BREAKING the AZGOP 3rd Vice Chair Gina Swoboda has written a report condemning the recent Jeff Dewit and AZGOP power grabs saying:
“I made these votes based on policy, process and rule of law as I see it. If the state party is going to make itself a unilateral command and control structure wielding authority over every level of the party from PC to LD to County we are dangerously close to becoming the thing we say we are seeking to protect ourselves from. There will come a day when the people filling the roles that these resolutions sought to give broad powers to are not in agreement with any one of us. This type of authority once given is always used and it is eventually used against the people it sought to protect.“
Read the full report below:
I have been asked to explain my reasoning in voting no on several resolutions brought before the AZGOP EXCOM. While I wish we could have had an opportunity to see these in advance of the meeting and have a longer discussion, they were handed out as votes were being taken and I did not have all pages we were voting on as the votes took place. Others have posted the resolutions and circulated emails slandering myself and others who voted their consciences and who have served the party and the state in good faith for many years. People who I care about and respect have asked me to address this publicly.
This calls for AZGOP to intervene in LD and County disputes
Not just in LD3 which is the purported reason for the resolution.
This also creates a committee to police activities of PCs
This exceeds the authority delegated to the state party.
Therefore I voted no
This orders the disgorgement of funds from an entity outside the delegated authority of the state party and threatens further disciplinary action.
This is outside state party authority.
This would require a court order.
This would establish a precedent that the state party can order transfer of funds from LDs or County committees
The state party has no authority to take disciplinary action against an LD.
I object.
I voted no.
This is in conflict with 16-822
The authority to fill a PC vacancy rests solely with the county party chair.
The state party has no authority to compel an LD chair or a County chair to fill a vacancy.
This is also counter intuitive to the attempts to strip SCs (over which the state party chair does have authority) of voting rights for signing a petition (which was ultimately tabled).
If the right to review PC applications were to be removed from LD and County chairs (which this attempted to do and which is in conflict with statute) would it not become more likely that PC ranks would be vulnerable to being filled with ‘outside agitators’ which was the reasoning given for the extraordinary delegation of additional power to the state party in the other resolutions?
I object
I voted no.
This creates another committee empowered to take disciplinary action across all levels of authority PC LD County.
This exceeds state party authority.
This could easily be abused to target people with different views.
I object to seating this kind of power in a selected group at the top of any command structure.
I voted no.
One of these resolutions also attempt to turn the state party into a filing officer who ‘validates’ petition signatures and is then the same authority who makes the ruling on who prevails in the contest/challenge.
There is a reason that our filing officers are separate from our judicial branch.
I made these votes based on policy, process and rule of law as I see it. If the state party is going to make itself a unilateral command and control structure wielding authority over every level of the party from PC to LD to County we are dangerously close to becoming the thing we say we are seeking to protect ourselves from.
There will come a day when the people filling the roles that these resolutions sought to give broad powers to are not in agreement with any one of us. This type of authority once given is always used and it is eventually used against the people it sought to protect.
I do not begrudge others their votes, I deserve the same consideration. Those who have not looked beyond one specific case in point to the broader precedents these resolutions set who simultaneously attack others for their own principled votes are leading us to a place of even more divisiveness.
Please consider that others are entitled to their own views and please cease maligning those who have served faithfully simply because you disagree.
Respectfully,
Gina Swoboda
3VC, AZGOP
Editors note: There is never a better time than now to sign the FireJeffDewit.com petition.