“Really embarrassing”: GOP erupts into swing state civil war

In recent days, Republicans linked to a pre-existing leadership group in Las Vegas Clark County have lodged a lawsuit to bar the state party from electing officers at its fall meeting in the north on Saturday. from Nevada. On Thursday, a Nevada judge dismissed their claim, dismissing the case.

And that same day, the President of the State Party, Michael McDonald, engaged in a counterattack interview.

Meanwhile, several GOP officials in Washoe County, the state’s second most populous county, and a mainstream informer resigned their posts earlier this week amid an uprising by pro-Trump activists in their ranks. In Carson City, former state comptroller Ron Knecht resigned his leadership position at his local Republican club and state party central committee, which he called dysfunctional on his release.

Oh my God, said Amy Tarkanian, former chair of the state’s Republican Party. It’s really, really embarrassing, overall.

For the GOP’s increasingly shrinking bunch of traditionalists, the war has laid bare the limited options they have left in a party that is still staunchly loyal to Trump and his baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged. . Almost a year after the November elections, the party continues to reckon with the volatile forces unleashed by the former president.

In Washoe County, some Old Guard Republicans simply quit the GOP organization and formed a PAC to help elect Republican lawmakers, working outside the party.

Trying to focus on the very practical, important and productive business of taking over the legislature, Knecht said.

At a minimum, the Nevada saga served as a public relations fiasco for the state’s GOP, with embarrassing blanket by the state’s largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and other influential points of sale. The effort to oust the first party leaders from Clark County involved activists with ties to the Proud Boys, a far-right militant group, which has gained national attention.

Two parties claim to represent the GOP in Clark County, one controlling the site of local festivals, the other recognized by the State Party.

I’m tired of seeing the BS, said Michael Jack, a former Washoe County GOP vice president who is now seeking to overthrow McDonald’s as state party chairman. There is so much we could do in this state. It is a center-right state. There is no reason the Democrats have dominated the legislature for the past three cycles. This is ridiculous, and it is because the State Party’s objective has always gone where the money is, and that is the top of the ticket.

Tarkanian said that with Republicans competing for local party ownership and the formation of rival groups in the state, mail, field and other campaign operations next year could all be duplicated.

It will be time wasted, money wasted, instead of working together as one strong unit, she said.

Frictions within the party are not unique to Nevada Republicans. Earlier this year, Washoe County Democrats, aided by national Democratic leaders, wrested control of the state’s midterm campaign operation from the state party after a list of allies Bernie Sanders endorsed by the local Democratic Socialists of America has taken control. .

Yet the Nevada GOP civil war was particularly bitter and long-lasting.

It’s simple, I don’t want to call it a power grab but it’s a maintenance of power [by state party leaders]said Stephen Silberkraus, a former member of the Nevada Republican Assembly and political director of the Clark County group trying to block the state party leadership election on Saturday. It really is a divided house.

Silberkraus is among a group of Republicans threatened with expulsion from the state’s central committee over the weekend. He said about the current leadership of the state party, they just go for the throat and do whatever they want to do.

Animosity between the Silberkraus Clark County faction and the state party chairman erupted earlier this year, after the Republican Party’s state central committee voted to censor the Nevada Republican Secretary of State. , Barbara Cegavske, for do not investigate Eliminate baseless allegations of widespread electoral fraud. Clark County Republicans accused McDonald, a Trump ally, of improperly influencing the vote by adding extremist members to the county list.

McDonald said he had done nothing wrong, calling the dispute a dispute between grassroots Republicans and two parties in Clark and Washoe County, where entrenched leaders wanted to keep it as a country club. McDonald said Jesse Law, the former Trump campaign staff member who is now recognized by the state party as the president of Clark County, has increased attendance at members’ meetings, and he has vowed to counter- sue the pre-existing Republican group for its frivolous trial.

McDonald also maintained that the party would not suffer from the current upheavals next year. The leadership of Clark and Washoe counties, he said, were party anchors who are now withdrawn.

This young group is coming in, these people who have never been involved before, and they are looking at President Trump’s policies, and that’s what drives them, he said.

Allies of Michael Kadenacy, the President of the Washoe party who resigned, see the fallout much differently. One described it as the fiery haired mob now taking control of the party.

Still, McDonald’s is expected to be re-elected on Saturday if a court does not intervene.

In Washoe County, the future leadership of the party is uncertain. The local party appointed a temporary chairman, who did not respond to a request for comment.

Sandy Masters, a Washoe County GOP executive committee member who served with the previous president and stayed at the party, said she was not worried the turmoil would have a long-term effect on the party. The local party has already overcome the change, she said.

We have such passionate people who want to work to make this next election a success, Masters said. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that everything will be fine, very soon, and you can take it to the bank.