How To Guarantee the Georgia GOP Loses in 2022 & Beyond-Part 4
by Bill Simon
How much do you like being lied to?
It’s a serious question. It’s one thing to lie to yourself, as that is a voluntary act that you take on yourself. It’s quite another when someone you know, who is running for office and wants your vote…it should be a rather serious issue when someone chooses to deliberately, knowingly lie to you.
And, “That’s just politics, Bill” is hardly an acceptable condition. If “That’s just politics” has become your excuse for ignoring the lies from a candidate you decided to support, then don’t go preaching to me about your faith in God.
Recall Proverbs 12:22 – “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, But those who deal faithfully are His delight.”
The Many Dishonest Acts of David Shafer
I attended the 6th District Convention this past Saturday. I witnessed, and heard, David Shafer state a number of blatantly false things about his political history, some semi-ancient history, and some more current history.
Semi-Ancient History: From the stage, he made the following statement: “Right after I graduated college, I went to work as the Executive Director of the Party.”
Fact: No. He. Didn’t. But, making the statement he made would lead some to believe that he was soooo wonderful and smart of an individual that the State GOP at that time would have hired him as ED right out of college, doesn’t it?
According to this site, he graduated from UGA in 1988. According to this site, from 1989 through 1990, he worked for then-candidate for Insurance Commissioner, Billy Lovett, as Lovett’s campaign manager. Lovett had previously been a Democrat commissioner with the Georgia PSC. Lovett switched to the GOP sometime in the mid 1980s.
When Lovett lost in the 1990 November election, Lovett was asked in 1991 by the Republican party leaders of that time to become State GOP Chairman. Lovett accepted, and served from 1991 through until he retired from the party in 1995.
Shafer became ED under Lovett, and Shafer resigned from ED late in 1993, to work on the 1994 Guy Milner campaign for Governor. (For backup on that info, I found this archived document, written by my competition in the 2001 Chairman’s race, a time in which I actually did go to great lengths to support David Shafer for chairman when he ran against Ralph Reed.)
Why would Shafer skip over the simple fact that he worked for Billy Lovett? And, further, why does David Shafer like to claim he is apparently the sole reason Republicans got elected in the 1990s? On Saturday, he also alluded to his presence in the Party in the 1990s as being the reason why the GOP experienced significant gains then.
For the record, Senator Paul Coverdell was the first statewide Republican who won in the 1990s, as U.S. Senator in 1992. But, you never hear Shafer claim he’s responsible for that, do you? (He may after the issue of this Vine). It’s because he wasn’t, of course, just like he wasn’t responsible for the multiple wins in the 1990s by the U.S. Representative candidates.
The truth doesn’t, of course, ever stop Shafer from falsely embellishing that his mere presence as ED for the 2.5 years he was in that position, caused those wins to happen. Hard work by adults in the party is what won Congressional races in the 1990s, not then-Executive Director David Shafer.
Republican activists either don’t know, or like to overlook the fact, that the ED of the party is essentially an order-taker-and-follower. They work for the Chairman. They are not the pivotal person who decides strategy, who organizes the grassroots, who raises money for the party, who recruits candidates to run for office, etc. Chairman Billy Lovett did all that to bring forth GOP wins in the 1992-1994 election cycles.
But, Shafer has given the activists a very fine snow-job on his accomplishments…both in his earlier days with the party, and then, more recently. And, it’s the more recent history that is the most shocking to see him claim, whether on the stage, in print (as well as to read the idol-worshipping garbage Debbie Dooley* issues), that he says he’s responsible for accomplishing.
Recent History: Last Saturday at the 6th District Convention, Shafer also made this statement: “The SOS made that deal with the Democratic party in March [2020] without any input by the Georgia GOP.”
Well…that’s kinda factual, but you should then ask “Why wasn’t the Ga GOP involved in that case and decision?” The reason why the “deal” (i.e., Settlement Agreement) was made “without any input from the Georgia GOP…” was due to Shafer’s personal failure as Chairman to protect the Republican Voters of Georgia. It was 10,000% David Shafer’s fault, and no one else’s.
When Ann Lewis was alive, and she was the Ga GOP’s Legal Counsel, she made certain a Republican legal team was assembled, and ready to go for every major election. This included the monitoring of all case dockets (state and federal) so the legal team for the Party would know whenever an election case was being filed in Georgia, and they acted to intervene.
In 2019, when Shafer ran for Chairman the first time, he promised he would do the following in writing in his Campaign Plan:
“7. Strengthen Our Election Legal Team & Resources
“We cannot allow Stacey Abrams or the Far Left extremists to overturn the results of our free and fair elections. As your next Chairman, I will properly fund a team of our state’s best election attorneys and provide legal resources to defend our winning candidates.”
Shafer did not fund any team of election attorneys. In fact, when it was suggested to him to do so in early 2020, he flatly refused. And, look where his refusal got us. It got us steamrolled in the November 2020 election. His failure to follow through on his campaign promises are the reason why TRUMP LOST GEORGIA!
