WHERE IS YOUR DEMONSTRATION OF LEADERSHIP?

After three weeks of interactions between Michael Loomis, the current Chair of the Haywood County Republican Party, and, in my honest opinion, his apparent handler Vickie Reece, the current First Vice Chair, Sherry Lewis, the current Second Vice Chair, and myself, regarding the coordinating and hosting of our monthly Town Hall meetings, Michael Loomis, yesterday, email all of the members of the Executive Committee that he was ending any future discussions between us regarding the matter.

Before Michael Loomis’s election to the position of Chair on April 28th, Rick Stello served in that position, and I served as the First Vice Chair. In February, during a discussion between the Rick Stello and I, regarding promoting and spreading our Party’s values and platform, we realized that to survive and grow, the Haywood County Republican Party had to do more to spread our Party’s constitutional Judeo-Christian conservative message, bring in new active volunteers, while at the same time educating and providing Haywood County Republicans information which would make them a more informed voter at the ballot box,

To this end, Rick and I conceived the idea of holding monthly “Town Hall” meetings, where no Party Executive Committee business would be discussed, but rather a meeting that belonged entirely to Haywood County Republicans who chose to attend. We structured those Town Halls in a manner that would allow for one or two elected and/or unelected guest speakers with expertise in areas of great concern to the residents of Haywood County, followed by open dialogue between the guest speakers and those in attendance. This establishment of a monthly Town Hall was presented to the Executive Committee for their approval, which they provided unanimously.

In April, following Rick Stello’s resignation, I reached out to the Second Vice Chair and Janet Presson, two lifelong residents of Haywood County and active advocates before various county governing bodies, on behalf of Haywood County residents regarding the issues and concerns that troubled them the most. I, along with these two ladies, have many years of experience speaking before various bodies and entities, recruiting specially talented experts to speak, drawing in large numbers of attendees, and ensuring that those in attendance had an opportunity to interact with the speakers.

The discussions held between us pertained to granting the Second Vice Chair and Janet Presson sole discretion regarding the scheduling of speakers, promoting the Town Hall meetings, and ensuring that these meetings aligned with the Republican Party platform and President Trump’s MAGA movement.

After assuming the role of Chair, Michael Loomis advised the Second Vice Chair that she and Janet Presson would no longer manage and coordinate the Town Halls; instead, he and Vickie Reece would assume that role.

This led to my first lengthy discussion with Michael, strongly urging him to reconsider this decision, as he and Vickie Reece did not have the experience, connections, and access to Haywood County Republican Party members as I and these two ladies, which would lead to a potentially disastrous decline in our county party’s ability to reach out for the purposes outlined above constructively. I further requested that several members of the Executive Committee speak with Michael regarding this decision. Following these interactions, Michael advised the Second Chair that he had changed his mind and that she and Janet Presson would be allowed to manage and conduct the Town Halls.

Two days later, after, in my opinion, being strongly intimidated by his handler, Vickie Reece, and two or three other individuals who felt intimidated by these two strong willed Christian conservative Republican women, he once again contacted the Second Vice Chair and once again withdrew his authorization for them to manage or otherwise be involved with our Town Hall meetings.

Following this second decision to remove the Second Vice Chair’s and Janet Presson’s involvement with the Town Hall meetings, on this past Wednesday, a member of the Haywood County Republican Party, whose opinion Michael apparently valued, spoke with Michael regard this latest decision and also pointed out that this decision had great potential for harming the county party’s ability to reach a large segment of the county party’s members to allow growth and access to potential volunteers.

Following that discussion, Michael once again contacted the Second Vice Chair and advised her that he had once again reconsidered his decision and had decided to allow her and Janet Presson to proceed on the condition that their meetings would only be held every other month (odd numbered months) and would be referred to as Concerned Citizens Forum allowing him and his First Vice Chair to manage the Town Hall meetings to be held on even numbered months. The Second Vice Chair readily agreed to this proposal.

The following day, in my opinion after being scolded by his handler First Vice Chair Vickie Reece for this concession, Michael, for the fourth or fifth time, contacted the Second Vice Chair and advised her that further conditions and restrictions would be placed on her and Janet Presson regarding their oversight and hosting of the new Concerned Citizens Forum. Those new restrictions included the requirement that all decisions regarding who was invited to speak had to be reviewed and approved by the naive and inexperienced First Vice Chair, Vickie Reece.

In the email mentioned above, Michael referred to his Second Vice Chair, myself, and Janet Presson as “outsiders” to the Haywood County Republican Party, using this as his justification for his decisions regarding the conducting of the monthly informational and educational meetings (Town Halls) on behalf of the Republican voters of Haywood County.

“Outsiders?” Each one of the three of us “outsiders” has more hours volunteering on behalf of the Haywood County Republican Party, the Republican Party in general, and the Republican residents of Haywood County in one month, than either Michael Loomis or Vickie Reece have volunteered in the four years that I have been a member of the Haywood County Republican Party. Literally~!

Your Second Vice Chair articulated her stance regarding your labeling us “outsiders” very well in her email to you yesterday. In that email, she stated:

“Just to be clear… my only intention, in accepting the role of 2nd Vice Chair, was to be fully involved with the Republican Party, not a different group, and adhere to the Republican Party Plan of Organization.

Janet and I were going to help Rick or Le get interesting speakers, candidates, and elected officials to speak, as a way of building unity and growing volunteers to help candidates get elected..

I’m the one out beating the bushes to find candidates and working daily with Connie to plan the largest fundraiser Haywood GOP has ever had. Don’t forget, it was I who ran the two successful Red Surge Convoys last year.

The people who met at the Buttered Biscuit were concerned citizens, with small c’s. They’re just people, no conspiracy theories, just facts, and everything Donald Trump is exposing and addressing right now.

You’re making a big mistake calling these groups separate groups. How is addressing the government takeover of our public health system divisive when Donald Trump appointed Robert Kennedy to expose and fix it?  Janet said multiple times, ‘I’m not anti-vax, just pro education.’ If a topic doesn't interest someone, they may be interested in the next one.

You jumped the gun, Michael, and told me you agreed to the meetings every other month. Then, you and Vickie decided we were somehow a separate group, and you both wanted to write up some rules for us to follow and have the Executive Committee vote on them.

The strange thing is the Town Hall and the concerned citizens… small letters… will have the same speakers most of the time. Elected officials and candidates were our primary speakers. I’ve spoken to you at length, Michael, about the e-mail list being added to the Haywood County GOP list because we’re just all the Haywood County GOP anyway.

You are the one who is now calling it a different group. I’ll never understand why we can’t all unify and work together for the good of the party. Ted and Pat Carr loved coming to the Republican Party open forum at the Buttered Biscuit. They were there almost every meeting, and you were too, Michael. You saw the subject matter.

If any of you were offended by a subject, why did you keep running through the door? I sure had no idea this would cause such an issue, but it’s interesting to know that 10 percent of the people who attended the last Town Hall were offended. From the citizen involvement and applause, I question what 10 percent that was.” Michael, this means 90%, an exceptionally large percentage, approved of and enjoyed the presentation. Think before you say something, Michael.

God bless you, Michael, for this demonstration of consistency, strength, and courage!