Why We Need New Leadership

By now many people in our county in particular District 2 of San Bernardino County are getting mailers saying that the Chairman’s faction is doing a respectable job, and we should vote for him and his six compatriots.

However, it can be shown that San Bernardino County Republican Party is poorly managed.

SBGOP HEADQUARTERS
  • We are in debt for over 24 thousand dollars and no active plan as of writing of how to repay our chairman back.
  • Questionable endorsements of local officials who have endorsed Democrats for state legislature when we have a Republican in Assembly District 53 running in the March 2024 election.
  • Chairman actively supports Democrats in his personal PAC against Republicans running for these offices.
  • County Party uses its own money to attack fellow Republicans in Republican v Republican general election races.
  • After paying for these attack ads, we ran out of money to get out the vote programs for the rest of our ticket.
  • Fired key staff weeks before General Election 2022 ended.

To conclude, Special Interests are buying out the party to get their way while the party suffers. They buy their way with attack mailers while our treasury runs dry. Imagine what the almost 40 thousand dollars used to defend the chairman’s fifedom could have done for our party with voter registration, get out the vote and other operations.

If you are fed up of this dog and pony show, please vote for these candidates for District 2:

Mary Heil, Robert Fekay, Agnes Gibboney, Mark Gibboney, Luis Cetina, Catherine Lara, Malene Lee

District 4: Please vote for Carol Houghton, Jeff Holle, Toni Holle, Matthew Munson and Robert Tormey.

Selling the Argument

What does the county party do?

We are the organizational body that raises money to get out the vote, educate voters about legislation and candidates, recruit candidates to run for office when we do not have potential candidates running for office on their own, we endorse candidates and ballot measures.

We have favorable campaign finance treatment which makes this organization a vital group for fundraising and that is why developers are looking to buy off the committee so our seal of approval can rubber stamp their choices.

What have we failed to do in the last two years?

We failed to meet regularly in 2023 when in the summertime we took two months off. We had a very divisive county supervisor race which divided the party where the grassroots are not going to open their wallets. We went broke in the November 2022 election where we had to lay off two staffers before the election ended because we sold the store just to get the chairman’s pick for county supervisor.

The chairman says he can raise the money, but where is the money? He has a nexus of political action committees even several where he is not a direct principal officer of. It is even embarrassing when Los Angeles County Republican Party which has been more dysfunctional than the San Bernardino County Party ending up hosting fundraisers now to pay for the costly election related activities. When I saw that Los Angeles County had a fundraiser with James O’Keefe, it enraged me to write a long article in the San Bernardino Sentinel about the disappointing state of our county party.

We need to grow the party by asking NPP voters who used to be Republican to come back home as what Orange County is doing right now. We need to return to having social mixers bi-monthly in various parts of the county. We need to have an action segment at each major county party meeting where each supervisorial district would work towards its own programming and other efforts to accomplish as what the previous chair did during our meetings.

We gave the incumbent chairman an opportunity to change from the issues that are making our party fall behind on such as the money we owe him. It is our concern and our business that we owe you this money. We want you to be paid off as soon as possible so we do not have to worry about that fiscal obligation. If you want to carry 20k loans in your personal political action committee, you be you.

People right now are being subletted as staffers by the chairman where they work part time on party activities, but we need party staffers that work full time on party business. We will get numerous phone calls in the general election from confused voters who need guidance as what happened in 2020 and 2022.

I desire for the next generation of leadership to be more responsive to the electorate and the activists of our county. We must work together as a team no matter what happens after March 5th of 2024. After this election we should not be focusing on purges or grudges and try to have some sort of unity. We should be fighting the ideas of people like Eloise Reyes instead.

Dare to Compare Federal Committee Edition

County parties have two committees, one for state and local races and one for federal political advocacy. I previously mentioned the state campaign committee results for the San Bernardino County Republican Party and now we are looking at the federal committee filings.

