist from acting as an agent of the county committee and return his keys.

Brian Miller comes from the Ron Paul Libertarian wing of the GOP. He got into trouble back in January when he made comments supporting the First Amendment Rights of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church to protest at the memorial services for the Tucson shooting victims. The group is known to display signs that say "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God For Dead Soldiers." Westboro Baptist Church To Picket Funerals Of Arizona Shooting Victims. The GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature enacted emergency "funeral protection" legislation that bars protests within 300 feet of a funeral and within an hour from its beginning or end. Arizona enacts funeral protest legislation – CNN.

In May, Miller got into big trouble when he spoke out against a Pima County Sheriff SWAT raid that ended in the death of José Guerena, a southside resident who responded to the raid by grabbing an AR-15 rifle—and wound up dying in a hail of gunfire. In the wake of the raid, Miller fired off an e-mail headlined "We Are All José Guerena." The Skinny | Tucson Weekly:

That didn't set well with the law-and-order wing of the GOP, which organized a drive to oust Miller. The chairman has lost the support of elected lawmakers, including state Sens. Frank Antenori and Al Melvin, and state Rep. Terri Proud.

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"Mr. Miller's statements regarding the SWAT raid have created serious problems for our elected officials (and) money-raising efforts and have divided the party," the executive committee announced in a statement. "Mr. Miller was given repeated opportunities to either mend these fences or resign his position, and has chosen to do neither. Instead, he has continued to make controversial statements to the press."

Republican Party precinct leaders will meet at 4:30 p.m. this Friday, July 15, at downtown's Manning House to revise the party's rules to allow them to kick Miller out of the chairman's slot. If they are successful in changing the rules, party leaders hope to have a vote to remove him.

Brian Miller supporters have a line of CafePress items you can purchase. Political notebook: If Miller's out, who gets to run the GOP? "CafePress, which makes custom T-shirts, many of them with decidedly political messages, has a "No GOP Witch Hunt" line in support of Miller (www.cafepress.com/PimaGOPWitchHunt.) Supporters can display their messages on $12 coffee mugs, $18 T-shirts or $15 tote bags."

I checked the Pima County GOP web site for more information about this executive meeting and it is nowhere to be found, not even on the calendar of upcoming events. Political parties are required to hold public meetings. Now I don't know whether a notice of this meeting has been sent to registered Republicans, but if not, you are entitled to attend this executive meeting. Only elected Republican precinct committeee persons in Pima County may vote, however. Bring your own popcorn.

The Manning House Mansion of Tucson is located at 450 W. Paseo Redondo (off of Granada Avenue, in downtown Tucson). According to press reports, this execituve meeting is Friday, July 15, at 4:30 p.m.

As the press reports indicate, the fight card includes a preliminary bout for a bylaws change (I assume this requires at least a two-thirds vote of PCs in attendance). Should the bylaws change be adopted, it will be followed by the main event — the attempt to remove Brian Miller from office (I assume the bylaws change adopted will also require at least a two-thirds vote of PCs in attendance).

If removed from office, first vice-chairman Mike Shaw would become acting chairman until an election can be held to elect a new chairman. I am pretty sure this cannot be done at the same meeting because there is not a vacancy in office unless and until Brian Miller is actually removed from office, and there must be proper notice under the bylaws of a special election for chairman of the Pima County GOP. So we can look forward to another fight card.