Dysfunction, infighting, corruption, and personal spats are characteristic of authoritarian politics. The GOP has become such an anti-democratic, authoritarian movement from top to bottom. Today, we take a closer look at the bottom here in Pima County through the lens of an interview with Pima GOP Chair Dave Smith.
We are all already too familiar with the evidence of how the GOP has gone wrong from the top, but we seldom get a look at how thoroughly the Trump virus has ravaged the once grand old party all the way down to the very roots.
In a live radio broadcast on KVOI right-wing talk radio on August 1, 2023, Pima County GOP Chair Dave Smith admitted publicly how the county Republican Party is racked with infighting, lack of funds, and a hostile previous leadership. It is through the person of Dave Smith and his interview that we can examine the infection up close.
The host was Chris Desimone, a right-wing MAGA radio announcer who’s WakeUp! Tucson show is broadcast daily from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Here are some bottom-line facts and take-aways from the interview, which are related in more detail in the remainder of this post.
The Current State of the Pima County Republican Party
- Moniless and low on cash. Smith said, “When I took over, we were minus $499 in the bank the day I got control of it.”
- Smith agreed that GOP Mayoral candidate Janet Wittenbraker cannot win in the current three-way race.
- Smith, who was elected Chair in January 2023, said, “I’ve failed. And that’s the whole thing, managing agreement nowadays. What’s happened during the last eight years, you’ve seen this constant conflict, and it wears people out.”
- The change in chairs from Shelly Keis to Dave Smith in January 2023 caused a split in the county party. Keis was accused by some party members of doing “illegal stuff,” announcer Chris Desimone said, “There’s been a lot of accusations against Shelly [Kais] and some of those people in the ExCom.
- Smith hopes for an unexpected, extreme-impact “Black Swan Event” to invigorate Republican voters.
The previous Second Chair, Anna Clark (pictured at right), declared that the party’s donor list was her own personal property and she would not turn it over to Smith. “You can’t be the second chair and say that’s your private property and take our records with you,” Smith complained.- The previous Pima GOP executive director, Bobbie Jo King, quit, and she deleted all the content from party computers. “All the computers were wiped,” Smith said. There were no files in the office. I ran a paperless office. The executive director’s computers were wiped. The executive director’s computer we had taken in for a forensic analysis. It was either a new hard drive or a bleach-cleaned hard drive. There was absolutely no file on the executive director’s computer. That’s my frustration,” Smith said. When Smith discussed the data loss with the previous Chair, Shelly Keis, Smith said he did not get a satisfactory answer. “No, not at all. Not at all. No,” Smith said.
The Pima GOP is riven with infighting, personal attacks and internal name-calling. Desimone said, “The loud side of our group, our Republicans, are crapping on others constantly.” Smith (pictured in red shirt) responded, “The crapping goes both ways. It’s like going back and fighting about last Thanksgiving, and we got another Thanksgiving coming up. We’re going to have the family together, or the family is going to be divided. And that’s the problem I have. Instead, we get their carping, or they’re attacking too. It’s not us [Smith supporters]. We’re not busy attacking people. We’re focused on the goal line. My problem is the people who want to fight about ‘you didn’t follow the bylaws here.”- LD17 GOP meetings are a “train wreck. Everyone’s yelling,” Smith said.
- Asked why it is hard for voters to get motivated to support Republican candidates, Smith said, “It’s learned helplessness, that no matter what they do, it doesn’t matter anyway. So they’re sitting there and not getting off the couch.”
(Scroll down to see more highlights below)
A condensed transcript of key parts of the broadcast on KVOI-AM right-wing talk radio can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SDfJmD-195qRyn7pTV-V1ZXsWc8M9R5D/
To hear the condensed audio recording, visit https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PbtFQ0HMMfeMCPnR2WXcoEZ5fALUHv_v/view?usp=drive_link
About Dave Smith
Smith, age 71, was elected Pima GOP Chair in January 2023. He oversees the Pima GOP Facebook page and Twitter page, which are dumpster fires of rage.
For 33 years, Smith has made a career of being a Tucson ex-cop, making money from active police officers with videos, articles, and seminars. Even though he was a police officer for only three years, he bills himself as a “law enforcement icon” and “one of America’s top law enforcement trainers.”
Smith sends out the apocalyptic Pima GOP newsletter, the Grassroots Gazette, which calls readers the “PCRP herd” of cattle. His Bible-quoting column, “From the Desk of Dave Smith,” adopts the tone of a MAGA stormtrooper.
