Never mind what Republican voters wanted. The state party has decided to remove a person duly elected to the Republican Executive Committee of Duval County for the past 20 years.
To top it off, the complainant is the chairman of the GOP in Duval.
This is but the latest twist in a simmering dispute between former city councilman Robin Lumb, who is a former local party chair, and the current party chair, Dean Black, who also is a member of the Florida House.
But there are a couple of fairly serious policy disputes involved as well.
Lumb was accused by Black of violating his loyalty oath to the party and of using the word “Republican” in a new group Lumb heads, first called the Republican Assembly. After a “cease and desist” letter from the state party, the name was changed to Duval County Assembly of Republican Voters.
The main difference is that the Assembly believes Republicans in primaries should be endorsed and the races kept free of scorched earth tactics that benefit Democrats.
The background is that Lumb and Black were allies. Lumb supported Black when Black ran for chairman of the Duval chapter.
But then Black ran in a primary election. Lumb took an intense dislike to the rough tactics used by a political consultant on behalf of Black’s campaign.
Lumb and Black also had differences over the REC’s finances.
It has been downhill since, culminating in the complaint to the Grievance Committee of the Republican Party of Florida.
Lumb was not allowed to face his accuser.
“I was not given a hearing,” Lumb told Eye on Jacksonville. The committee simply issued its finding — Lumb was not guilty of violating his loyalty oath but was guilty of using the word “Republican” in vain.
“The RPOF thinks it literally owns the word Republican,” Lumb said. It also claims to own any depiction of an elephant, the party symbol.
“A word that has been in common use for 170 years to describe a particular type of
partisan voter is not and can never be the property of the Republican Party of Florida or any other entity,” Lumb said in his response to the complaint.
Lumb alleges that Black supported and worked in concert with the Assembly for five years before filing his complaint, in which he called the Assembly a “renegade organization.””
He also asserts that the RPOF violated its own rules to sanction him by acting within 90 days of an election.
Maleana Gay, who recently ran for state committeewoman after being endorsed by Lumb’s organization, said of the ruckus, “In a time we are supposed to be unified as a party, this is pretty divisive and petty.”
It seems strange, at a time when the Florida GOP has swollen in size and surpassed the liberal Democrat Party in registrations, that it would allow itself to be fractured by what indeed sounds like a urinating contest, more over personalities than policy.
One response to “State GOP tosses a local Republican out of office”
The Duval County Republican Assembly title . . . restored
Dear Duval County Republican Assembly Members, Allies & Supporters:
You will notice that as of today we’ve returned to our original name of “Duval County Republican Assembly.” We’ve also returned to the use of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies trademarked “elephant” logo.
In June we received a “Cease and Desist” letter from the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) threatening legal action unless we stopped using the word “Republican” in our chapter’s name along with our elephant logo.
In its letter, the RPOF claimed that it literally “owned” the word “Republican” and could deny its use to any group of registered Republicans seeking to create an organization that was independent of the RPOF. The letter also claimed that voters were likely to confuse the Florida Republican Assembly and its affiliated chapters with the Republican Party itself and that the image of an elephant in all its forms belonged to the RPOF.
Even though the RPOF’s claims were specious and without merit, the Duval County Republican Assembly changed its operating name to the “Duval County Assembly of Republican Voters” hoping that the RPOF would recognize the brightline distinction between the institutional Republican Party and Republican voters it’s meant to represent. Our reasoning was that the RPOF would see that we were working to eliminate the possibility, however remote, of voter confusion.
To advise RPOF Chair Evan Power and the party’s legal counsel of this change and the reasons behind it, we sent them each a letter via certified mail that they have yet to accept and sign for. So much for attempting a compromise.
The leadership of the Republican Party of Florida is out of control. They and several local party officials have been harassing and threatening Republican Executive Committee members throughout the state who are members of the FRA or one of its affiliated chapters. The RPOF even dissolved the entire Manatee County Republican Executive Committee without proper cause and blocked newly elected Manatee County REC members from taking office on December 1st!
Enough!
With legal action pending we’re tired of trying to placate the leadership of the Republican Party of Florida. With the election of President Trump and the defeat of Amendment 4 hanging in the balance, these same party leaders would rather sow division than heal wounds.
The Duval County Republican Assembly and its partner, the Florida Republican Assembly, have a legal right to use the name “Republican Assembly” and its elephant logo, each of which are protected by trademark filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
For these reasons, we have returned to the use of the Duval County Republican Assembly as our name along with the trademarked image of an elephant as our logo.
With regards to all,
Robin Lumb
Robin Lumb – President
Duval County Republican Assembly