GOP leadership still contends with divisions
Long-simmering tensions within the Broward RepublicanParty continued to roil the county party’s leadership on Monday, but Chairman Bob Sutton sought to airing of the avoid a public controversy.
He saved his response to pointed criticisms aimed at him for an unusual closeddoor session of the county party. Sutton usually allows reporters to listen to everything that happens at the Broward Republicans’ monthly gatherings.
He’s been pilloried in recent days by two other local party leaders. Over the weekend, state Republican CommitteemanRichardDeNapoli sent party activists a scathing email, describing an organization rife with personal disagreements, vendettas and score settling.
On Friday, Dolly Rump resigned as party secretary, citing “major dysfunction, division and disorder between officers” in an email to party activists.
Republicans leaving the meeting at Deicke Auditorium in Plantation said Sutton complained about people who publicly aired “dirty laundry.” In his opening remarks to about 170 party activists before he closed the meeting, Sutton emphasized the positive.
“We areworking on turning Broward into a majority red county and the state of Florida into a reliable red state,” he said. “Tonight, I say to you, when Broward is united, our conservative values and the Republican Party is unstoppable.”
In an interview, Sutton declined to discuss specific complaints aired by DeNapoli and Rump. “Yes, they have said a lot of stuff.”
As far as the chairman is concerned, the party is focused on registering Republican voters, helping party members win elections, recruiting more activists to the party, and spreading the party’s message to the broader public.
In non-election years, local political parties generally focus their energy on training activists, recruiting candidates and raising money for the following year’s elections. Some of those efforts are on the back burner for Broward Republicans. Party leaders said Monday night that the annual Lincoln Day fundraising dinner, which had been set forMay 20, was being postponed.
The county’s Republican Party has been plagued by divisions among various factions for years. The chairman is elected to a two-year term, but the average tenure for Broward Republican chairman for the last decade has been less than 18 months.
But the email blasts from Rump and DeNapoli were unusual. Rump was elected secretary in December after serving as Broward chairwoman for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
DeNapoli, a former county Republican chairman who was also an early Trump supporter, was elected as the state Republican committeeman by party voters in theAugustprimary. That makes him a member of the state Republican Executive Committee, which governs the state party, and a leader in the local party.
The local party, run by committeemen and committeewomen throughout the county, is formally known as the Broward Republican Executive Committee.
DeNapoli, in his email, said Rump correctly diagnosed whatwas going on.
“I understand Dolly's reasons and can echo her sentiments. It is true that rather than focusing on critical tasks, certain members of BREC are instead focused on personal disagreements and vendettas,” he wrote. “You may be shocked by what I’m about to write, but it’s all true and you need to be aware of the situation.”
“Instead of working together, certain members are bent on expelling other members or making their lives miserable so that they resign,” DeNapoli said.
DeNapoli said the situation is far worse than Rump described. Exhibit A, he said, was a call about him to the police onMarch 8 when he was speaking to the Lauderdale Beach Republican Club.
“I was falsely accused of ‘assault.’ I say ‘falsely accused’ because the police determined immediately that there was no assault,” DeNapoli wrote, adding that hewas accused of falsely imprisoning someone.
After he was questioned, deputies “determined, of course, that Ihadcommitted no crimes and did nothing wrong. The matter was closed and therewas no further investigation. They knew that thiswas just a political disagreement,” DeNapoli wrote.