Phil AmmannNobody likes airing dirty laundry, particularly if you are the Republican Party of Florida.
In the battle of the yes-no-maybe coup of Speaker Designate Eric Eisnaugle, some Florida Republicans have tired of the of the increasingly hostile emails between RPOF chair Blaise Ingoglia and Orange County Republican Chair Lew Oliver.
In the latest skirmish, Oliver’s missive accuses the Republican Party in Tallahassee of being “rudderless,” and once again warns of Ingoglia and his surrogates of poaching votes in the Speaker’s race. He then called for Ingoglia to resign, so he can “pursue his other interests without dragging the party into a civil war.”
For his part, Ingoglia – a former professional tournament poker player – saw Oliver’s bet, and raised the stakes. Not only did he adamantly refuse to resign, he also passionately reaffirmed his vision for fiscal austerity within the Party.
FloridaPolitics.com, in a series of posts, recounted the entire sordid affair, including both emails on Friday, Oliver’s original accusations and the letter from former RPOF Chair Leslie Dougher that started it all.
Meanwhile, Cindy Graves, a conservative talk show radio host based in Jacksonville, has watched the exchanges from the sidelines.
Graves, who is both a former president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women and a Duval County Republican State Committeewoman, takes issue with the way the quarrel has played out in public.
Sending out her own, hurriedly composed email – dotted with misspellings and grammar errors – Graves, a self-described “proud parent of four Republicans,” called out Oliver for his “self-serving” attitude on the escalating dispute.
She sees the rift as part of a larger problem with the “archaic process of anointing a Speaker.”
Jacksonville’s upcoming mayoral race also makes a cameo appearance in the email, as Graves invites Oliver to send a team to “help us knock doors for Lenny Curry against the Bill Clinton protégé and the Hillary machine.”
In addition to calling for GOP “team building,” Graves holds special contempt for FloridaPolitics.com, which has chronicled the inter-party squabbling from the start.
“Surely, your legislators are capable of doing the business THEY were elected to do without YOU dragging the RPOF into their process and feeding the liberal media,” she sneered.
Don’t stop on our account, guys.
Here is the text of Graves’ email, in its full (and unedited) glory:
Subject: Re: Speaker’s Race / RPOF Chair – Further News
Stop this self-serving spin, Lew!
Your emails are not private and seem to be popping up in the media hours before they land in our email boxes.
BTW, each of us is capable of reading Sayfie Review and decimating news including articles by the Charlie-Crist-loving-Peter Schorsch.
We have a process – no honorable member of the RPOF Executive Committee will ever allow the process to be highjacked [sic] again, not by an elected official or state chairman and certainly not by a county chairman and I RESENT your continued accusations to the contrary.
If duly elected legislators want to change the archaic process of anointing a Speaker, that is their right. Actually, Dorworth – from your area – symbolized the broken system of the Speaker selection. It cost us a seat.
Surely, your legislators are capable of doing the business THEY were elected to do without YOU dragging the RPOF into their process and feeding the liberal media?
With your county’s 100K deficit in GOP voter registration and historically low performance in Federal elections, you should have enough to accomplish in your own job to pull your weight for 2016.
- Patty is one of the hardest working women in the state.
- You always get the RPOF meetings
- You have 5 times more FFRW clubs than any other area in the state –
- Can’t we stop negative publicity and uncover some voters to save this county from Hillary?
- No reason Orlando shouldn’t be red!
I will send you some GOP TEAM BUILDING ideas and hope the other red counties will as well!
Or you can do something positive and bring a team to Jacksonville and help us knock doors for Lenny Curry against the Bill Clinton protege and the Hillary machine? We are actually working to elect a GOP mayor and stem the tide of the 2016 Hillary Scooby bus in NE Florida by removing her stooge from City Hall. It matters. The election is May 19.
REMEMBER THE MISSON [sic]!
