Mike McCarville
While Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul counsels patience and understanding, his Oklahoma “coordinator,” Al Gerhart, continues to alienate, this time with a bullying, caustic attack on a Republican Party official and a threat that Paul supporters will “take you apart.”
An email exchange obtained by The McCarville Reportshows Gerhart blowing his stack and threatening Lisa Shrieves, vice chairman of the Cleveland County Republican Party, because she didn’t provide him with a copy of the party’s delegate list as he demanded, instead referring him to a copy of it hanging on a wall available to anyone.
Last Friday, Shrieves responded to Gerhart’s demand for the list with this email: Al, I am not in possession of the Delegate List. The list is posted for viewing at the Headquarters located at 125 North Porter, as per the State Party Rules. We will not be phoning or emailing lists in respect of my time, and the time of other volunteers who are generously giving countless hours of their time in the many other areas which are crucial for the preparation of the convention. Thank you for your understanding. Blessings, Lisa Shrieves.
Gerhart’s response, in which he threatens Shrieves as a “whipping girl” for the Paul campaign and threatens her with an unflattering article in the Sooner Tea Party’s sarcastic, fiction-as-fact newsletter.
You can easily get a copy and forward it or have the volunteer forward it to me. And you will do exactly that.
I need not remind you that you are a party official that took the position in an election. It ought to be pretty obvious by now that the Ron Paul supporters completely outnumber your supporters and I will have no problem making an official complaint against an official that refuses to return calls or emails to her party members on official Cleveland County GOP business. If you are that busy, then resign your position and let someone do the job.
Al Gerhart
Oklahoma State Coordinator, Ron Paul 2012
WOW, what a prick. He grew thin about 2 years ago.
I call on Al Gerhart to resign from the campaign and apologize for threatening volunteers.
Precinct Chair, 139, Oklahoma County
May not be a bad idea. My Facebook account is being flooded with this garbage. Horrible representation of RP and Oklahoma!
“We will not be phoning or emailing lists in respect of my time, and the time of other volunteers who are generously giving countless hours of their time in the many other areas which are crucial for the preparation of the convention.” Sounds to me like Lisa was just being difficult. Although I’m not a fan of Al Gerhart, she could have sent a simple email. And one thing that is “crucial for the prepartion of the convention” is knowing who the delegates are. Some in the GOP are doing everything they can to fight the rise of Ron Paul. Lisa Shrieves could have sent the delegate list in the time she spent emailing Al Gerhart to tell him she wasn’t going to do it. Surely there is more than just a hard copy. They both make the GOP look bad.
Sounds bad, but better to wait and get the whole story, especially what prompted the response. It may be that the reply was based on a long-standing history of obfuscation and/or obstruction and that there was some basis for Al’s otherwise inexcusable conduct. On the other hand, there is plenty of fault to go around, since most of us out here willing to canvas for Dr. Paul have been unable to get the supplies necessary to reach out to potential Dr. Paul supporters in our areas to do the work to get them to the polls. Don’t know who to blame for this–in my mind at least–inexcusable lapse in campaign mobilization techniques, but someone should have to answer for it. Especially since it could make the critical difference in victory and success or failure.
Cleveland County GOP officials have a history of being very hostile (but with a big smile on their face) to newcomers to the party. Just another example of it.
Agreed! It definitely is an Invitation Only come ran and paid for by Bobby Cleveland. Al Gearhart’s behavior shouldn’t be excused though.
Cleveland County GOP does have a reputation of difficulty and candidate favoritism. One only needs to look at how Bobby Cleveland is being treated compared to the other candidates in the HD 20 race. However, nothing excuses this kind of harrasment towards a volunteer, party official. I can’t help but wonder if this disrespectful attitude that seems to permeate the Paul campaign is a reflection of the candidate the represent?
As a RP supporter I’m embarrassed to read such a post. Though she was being difficult Al should be more professional in his response. I do think a public apology should be made and I believe more importantly if we as a party don’t quit fighting amongst ourselves we will see another 4 years on horrible leadership in the White House!
This type of bullying and unprofessional behavior on Mr Gerhart’s part is nothing new. This is just who he is!
This type of bullying and unprofessionalism is typical for Mr. Gerhart. Unfortunately, this is just who he is; and his true character is revealing itself. There is no excuse for this type of behavior!
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I believe the curt responce of Lisa Shrieves would have angered most. especially with her added “blessings” at the end. And what is up with that? It was like she was afraid to say God Bless…just a generic “blessings” was all she had the intestinal fortitude for. And she was clearly chastizing Mr. Gearhart.
Regardless, Al went WAY beyond what was called for in a professional and responsible reply. And he plainly spoke his mind, and his opinion of the caliber of RP supporters at his disposal. Clearly, they are more like a militant terrorist organization than ardent campaign supporters and staff. But one can not be held responsible for those that support him. But he can for those supporters elevated to staff positions. And staff who control and manipulate these radical extremists as if they were a private army. Who does he think he is, Gene Simmons?!! Al should take his knocks, resign, and learn something from losing his temper. But I understand, this is no anomoly for old Al. He apparently acts like this all of the time. Fire him.
The party is not required to do any more than what they did. Same thing happened in Oklahoma County. So our group of RP supporters – who are not affiliated with the national campaign or Al – got the list from the wall (cell phone picture) and started to work. We also knew who went to the precinct meeting, so even though the party did not provide contact info we already had much of it. We did a simple GOTV with our people. At the convention, I offered an amendment to the credentials committee report to include the 13 people who went to the precinct meeting but were not credentialed for various reasons we thought were incorrect. None of us was invited to serve on either credentials or rules, even though we requested it. We won the floor vote on my amendment for the 13. We followed the rules with respect for Congressman Paul, the GOP, and the delegates.
Do not lump us all in the same group. We were half of the convention, and we are the future of the GOP. We listened to the call for the Constitution to be followed, and we won’t stop until it is. We will grow the party, in spite of occasional setbacks like this. We all want to defeat Obama and statism/facism/communism/corporate cronyism. See you at the polls!
A reminder; bogus email addresses result in deletion of the comment.
Steve, with all due respect, your characterization of the “13 people who attended their precinct meeting” is not correct. The majority of the persons who were not credentialed as delegates had NOT attended their precinct meeting and it was not possible to determine that they were registered Republicans on the day of the precinct meetings.
Charlie, with all due respect, they had a valid, current, Election Board issued, voter ID (which was a whole lot more than many of the old guard could produce). I think they held it over their heads to show the convention. But my question is how all of those “other people” were added to the delegate list that were sent in by the old guard?