Category: SB County Party

The Political Leopard Rarely Changes His Spots

History is repeating with State Senator Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach) where his scheming has gotten himself in trouble with the FPPC the campaign finance regulator in California. In 2016, he paid $40,000 in fines to the FPPC for his campaign finance violations for his failed race for State Controller in 2010. Stantalus and Ventura Counties both faced fines due to their actions with the politician. It seems 15 years later, Senator Strickland is wanting to repeat his same mistakes with a new county in San Bernardino.

Tony Strickland has previously received funds from the political action committee controlled by Phil Cothran Sr. the chairman of the San Bernardino County Republican Party when he ran for City Council in 2022. There was a proposal in the San Bernardino County Party to endorse Tony Strickland and his fellow Senator from the north Roger Nielo in August where some in the committee thought it was strange and weird that they are going to endorse candidates outside San Bernardino County. In September it was unveiled that it was going to be a fundraising pact with those legislators because they got endorsed. The main issue many of us find ironic is that we have some costly races in our own county that we need to help out with in Assembly Districts 36, 47 and 58 to start out. 

California Republican Party also did send out a notice in July 2025 advising county parties to stay away from these arrangements and did cite the actions from Senator Strickland in their memorandum about fundraising and earmarking of donations. The goal is for the San Bernardino County Party to avoid legal scrutiny and other regulatory issues that drain fiscal resources out of the organization. The San Bernardino County Republican Party has endured some legal problems in the past in particular with former Assessor and Supervisor Bill Postmus. Our goal should be is not to repeat the same mistakes that end up crippling our county party. We need to stand for integrity in the Republican Party. We should not be known as the enablers of Cook County West. 

The Truth About SBGOP Fundraising

Our San Bernardino County Party leader Phil Cothran Sr.  said he raised 900,000 for candidates, but we were crying poverty as a county party with lingering debts from a failed fundraiser in 2022. They spent more energy protecting the status quo after the 2022 General Election where GOTV was aborted two weeks before the election. The problem is our chairman has a conflict of loyalty where he kept his two major political action committees and left the organization in the lurch until late Summer 2024. Campaign finance information for the county party is elusive because they keep the banking information a state secret even to committee members. The chairman unfortunately says its “none of our business”, but the health of the organization is our business as committee members, registered Republicans and political candidates alike. The other question I would like known is the 23,000 we owe the chairman finally wiped off the books since they found all this last minute money.

When we look at the tenure of the organization for the chairman’s first term, we will look at both the FEDERAL and STATE committees.

$891,000

The problem is how the money was directed. Yes, they paid for nice mailings for Josie Gonzales, but what about candidates like Nick Wilson and Carlos Garcia for example? The other problem is that candidates needed the money in October and not during the first week of November. We also need to change our leaders in Sacramento just as much as protecting any fiefdoms we may have locally.

January 2025 begins a new four-year term for the San Bernardino County Republican Party and the previous administration did not do much to help grow the party in Sacramento or Washington DC compared to Riverside County. The Phil Cothran Sr. administration led to a death of the grassroots and a sharp rise of the corporatist faction looking to sell the brand name of the party and use the preferential fundraising treatment that political parties have. The County Party did raise money, but the money was only earmarked for their preferential candidates and did not help the grassroots of the organization.

Our party still has a lingering debt with Phil Cothran Sr. largely due to a failed fundraising event in 2022. The party abandoned GOTV where there was no organized precinct walking effort to promote the party ticket unlike previous years. Voters were angry that the headquarters in Ontario was not staffed, phones were never answered, and the majority faction could care less. Candidates from both factions in the party were left to neglect such as Nick Wilson and Upland Councilman Carlos Garcia for their races for State Assembly and State Senate.

Treasurer Robert Rego and Chairman Phil Cothran are two peas in a pod where they were more worried about keeping the status quo instead of growing the San Bernardino County Republicans. They wanted to tar and feather the people who challenge their orthodoxy instead of using the money they helped to fundraise from their donors to help make Sacramento less toxic. Over 110 thousand dollars was spent to challenge another Republican Mark Gibboney in the Cucamonga Water District board race that covered both Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga because they wanted more of their allies such as the daughter of the mayor of Fontana to replace the people who challenge them. Good money wasted that could have been used in State Senate District 29 or Assembly District 53 to have a party mailer or more canvassers to reach out to the communities.

The county party is now literally a smoke-filled room of people tied to other politicians, and they do not want the little people in. When Riverside County is likely to gain two Republican state legislators in Assembly District 36 and 58, San Bernardino County is not making any progress. The next administration needs to start rebuilding the organization from deep neglect where it’s only an organization in paper only. We need to start paying Phil Cothran Sr back, we need to start raising money for a permanent staff member and raise money for a serious 2026 GOTV campaign since the governor race is going to be an open seat election. No longer is the time for us to abdicate ground to the Democratic Party like how Phil Cothran Sr. gave away Assembly District 50 to the Democrats with his DINO buddy Adam Perez in Fontana.

If you are part of the grassroots of the Republican Party, you are invited to participate in organizations such as the San Bernardino County Patriots and the California Republican Assembly. You are wanted in those organizations, and it is time to bring the fight so we can be unified. Without money and the grassroots together, our success will be a hurdle.

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 2^nd 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.

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.

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.