GOP Chairman Randy Brogdon
Political Director TC Ryan
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OKLAHOMA CITY — As Republicans prepare for some of the party’s biggest names to descend on Oklahoma for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the state party is being rocked by infighting over its new chairman’s decision to retain a staffer who pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge.
Former state Sen. Randy Brogdon, a tea party favorite who ousted the incumbent GOP chairman last month, has publicly defended his hiring of Thomas Clint Ryan, who court records show pleaded guilty in 2012 to domestic assault and battery in the presence of a minor and interference with an emergency telephone call, both misdemeanors.
“The Republican Party is the Party of hope and second chances,” Brodgon said in a statement Wednesday. “We have many members from diverse backgrounds, some with a sorted (sic) past who have found a home in the GOP, as a volunteer, in an appointed position, or as an elected official.”
After several elected Republican officials criticized Ryan’s appointment as the party’s executive director, Brogdon announced he was making Ryan political director, a move that angered several members who had called for Ryan’s resignation.
“It is totally unacceptable for someone with that recent criminal background of that nature to be employed in any capacity by the Oklahoma Republican Party,” said Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City. “I have zero tolerance for domestic violence, and I believe that my political party should feel the same way.”
All three of Oklahoma’s female Republican state senators issued a joint statement last week calling for Ryan’s immediate removal from any position within the party.
The controversy has clearly roiled the party, which has enjoyed unparalleled success in Oklahoma over the last decade by winning every congressional seat, every statewide elected office and extending its majorities in the state House and Senate.
“There’s a lot of people who are angered and outraged, even some of Brogdon’s longtime supporters and friends,” said Oklahoma County Republican Party Chairman Daren Ward. “For some reason, he feels that his position is right and he’s not budging.”
The division within the party comes just as Oklahoma City prepares to host nearly the entire field of 2016 Republican presidential contenders at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which begins Thursday and runs through Saturday. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is speaking at a $100-a-plate fundraiser for the Oklahoma Republican Party, is among the attendees. Others include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Looks like Brogdon’s first impression for the SRLC is that it’s more important to beat women than it is to beat Hillary.
He’s more interested in a second chance for those who have plead guilty to prevent women from calling 911 than having the party help women out of abuse and into a second chance themselves.
I never thought I’d be envious of the Democratic Party, but at least Wallace Collins doesn’t condone violence against women…
Well, so much for Chairman Brogdon’s stated goal of building the state Republican Party. What he’s doing now is tearing it down.
I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt when he came in. His unaccountable insistence on continuing with Mr. Ryan is quite discouraging.
I am getting really tired of the allegations that people who have reservations about T C Ryan are either holier-than-thou hypocrites who won’t give second chances or establishment “RINO’s” who are still disgruntled over Brogdon’s election. the truth is, many in the party (yeah, even those who are not Ron Paul rEVOLution libertarians) were wiling to withhold judgment and give Chairman Brogdon the benefit of the doubt, hoping that he would be an asset to the party.
Even when one believes he has good ideas and is moving in the right direction, part of the job of leadership is to think through how people are going to be affected by their decisions and how the group as a whole is likely to react. Right now, a lot of us are gasping for breath. First, he tells us the party is broke, and suddenly nobody in the home office is getting paid—then he hires an executive director. Yeah, I know that they’re now all unpaid, but anybody with half an ounce of sense realizes that just as soon as things change, he’ll be in place to be a paid employee.
Did Chairman Brogdon REALLY not think that people would be concerned over all of this? Seriously, it never occurred to him that people who were cautiously optimistic that he would try to work with the party wouldn’t be up in arms at all of the sudden, sweeping changes, the TOTAL lack of any transparency (we STILL don’t know specifically what T C Ryan was accused of), and the rather questionable changes at the home office? Wouldn’t it have been better to have earned our trust and confidence prior to making such far-reaching, head-spinning decisions?