Stanley's Vs. Rodriguez's UPDATED

UPDATE:

The Kern County Young Republicans issued a Press Release concerning the Mettler endorsement. The applicable portion is below.

The KCYRs also contest the recent illegitimate endorsement announced by

former members of CYR, Inc. who are improperly using the CYR name and touted

by Ken Mettler, Candidate for the 32nd Assembly District. Under the bylaws
that govern the organization, local clubs are the proper organization to

issue an endorsement in a local race. Article XV A3 of the CYR, Inc bylaws
states, "...no endorsement for such local office shall be made unless a

specific endorsement is requested by Chapter in such candidate's
district..."

"The CYR, Inc bylaws are clear that they do not allow the state organization
to supersede a local club in endorsing a local candidate," said Bryan
Williams, Chairman of the Kern County Young Republicans. "At our monthly
meeting held Monday, April 19th, Mr. Mettler was directly asked not to
accept the illegitimate endorsement made by those seeking to benefit their
own political careers by attempting to harm the KCYRs directly. We continue
to ask Mr. Mettler to reject their endorsement and wait for the KCYRs to
hold a proper vote at our May 3rd endorsing convention."

It seems pretty obvious that Mettler has no desire to reject the improper endorsement. Sad for a man campaigning to change politics as usual.

---

The California Young Republicans are seeking arbitration against Jenniffer Rodriguez and the the 'former' CYR leadership.

Truth be told, I hate this subject, and I hate writing about it. The whole thing stinks and people are taking advantage of it for political gain. It's revealing things about people I thought I respected, which is, in turn, changing my opinion of them.

Wednesday evening, Ken Mettler candidate for California's 32nd Assembly race, announced an endorsement from the California Young Republicans. Knowing that the chairman position and board positions are in dispute, I found this 'endorsement' odd. I immediately brought up the two Young Republican sites for California. CYR.org is the official legacy Young Republican site. Recently, a new site CAYoungRepublicans.com opened, and claims to be the site for the CYR's.

I know some people within the California Young Republican club and have my opinions on the matter. I am, however, interested to read the findings of the arbitrator. As I've investigated this issue, I've run across a few things that should cause those interested in the dispute to wonder who legitimately has a claim to the chairmanship and board positions.

1. CYR.org has been registered to the California Young Republicans since 1996. CAYoungRepublicans.com has only been registered since January of 2010. If the CYR group, led by Andy Stanley is illigetimate, then how did they get access to the official California Young Republicans website?
   


2. If the CAYoungRepublicans.com led by Jenniffer Rodriguez is legitimate and the bylaws are on their side, why didn't they seek arbitration against Andy Stanley and the CYR.org group? Instead, Stanley's group sought arbitration against the Rodriguez group.
   


3. Why are politicians such as Ken Mettler and Steve Poizner, who are fully aware of the dispute within the organization touting endorsements from the group? As much as I have respect for the Young Republicans, until the dispute is arbitrated an endorsement from either faction is political napalm right now. If the chairmanship of the national GOP were in dispute and it had endorsed Mitt Romney, do you think he'd be touting that endorsement?
   


4. Why are news organizations reporting on the endorsements without acknowledging that the chairmanship of the organization is in dispute? If the chairmanship of the national GOP were in dispute and it had endorsed Mitt Romney, do you think the dispute would be mentioned in every news story covering the endorsement?
   


5. If the Stanley group is illegitimate, then how is it that they have the support of 5 former CYR chairmen, including Congressman Kevin McCarthy?
   


6. What do Mark and Cathy Abernathy have to do with anything? I have been accused of being a 'Abernathy flunky', what is that anyway? I've never met Mark or Cathy Abernathy, and cannot figure out what they have to do with this dispute. Why are they brought up every time someone who supports the Rodriguez group speaks out about this issue? Most all of the elected officials within the CYR groups (as far as I can tell) are employed by political organizations of some form. It makes sense that someone who is committed enough to seek a political office within a political organization would also seek to be employed in politics.
   

This whole dispute traces it's beginnings to a spat which involved former Congressman Bill Thomas. While I do not know the specifics of the disagreement, I do recognize that the next incoming group of YR's will potentially be younger than the dispute itself. Further, I would venture to guess that less than 2% of the total membership (of CYRs and YRFCs) were even involved in the group when the dispute originated. Why, then, is a political disagreement from the early 90's still an issue? Why hasn't this been resolved? Why are people who agree on limited government and conservative values fighting?

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