He writes that the Left wants “no gas, no cars and eventually, no private property” in the April 25, 2023, issue. He adds, “The word ‘sustainability’ means “Big Brother will decide what you drive, own and do!”
Additional highlights
Chris Desimone: So, Janet [Wittenbraker, GOP candidate for Mayor] refuses to come on the show to have an interview. She got butt hurt because I said I don’t see the math. Ed [Ackerley] has more name ID. I thought she should have stepped aside. And she got so butt hurt about me saying that I was intimidating her, and she doesn’t want to come on the show. What are we doing? What are we doing here?
Dave Smith: She’s got better qualifications than anybody else running. She’s got a broad range of perspectives in terms of business and city government.
Chris Desimone: No one would know that because she has no money to tell anybody that.
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Dave Smith: One of my biggest bugaboos is when we have a false conflict. And that’s where you, let’s say, 10 of us are in a room, and I’m the boss, and I say, what do you guys think about this idea? And you all agree with me, and then you and I do it.
And then later, you’re all sitting around having a cup of coffee saying, “That’s the stupidest idea we ever heard.” I needed to hear that when we were in the meeting, not when you’re having a cup of coffee. And I’ve failed. And that’s the whole thing, managing agreement nowadays.
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Dave Smith: We need money, folks. And that’s the thing. We need the people. Juan Ciscomani has the insight into where to go and get big-dollar funds.
Chris Desimone: So, money we’ve talked about, right? The infighting of the party doesn’t help the message at all.
Dave Smith: It hurts us dramatically.
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Chris Desimone: So, I was telling you about a guy that I met at the gym. And when 2020 happened, he was pissed about the 2020 election and became a PC. I told you this over beer, but I want everyone to hear the story. And what happened was he got involved, became a PC, worked on Anna Orth [failed GOP candidate for LD17 House in 2022], volunteered on election observing and all, did all that, right?
And I see him at the gym after the ‘22 election. I go, “How’s it going?” He goes, “Eh, I think I’m going to not be a PC anymore.” I go, “Why?” And he goes, “LD17 meetings.” I go, “What happened?” He goes, “They’re a train wreck. Everyone’s yelling. Everyone.”
Dave Smith: Yeah. I was in those, I was in. That’s when I decided I was going to run.
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Chris Desimone: We’ve become the Pyrrhic Victory Party, right? How do we change that dynamic, Dave?
Dave Smith: Number one, you need two things in politics: money and people. Democrats don’t have people anymore. They just have lots of money, and they’re all special interests.
We have lots of people. We don’t have a lot of money. And that’s at the national level too. So, I need all of you people out there to talk to your neighbors and convince them that we are the party of logic.
But at the same time, there’s a lot of things we don’t have. And we don’t have the media. They’re giant propaganda, essentially. They’re just one big giant giveaway to the Democrats.
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Dave Smith: People [voters] are so dissatisfied. I think if you were to sit down in the barbershop on Speedway and talk to the average person getting a haircut, they’ll tell you they’re really dissatisfied. We’re looking like a third-world city, and if we can tie Regina [Mayor Regina Romero] and her group directly to that lack of status as a city, we can change our status as a party and get and hopefully get them involved.
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Live Caller Rick Grinnell: Good morning gentlemen. I have been, for professional reasons, registered independent for the last eight years. But when I go to a Republican function for governor, and the candidate [Kari Lake] says, “if you supported John McCain, just get out.”
And unfortunately, that leaves a bad taste in a lot of people’s minds because I knew John McCain 35 years ago. Did I agree with everything? No. But I still feel like a Republican. I still vote Republican, but I tell you, we do a terrible job when it comes to splitting the party. And the Democrats are very good about putting all their things aside. This is about a fact that many of us are feeling.
I appreciate all your efforts and everything, but please, let’s cut the cake without destroying the total message of the Republican Party.
Dave Smith: Yeah. That’s the thing. What’s happened is essentially over the last eight years, you’ve seen this constant conflict, and Rick says it wears people out.
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Dave Smith: Let’s put aside the sniping, and it’s not unilateral. The sniping comes from both mountains on either side. And we’ve got to focus on the goal. And the thing is, sometimes there just comes a time where we’re going to have to just shut up for a while, do our job, and then go back and meet later and argue and debate.
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Dave Smith: Let’s debate ideas, not personalities. Let’s don’t condemn. And that’s the whole thing.
Chris Desimone: Because no one’s talking to each other anymore.
Dave Smith: No, we’re talking past. Exactly.
Chris Desimone: That’s one of our sins is talking around each other. It’s killing us. It’s killing us. We can’t have a beer without people yelling at each other.
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