By Karen Hardin of Awake Oklahoma
 |
QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS ABOUT THE STATE GOP CONVENTION – May 3
As a delegate who will be attending, I have many questions, as to Chairman Nathan Dahm’s choice of appointments he put in charge of running the convention. Documented history of actions by those in charge make his choices both questionable and concerning. Remember his insistence about following the rules right before last year’s convention?
Actions are indicators. Let’s look at actions.
 Credentials Chair – Ronda Vuillemont Smith As the former Chair of Tulsa County GOP, Smith still refuses to comply with the ongoing requests from the current Tulsa GOP Chair, Melissa Myers, to turn over information, documents, website and money which belong to the organization. Ronda was removed March 1. It is almost two months since the election and we have learned that information and money is still being withheld. Charity Marcus, who lost her bid for Tulsa County Chair, made a post on social media, (which Ronda also has on her page) that makes several bold statements which are easily proven false. They claim Melissa closed the Tulsa GOP bank account. Not true. What is true is she had to gain access to it, without Ronda’s help, after they refused to turn it over. Someone on the team with the initials BJ, tried to coerce her into closing the account. She knew better, gained access to it, and has the bank statements. They reveal that things are not as they should be. What she has received as “financial documents” were Excel sheets, evidently created by Bob Jack (since he is the one who gave them to her) as supposed “financial records” rather than computer-generated accounting software reports. But even those docs don’t match with the bank account statements—which Melissa does indeed have.  Credentials Committee/Vote Tallying – Bob Jack At last year’s State GOP Convention, Bob Jack was allowed to sit on the convention stage at the computer and tabulate the votes for the elections. There were notable delays along with the data compilation display screen going dark. This is a noted issue from previous conventions/elections. Are we going to be subjected to these issues again? Due to the alleged lack of compliance from the outgoing leadership of the Tulsa County GOP, Bob Jack has inserted himself as a middleman stalling and making demands of the newly elected GOP leadership. But he and Ronda have yet to comply with the transfer of proprietary property which belongs to the Tulsa County GOP and to which Bob Jack admits they still possess. In his “negotiations” to the terms at which they will finally turn it over, Jack admitted that the delegate list they turned over to the incoming Tulsa County Chair was tampered with and had faulty information inserted. Could that explain why numerous delegates have struggled to get registered for the state convention with their manipulations? Many have noted their email address had an extra space added or a period added or removed, which made the email bounce. What else did the outgoing team do to the list? Add unqualified people? Remove people they didn’t like? Bottom line is what they gave Melissa had been “jacked” around with. On top of that, Bob secretly called the current Tulsa GOP treasurer, to try to get copies of current financial statements and asked to be copied monthly on all financial transactions for the current Tulsa GOP! On what grounds? For the record, Bob Jack has previously stated that the writer of this article sued him. The truth is he threatened to sue the writer. You can hear the audio here. You can read the letter responding to his lawyer’s THREAT TO SUE HERE. Facts dispel his fiction. With this history, why is he in any leadership position for the upcoming State Convention on May 3rd?  Stan Stevens – State GOP Executive Director Steven’s has been out stumping to change his non-elected position to State GOP Chair. When facts emerged that his current position as executive director was never approved by the Budget Committee (BC), he insisted it had been. The Budget Committee’s approval was conditional requiring that financial records be shown to the BC to verify money was available to substantiate the proposed salary ($3500/mo). Second, the BC said they needed to see the list of job responsibilities prior to hiring since the position isn’t listed in the State GOP rules and many believed the previous executive director overstepped his authority. For the record, Dahm met neither of the two conditions. Thus the position was NOT approved by the Budget Committee prior to Stan’s hiring. The next time they met, Stan had already been hired. When the BC asked for his job responsibilities, Stevens typed up a list he created on the spot and handed it to them. The lack of compliance to the rules or required oversight seems to be the ongoing trend for this team. I was concerned, as many of you were, when Chairman Dahm was not performing his duties and was not working with Vice Chair Hill after the election May 2023. I reached out to Dahm on more than one occasion over the