Here are the comparisons: County to the Cash on Hand at the end of 2023.

San Bernardino-$186.66
Riverside$15,347
Ventura$8,212.28
San Diego$21,440
Federal Report at the end of 2023 year end numbers.

Truth hurts.

MVP For the Democrats Chairman Cothran.

Phil Cothran Sr and his staffer Danielle Holley are political opportunists. They claim to be conservatives, but they pander to Democrats instead of wanting to advance the Republican Party. Phil’s personal political action committee is called the “Inland Empire Business Alliance” and when Phil became chairman of the county party he gave control of it to his staffer Danielle Holley, but after the controversy of the mailers in the 2nd District Supervisor race in 2022 and other advertisements he switched control back to himself. Phil proudly proclaims that he has the fiscal acumen to raise money, but he treats the county party just as badly as his personal PACS where there are loans that are still unpaid for 23k to Phil as of the January SBGOP FPPC Report.

Trying to scare Democrats about the abortion issue with the grassroots choice Luis Cetina when the Republican Party does not normally promote abortion rights and even most of the moderates in the party would want some restrictions such as a 15-week rule like the Governor of Virgina Glenn Youngkin wanted to advocate. Abortion rights are not much of an issue in the county compared to state legislature or congress.

The San Bernardino County Republican Party is underfunded where the grassroots could care less about donating to a party headed by the current chairman. Other county Republican Parties have a better fiscal picture than our group right now. Kern, Riverside, Orange, you name it, they have a better situation than us. The fiscal information is based on recent state reports.

County PartyCash On Hand
Riverside50,723.00
San Bernardino1,714.00
Orange160,384.00
Kern64,175.00
Fundraising data from recent 460 Reports / FPPC

I want Phil Cothran Sr to be paid off so we can start a new period of leadership without him. He told me it is none of our business about the debts we owe to him, but as a registered Republican and at a time an alternate to the county party it is our business.

We need to change our bylaws to make it where Republican on Republican general elections would have more difficult criteria for endorsements. 2/3rds quorum AND 75% vote threshold for an endorsement with 2 weeks’ notice to the membership.

Agnes dropped this off at one of the meetings at the end of 2022 to show how unethical Phil is.

We have critical races in San Bernardino County, from State Senate Districts 19 and 23. Assembly District 47 and even county supervisor races where district 3 might lead to a runoff. We are making the job easy for Democrats in our county and our state due to how things have been bungled.

Fratricide is the biggest reason many do not trust the leadership of SBGOP.

We Should Be Supporting Republicans

Our current chairman’s personal political action committee made this contribution recently and it is frustrating when our local leader would rather give up than fight the good fight to run an actual Republican in Assembly District 50. We are not Joe Baca Sr. Democratic Party Club, we are the San Bernardino County Republican Party.

Assembly District 50 is not the old district 47 of old, it has potential. But the chairman would rather take the easy way out.

This is one of the reasons why I am running for County Party Committee.

If you live in District 2, there are better choices to vote for.

If you live in District 4, you can vote for me and my four team members.

Expenditure of 2796 dollars for Adam Perez (D).

Time to Promote Republicans NOT Democrats

We need to start promoting Republicans and stop supporting local elected officials who support Democrats for partisan office. This is the reason we have no pull for major political races in our county.

As what was reported in the San Bernardino County Sentinel back in September is happening again where Phil Cothran Sr’s Political Action Committee also ran with his political assistant Danielle Holley. There is a 2700-dollar expenditure for signs for James Ramos styled Democrat Adam Perez and there is a 2700-dollar mailer for Rudy Zuniga, who endorsed Democrat Michelle Rodriguez instead of being neutral or supporting Republican Nick Wilson.

Compared to Phil, the previous chair gave a care about running Republicans in all the districts of our county where we have influence. We are running to challenge the status quo because we want to be an actual organization fighting to elect Republicans instead of local leaders who kneecap our state and federal candidates such as Curt Hagman, Alan Wapner, Rudy Zuniga and Jesse Armendarez. There should be no need to fight for the least toxic Democrat and start running Republicans.

