Mike McCarville
“People who care deeply about Ron Paul and who have worked to get him elected tirelessly for many years without any compensation” have taken their concerns about the behavior of Paul’s Oklahoma coordinator, Al Gerhart, to Paul’s national campaign leaders.
Concern about Gerhart’s behavior is not new; emails obtained by The McCarville Report show concern being expressed long before the current controversy, in which Gerhart is revealed as a bully who threatens the vice chair of the Cleveland County Republican Party.
- Al Gerhart
A group seeking Gerhart’s removal from the Paul campaign accuse him of ethical lapses, intimidation, bullying, lying, and “predatory and misleading efforts.”
The concern takes on a new urgency today, just as Oklahoma voters prepare to cast ballots in the state’s “Super Tuesday” presidential primary. Paul, polls show, is running fourth in the four-man field, so it’s not likely the current controversy will impact Paul’s finish in Oklahoma. But some of Paul’s longtime backers say he would be in better shape here had his campaign been under more effective leadership.
One of those longtime Paul supporters is Sandra Crosnoe of Bartlesville, a leader in Paul’s 2008 campaign and a respected grassroots activist with a long history of involvement in conservative issues. She, and others, have now joined to protest Gerhart’s long record of abusive behavior, including threats to anyone who disagrees with him or “just has a different opinion.”
Crosnoe, a Texan-turned-Oklahoma who has known Ron Paul since his first campaign for Congress, relocated to Oklahoma in 2005 and began working to find and develop Oklahoma conservative networks and continued her active participation with the Republican Party, serving as a Precinct Chair in Washington County. In 2007, she became Oklahoma Grassroots co-chair, along with Brady Wright, for Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign. She was involved at the start of the 2009 Tea Party movement and through these networking efforts the Constitutional Liberty Coalition was founded, which is dedicated to locating grassroots efforts in multiple states and networking them together.
Emails obtained by The McCarville Report show the concern about Gerhart has reached the highest levels of the Paul campaign, and of the Oklahoma Republican Party.
‘…the problems caused by the appointment of Mr. Gerhart are many, multiplying, and come as no surprise to anyone on the ground in Oklahoma involved in the liberty movement.’
The emails reveal that Republican State Chairman Matt Pinnell has had a “concern’ about Gerhart since he became coordinator of the Paul campaign in Oklahoma. Pinnell and others have discussed Gerhart’s erratic behavior, describing it and him as “embarrassments” to Oklahoma and the Paul campaign. One reason for GOP concerns about Gerhart has been his attacks on GOP State Vice Chair Pam Pollard, whom Gerhart ridicules as a “RINO” and Gerhart urges others to “put a boot in State Vice Chair Pam Pollards (sic) corrupt behind….”
Crosnoe confides that, “This input did not come just from me, but from people who deeply care about Ron Paul and who have worked to get him elected tirelessly for many years without any compensation, just because we care about the direction the country is headed. Other people wrote letters and made calls on the matter.”
Crosnoe relates that she and others recommended that Rep. Charles Key be named Paul’s Oklahoma leader, but the suggestion was rebuffed by Paul’s campaign officials.
“It isn’t always possible to ‘hold an election’ to select leadership, but when you clearly ignore the advice of people who have been working on a matter for years, then something is rotten in Denmark or in this case, Oklahoma. As I mentioned, Charles Key is the natural leader of our movement in Oklahoma and everyone I know would be willing to serve under his visible leadership. Almost anyone would be better than the person they chose, Al Gerhart….”
Crosnoe reveals she sought a personal meeting with Paul to express her concern, and the concern of others: “A meeting with Ron Paul to brief him personally on the matter never occurred but I hold a hope that he was ‘unaware’ and if made aware would correct the matter promptly.”
More than a month ago, Crosnoe emailed Paul’s national campaign manager, Jesse Benton, saying that, Such questions and concerns about which I originally took the time to contact you have only multiplied. In the interest of time, I will merely bullet point some of them here and once again urge that we speak as soon as possible.
- The appointment of Mr. Gerhart by the campaign caused immediate damage to the efforts on the ground and to the reputation of the campaign. In addition, it has cost many people, myself included, no small amount of time and effort to deal with and to attempt to correct. Time which would have been much more effectively spent preparing for those impending precinct meetings here.
- One of the “mixed signals” to which I referred, above, are conflicting reports regarding Mr. Gerhart’s status with the campaign. A three way call that included OK State Rep. Charles Key, Dimitri Kesari, and myself regarded this very subject. Dimitri stated Mr. Gerhart was only a volunteer, but a subsequent conversation with Dave Pridgeon resulted in conflicting information.
- Dave’s report appeared to be the more accurate of the two, considering Mr. Gerhart’s ongoing efforts, including email blasts, one of which was dated January 25, 2012, signed as follows: Al Gerhart Oklahoma State Coordinator, Ron Paul 2012
Note: I actually received the January 25 email myself. Considering the reply received from you, misleading information from Dimitri, Mr. Gerhart’s continuing conduct, and all of the unanswered questions, I decided to UNSUBSCRIBE from the Ron Paul 2012 list.- Engages in regular conduct that is “bullying” in its anger, belligerence, and physicality, including at the State Capitol
- A reputation in Oklahoma media as “controversial”, “volatile”, and “intemperate”
- Currently a target of discussion in an Oklahoma State legislative committee regarding ethics legislation due to his conduct and direct attachment to a state legislator, Randy Terrill, who is under ethics investigation
- A history of questionable ethics when working with individuals and other groups to the extent that many have curtailed their involvements with him and his groups
- Is on the record publicly stating that lying is acceptable as long as goals are accomplished
- Engages in predatory and misleading efforts to gather contact information – this is ongoing; a number of Ron Paul supporters have received solicitations to join Mr. Gerhart’s organization, Sooner Tea Party, in the last few days.
With this opposition to Gerhart, the obvious question is, Why was he selected by the campaign? Insiders say it’s because Gerhart’s guru is Oklahoma City political operative Kirk Shelley, a senior consultant to the Campaign For Liberty founded by Paul. And they note that the top two officials of the Campaign For Liberty, Jesse Benton and John Tate, are the managers of Paul’s presidential campaign. They also note Gerhart’s alliances with legislators involved in the Sooner Tea Party or the Paul campaign, or both; included are Rep. Randy Terrill, Rep. Gus Blackwell and Senator Ralph Shortey. Terrill denies any such alliance.
Randy Terrill Denies Gerhart, Sooner Tea Party, Paul Campaign Affiliations
Terrill denies any connection to Gerhart. He provided this statement to The McCarville Report: “I am not ‘involved’ in either the Sooner Tea Party or the Ron Paul campaign. In addition, I have no “alliances” of any kind with Al Gerhart. Also, despite the false assertion of Sandra Crosnoe (who ever that is), I am not ‘under’ any sort of ethics investigation despite your intentional republication of said defamatory claim.”
Crosnoe’s reference to the ethics investigation was dated and should have been so noted.
The lesson that I learned from this: Don’t be a total JERK when trying to win over the hearts and minds of people.
Why should anyone care at all about what Gerhart does or thinks? I don’t remember him doing anything to help Republicans take control, and other than the accident of John Bennett, can he claim any electoral victory?
Let’s see… he defeated Ken Miller….uh, no….
And then he took on Meg Salyer….guess not.
Think he might have defeated Doug Cox….hmmmm..
Mr. Irrelevant should just exit stage left.