issue. In December 2023, he called me and in that conversation told me personally that he was hiring two people to do the duties of elected Vice Chair Wayne Hill as he (Dahm) refused to work with Hill. Stevens was hired shortly thereafter leading to the conclusion that he was chosen to be Dahm’s defacto vice-chair. Stevens has commented in stump speeches across the state in his run for Chair, that there are numerous problems in the Dahm administration seemingly trying to distance himself from the atrocities that have taken place to hide financial information and the delegate lists.Yet, clearly in his role with Dahm, he has helped implement and enable those atrocities! Stevens claims that the “division” in the Party is his biggest concern, when, in fact, he helped create it in his role as executive director following through with Dahm’s refusal to follow the rules. The division we see is distrust. We have endured their antics for the last two years under the Dahm administration. All working in that administration are complicit or else they would have resigned. Would YOU work for a company you knew was doing things that weren’t on the up and up? The repeated violation of OK GOP rules, hiding money and financial statements, refusing to provide delegate lists, etc. have also taken place in other counties whose leadership aligned with Dahm and with no consequences. This is what created this great divide in the Party. The result so far has been the ouster of former Establishment leadership in numerous counties, as delegates have used their vote to express their frustration. This includes Tulsa County and Wagoner County, where Dahm’s State Convention team hailed from. Those removed leaders, have now been given a home at the State GOP office thanks to Dahm’s appointment, to continue the chaos.  Matt Vermillion – Communications Director Vermillion is the former Wagoner County Chair, voted out by the people on March 1. Computer records show that AFTER he was voted out, he was still transferring information and delegate data from Wagoner County GOP records. He also continued to secretly monitor emails via the generic Wagoner County Chair’s email address, after he was supposed to have permanently logged out. It was also discovered via the content management software, that at the server level a rule had been inserted which would auto-forward emails to the ousted former vice chair. (Something the average person wouldn’t even know how to check!) Additionally, upon his removal as Chair, he refused to turn over electronic data and documents to the new Chair. Instead, he handed over paper copies of information and told her she could retype it herself. Are those actions honorable? Compliant or helpful for a peaceful transition of power? Or more games by this group now put in charge of running our State Convention? As the Communications Director appointed by Dahm, many have had interactions with him when their attempts to register for the State Convention failed. As the “Communications Director” the job is self-explanatory. He is there to communicate. But what happens when someone in that position simply chooses not to? Is that their right to pick and choose who they will assist and who they won’t? But that is what has happened. What about the $3000+ money his wife received from the State GOP as a “consultant” right before the RNC, money Dahm allegedly paid for the Vermillion’s to attend the convention? Yet the duly elected Vice-Chair and both National Committeeman and Committee woman received no such financial assistance from the State GOP. Or that Matt was added as a delegate to the RNC by Dahm without election or approval. Even more reprehensible, while at the RNC on the last night of the convention, elected delegate, Narcisa Craft, who was on the floor, was instructed to move. The floor was packed that night in anticipation of Trump’s arrival. Finding another spot for her wheelchair was a challenge. The next thing we knew, Matt Vermillion, the unelected/unapproved delegate, moved his wheelchair into the place where she had been! The favoritism displayed by the Dahm/Stevens administration of appointees over elected leaders and delegates is long and undeniable. Why is there division in the Party? Because of these actions which have created the distrust and division. But light exposes the deeds of darkness. Why send this report? To be salt and light, sharing facts vs fiction, with the Oklahoma delegates and those who will be attending the State Convention at the end of the week. Because facts matter. |
| More recorded history you can read about those who are running the State GOP Convention. Why are they in any position of leadership in the first place? According to the reports below, there has been a clear pattern of questionable activity:.. GOP Turmoil in Tulsa; Invalid Leadership? Bob Jack: GOP’s Arrogant Ex-Chair Tulsa GOP Endorsements – “Ronda lied“ |
Additional coverage on OKGrassroots here:
Too Big to Rig – Convention Reports for Tulsa and Wagoner Counties
Shared via OKGrassroots with permission.
You must be logged in to post a comment.