If you live in the 2nd Supervisorial District please vote for Mark and Agnes Gibboney, Mary Heil, Robert Fekay, Luis Cetina, Malene Lee and Catherine Sage-Lara. We need a party that stands up for electing Republicans instead of just being a chamber of commerce proxy organization where the chairman has a deep influence in the Fontana Chamber of Commerce.

If you live in the 4th Supervisoral District then vote for Matthew Munson, Toni Holle, Jeff Holle, Carol Houghton, Robert Tormey.

No Time to Go Backwards

A leading former state legislator said the reform team is just here for the “infighting”, we are not here for infighting. We are here to improve our party. We are going backwards as a party where we are fighting for the best non-toxic Democrat instead of running Republicans for AD 50 and even though we have a Republican candidate for AD 53, two registered Republican County supervisors who received aid and help from our county party end up wanting to support the son of our local congresswoman Norma Torres.

We want a party with a spine, we want a party with a soul that has conviction. We are tired of our county slipping away to become a carbon copy of Los Angeles County. San Diego County went very blue where San Diego City has no Republican council members, and the Board of Supervisors is 3-2 Democratic Party leaning although its non-partisan.

We want a party that raises money independently from the chairman. We are tired of being treated like a battered spouse who lacks independence from its controlling partner. Since the chairman does not want to collaborate to make the party better and tries to belittle the minority faction, we want to take control to make sure we can make the party better.

We want a party that meets regularly at least eleven times a year. We should not go dark especially when campaigns are always around the corner. We may even have a special election in 2025 and potential recalls to worry about.

Our basic financial picture should not be a state secret. Obviously, it will be disclosed eventually to the FPPC and FEC, but the public and political observers will eventually find out the story that has been happening for the last year and a half.

We want a party that people can be proud of, where people will want to stay in California to fight the good fight against the insane politicians who are making the Golden State the Rusted State. People who can afford to leave are fleeing, which leads to fewer supporters of our party and makes our mission more difficult.

We should not try our hardest to be the Joe Baca Sr. Democrat Club, but Joe Baca sadly has more integrity than most of the Republicans who try to appease the Democrats in our county.

Bylaws are NOT Suggestions

When the county party is re-organized in 2025, new bylaws are proposed, or the previous bylaws are kept. Right now, we have a structural problem in the San Bernardino County Republican Party since Curt Hagman took it over back in 2013. We need to follow our bylaws, or we need to scrap the language so we can be consistent.

Our mission is to do things properly if we want to be an organization with integrity and stability. If we have rules about attendance, then the rules need to be followed. If we have rules against endorsing Democrats in contested elections, then that should be followed as well. If we have rules about paying our dues before voting on endorsements and policies, then that should be followed too.

Members even back in 2015 knew stuff was fishy no matter if Curt, Jan, or Phil Sr. led our party. Policies should not be selectively enforced where individuals from the minority faction get targeted when the majority faction may have violated rules as well. The rules need to be followed or they are just toilet paper.

I would like to see issues about our bylaws addressed before our organizational meeting in public where all alternates, members and ex-officio members would have an opportunity to have their say. The carpet indeed must match the drapes. We want an organization that we can be proud of. We should run with higher standards so we can avoid legal issues and people can have confidence in what we stand for.

I don’t want to return to the days when law enforcement wanted to investigate our county party.

LEADERS NOT BULLIES

I have little to no tolerance for bullies of any kind. No matter if it’s the bullies in high school who made my life hell where I had to question my path walking to and from school and from one class to another in fear of my safety. Or the bullies that dominate in present day time from Senator Leyva who wanted to slaughter an extremely low budget candidate in a mailer when her race was already settled during my first race in 2014 to our current chairman who thinks the people who disagree with him are a joke.

