Rob Haney R.I.P.

No, Rob Haney, the former chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) isn’t “technically” dead.

But he might as well be.

Former MCRC Chair Rob Haney

One of the things Rob Haney is famous for (working with Tom Husband, the MCRC Chairman who recruited him and later worked for him as MCRC Executive Director) is learning how the establishment kept taking control of the party (basically recruiting PCs, both “real” & “paper”) and turning that same tool against them.

Regardless of many PCs he personally recruited (I’ve heard numbers ranging from 500 to 5000) the fact is he built a machine. And by the time the 2011 Maricopa County Meeting took place (after the Tea Party Revolution) I’m told upwards of 80% of the PCs attending were “tea party”.

Something happened during the 2011-2012 election cycle though. Maybe he got mad at AZGOP Chair Tom Morrissey because he (Morrissey) wouldn’t let him be State Chairman by proxy. Maybe he got mad at the Tea Party. Ultimately the why of it doesn’t matter.

Because in the fall of 2012, going into the winter 2013 AZGOP Statutory Meeting, Rob Haney endorsed Robert Graham for State Chair.

The effect of this was to immediately give people “permission” to ignore (or at the very least minimize) all the evidence that was presented to them about what kind of chairman Robert Graham would be. It allowed former Senator Russell Pearce (still smarting from his recall election maybe?) and Sheriff Arpaio and many other county and state party officers to endorse. Granted, Graham’s opposition in 2013 was fairly disorganized, but still. . .

And after 2 years of a Robert Graham chairmanship Haney could have come out, said he made a mistake and endorsed Lori Urban. Instead he publicly stayed silent, which again gave cover to Pearce, Arpaio, and others to betray the principles they said they believed.

This past Saturday was the result.

And so I close today with this question to Mr. Rob “Nero” Haney, former MCRC Chairman.

What tune did you play on your fiddle while the MCRC and AZGOP burned?

UraPC Patriot

Edited Feb 17, 2015: I’d like to thank my volunteer proofreaders/editors for noticing the spelling error in Sen. Pearce’s name. [link to come]

 

Morrissey Strikes Back

For the past 2 years Robert Graham has done everything he could to belittle his predessessor (hmm…what other chief executive does that???); constantly claiming how much debt he was left with, the shabby condition of the headquarters building, etc.  It’s as if he can’t help himself.   Well today (16 January 2015), Tom Morrissey hit back.  You can find the article here:

http://www.arizonadailyindependent.com/2015/01/16/former-azgop-chairman-refutes-robert-grahams-false-claims/

Now as a State Committeeman these past two years, I’ve watched and wondered.  Really Robert??  Things were THAT bad?

So over the past 2 years, I asked the people who were there with Morrissey, especially in the beginning, what happened.  I got an earfull.  And they basically all agreed with what Morrissey says in his article there.  Were there issues during his tenure?  Sure. But Graham inhereted an organization in much better shape than Tom Morrissey did.

Why don’t you ask them?  I’m sure every one of the people who worked with Morrissey would be happy to talk with you like they did me.  Granted, I think all of them have come out in support of Lori Urban…still they’ll tell you (in exhaustive detail) what they saw.

In fact, all have publically endorsed a candidate EXCEPT Laddie Shane.  Hey Laddie, wanna chime in with whomever YOU are supporting???