After surviving a recall motion, Brandon Svenson will remain the chairman of the Lewis County Republicans.
The Lewis County Republicans held a meeting Monday at the Chehalis Eagles Aerie during which Svenson, who is also mayor of Winlock, survived a recall vote stemming from a few other members of the local party board, citing his behavior while serving as chair.
The proposed recall needed at least 32 votes from the 47 precinct committee officers (PCO) in attendance, a two-third’s majority. The final vote tally was 22 votes in favor of the recall and 24 votes opposed, with one PCO abstaining.
The executive board began the meeting by explaining it wasn’t only Svenson’s recent behavior that triggered the recall but a litany of issues going back over a year.
Accusations of name-calling, showing favoritism in partisan elections where members of the executive board are supposed to remain neutral and attempts to impose binding resolutions on duly-elected officials were named as some of the reasons for the recall effort.
“I supported Brandon and helped him get elected. I became a little concerned when over a year ago he was bad-mouthing our elected officials on Facebook,” said Ruth Peterson, the local party’s state committeewoman in addition to being a PCO. “There’s always a conflict between people in a party. We’re all very passionate about what we believe in. But to publicly castigate each other, and to do this so that it’s publicly out there, means that you’re going to chase away voters and that’s wrong.”
During the meeting the term “RINO” — an acronym for Republicans in name only — was thrown around as were accusations of gossip. PCO Jeanne Hall explained why she thought the name-calling and gossip, along with Svenson’s other behavior, had the chance to drive away potential voters from the Republican Party.
“Brandon has developed his own litmus test for members of our party,” Hall said. “We once had a concept of the Republican big tent and the 80% agreement concept. The duties and responsibilities of the chair are clearly delineated in the bylaws. These must be followed.”
Svenson began his rebuttal to the accusations by stating he wasn’t going to bother with responding to what he called “slander.”
“I will say this: record fundraising, record attendance, record number of PCOs. We set many records. We. This was not just me. All of this was done with a lot of new people in the party that have been disrespected,” Svenson said.
He went on to state that his goal is to hold local politicians accountable to their word. He said his desire to do so aligned with a lot of the anger new people in the party have felt, adding those people were frustrated with inaction and broken campaign promises. Svenson went on to challenge the PCOs to vote him out if they simply want another “politician,” telling everyone that he was not there to “blow smoke like a true politician.”
After the executive board and Svenson had both made their cases, the rest of the PCOs began to voice their opinions. Some supported Svenson while others opposed him, with one going as far as to accuse Svenson of being one of the Democratic infiltrators he had been talking about earlier.
Others just called for unity with one even quoting former president Ronald Reagan’s “11th commandment.”
“Thall shalt not speak ill of other Republicans,” said Curtis PCO Susan Remund.
After more than two hours of heated discussion, the vote was finally held, with the PCOs ultimately deciding to retain Svenson as chairman.
Despite tensions during the meeting, both Svenson and Arny Davis, who began the meeting explaining the board’s reasoning for seeking to recall Svenson, were shaking hands and engaging in friendly conversation after the meeting. Davis was chosen by party members as an impartial chairman for the Monday meeting as Svenson’s fate as chairman was determined.
The meeting was livestreamed by The Chronicle. See video on The Chronicle’s Facebook page.