I am not here for the laughs or to be belittled, I am here to bring back integrity to the San Bernardino County Republican Party. I want us to be fighting for us to get Republican legislators elected and not to surrender a district to a least toxic Democrat, when the least toxic Democrat will vote for a speaker or State Senate leader who will appoint disgusting committee chairs who will promote legislation to make California more dangerous and expensive to live in. I want a county party where we can unite the factions to make sure we have shared ownership in the organization. I do not believe in throwing the incumbent chairman and his buddies off the cliff like what Los Angeles County did when they reclaimed control of their party in 2014 and had a perpetual grudge against me because I supported the reformers who wanted to change their county party. If we are here to work together there should be no reason to throw individuals off the organization.

We should not be the Jerry Springer Show equivalent during our meetings. Even if leadership may not agree with the ideas of the reform faction, there is a way to be classy and never trashy. When the Chair, 1st and 2nd vice chairs did not show up, one of the recent meetings became chaotic which led to more bad blood. Condescending actions from the Secretary led to even more negativity two months later during another meeting. We need to operate like the Speaker of the British House of Commons where if you argue your points respectfully you get your time to discuss the issues at hand.

The health of our organization is a critical concern. People want the bills paid; people want collaboration. Yes, we need collaboration within the grassroots groups that make up our party. Executive board leaders need to attend at least one or two grassroots meetings each month so they can read the pulse of the community. Our organization needs to be an organization that is for the whole and not the elite such as people who want to pay off legislators to get projects approved.

I believe in doing what is right for the stakeholders involved. I want us to be a model county party that has an improved status within the county parties of the California Republican Party.

Show ME the MONEY

“Show Me The Money” | Jerry Maguire (youtube.com)

San Bernardino County Republican Party has a money issue and it has failed us in the last three plus years as an organization. Our chairman Phil Cothran Sr previously was finance chairman for the previous chair Jan Leja and spoke proudly about his fundraising prowess, but aside from his Team Fontana buddies our party has languished badly where we even had a 50,000 dollar debt to pay one of our county party employees.

After Phil Sr got his desired candidate for county supervisor, he decided to put the county party in hibernation where we had no executive director to finish out the 2022 election cycle and refused to use a targeted donation for paying Ryan Sorba until the end of 2022 where it also led us into more debt because the donor wanted his money back.

The membership would like to see a fundraiser like the one that was used to pay off the debt to that employee that had a huge debt to be held regularly so we could have the money to grow the party. We need an organization that can fund the pizza and hamburgers to feed the volunteers who canvas the neighborhoods. We need an organization that will work towards registering voters to make Senate District 29 and Assembly District 50 competitive. We need to bring back more factions in the party together instead of laughing them off as being insignificant.

If we want more volunteers we need to stop alienating various groups within our party. If we keep on alienating people we will end up having to pay people to be employees to canvas for our candidates and issues as a party.

As what Cuba Gooding Jr recited in that clip from Jerry Maguire, we need our current chairman to deliver results for the entire slate of our candidates not just the ones in his immediate nexus in Fontana. He has not shown us the money from his time as finance director and has not shown us the money as of right now where he and his allied PACS are spending more money to keep their positions than to help get out the vote.

2026 and 2028 can be thrown away in the garbage can if we make the wrong choices this March. Vote for the reform slate to make sure we have a party that works for all of us not just the ones who live in the chairman’s neighborhood.

I envision a county party where the grassroots shall invest in with their time and money. I want to meet with various groups involved within our party and ask them what would they like for us to do in the Republican Party of San Bernardino County. One time donation of 25 dollars, 5 dollars a month or even a 200 dollar yearly donation, it takes all donors to make the party what it can be.

We can not entirely run the operations on the dues from the members, alternates or ex-officio members alone. Fundraising should not entirely be the responsibility of the chairman, but we have to be a team to work together to get things done.