Even more troubling than not forming a legal team of capable Republican attorneys was Shafer’s decision to continue allowing Vince Russo, the lead lawyer for the Secretary of State’s office, the lawyer who personally negotiated the outside ballot boxes, the signature verification, etc….all the illegal things the Democrats wanted the State to implement…Shafer continued to allow him to be the legal counsel for the Georgia Republican Party! To this day, he is still legal counsel. W. T. _______???
[In case Shafer claims Russo wasn’t involved in the Ga GOP until after the March 2020 Settlement, I have personal knowledge he was. On a completely unrelated matter, I had a conversation with Russo back in October 2019. This is the snippet of the email I received from him where he states he is the party’s “legal counsel.” So, he was acting as legal counsel since at least the Fall of 2019, and all during the case filed by Democrats against the SOS, and to this day, he still serves as “advising” Shafer and the Ga GOP.]
Now, the most recent thing is Shafer’s decision to use Ga GOP funds to pay for his personal campaign piece he is using to promote this candidacy for reelection as chair. This is Shafer’s M.O., actually, to never use his own money for things that benefit him, and cheat by using other people’s money.
I previously detailed Shafer’s multiple unethical acts of using his public office campaign funds in 2019 to pay for his race for GOP Chair. Though he claims he is “paying for his campaign expenses out of my own pocket” he is not. He is lying on that matter entirely as I have detailed with proof on this website.
But, to this current campaign piece: Here is a photo of the outside cover laid out. It is a booklet measuring 8″ x 10″. Inside is 16 pages of full color layout and printing of David Shafer claiming “Look at me! Look at everything I did! Worship me for my work!”, etc.
You saw this if you attended any District Convention this past weekend. Total pages are actually 18 (including front and back cover). On the back cover, it states “Paid for By Georgia Republican Party, Inc.” I estimate he likely purchased 10,000 copies. Ballpark, it could have cost the Party $2 to $5 per copy if you include all costs, graphic art design, printing, freight & sales tax in the purchase.
That means that Shafer made a deliberate decision to expend Party Funds in the amount of $20,000 to $50,000 for his personal campaign literature.
Now, if you are a sitting member of the Georgia GOP Executive Committee, or, running for an open position, and you see nothing wrong with the Chairman using state party campaign dollars for what is 100% a personal campaign puff piece for Shafer’s reelection, then you deserve to lose your election if you have an opponent.
Use of State GOP funds for a personal campaign piece is flagrantly wrong…and if you don’t think it is, then you are as unethical a person as David Shafer is, and you should not be serving in any capacity in a GOP office.
While the puff piece has a lot of claims and stats printed in it, based on my experience, and documented knowledge of who Shafer really is (i.e., he is a prolific liar and a cheat), I don’t believe all that is claimed in that 18 pages that Shafer claims happened during his tenure.
And, the fact that both he and Debbie Dooley are going to incredibly great lengths to promote him…well that is also a signal that he knows he is a fraud, and he has to over-compensate for his personal decisions that led to the Georgia Republican voters getting skunked in 2020, and on January 5, 2021.
Shafer claiming “I didn’t know that case against the SOS was happening” is not an acceptable excuse…because his decision to NOT have lawyers in place is a sign of a control freak whose ego deliberately led the Ga GOP over the cliff to lose the most important elections of our time. That’s not…smart. Reelecting him would be even dumber.
If he had just followed thru on his campaign promise to put a legal team in place, we would still own the U.S. Senate. A legal team would have known to monitor the case dockets, and they would have seen the case being filed by the Democrats in the Fall of 2019. A team of Ga GOP lawyers would have been able to put together the motions to file into the case and prevent people like Vince Russo and AG Chris Carr from negotiating away the protections of our election laws. But, Shafer thought he was smart enough to run the whole show himself…to the detriment of every Republican voter in Georgia.
Trump’s Support of Shafer
On the front cover of the Shafer puff piece is a statement by President Trump where Trump effusively supports Shafer. But, Trump does not know the real truth about Shafer, and his direct cause of his loss in Georgia by failing to have a legal team ready to go.
The truth is, Trump is operating off of bad advice, and bad information. And, for those of you who have a short memory of Trump’s previous hires during his administration that he hired due to bad advice from others, remember:
Jeff Sessions as AG
Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State
John Bolton as National Security Advisor
Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis as Defense Secretary
Anthony Scaramucci as Press Secretary
…and, many others…
So, for all of you who think that Trump is always making decisions based on good and valid information, refresh your memory of the above ^^^, please, and start thinking for yourself. Trump is surrounded by “Yes-men” and that’s all he knows.
The Georgia GOP will lose the state in 2022 if Shafer gets reelected as Ga GOP Chairman. Plain and Simple. Stop following this…”cult of personality” that is David Shafer.
Until next time…
*Does any Republican in Georgia have Al Gore’s Mobile Number other than Debbie Dooley? Just…curious if you think you want to follow whatever she claims to you…?
May 18th, 2021 at 10:57 pm
Al Gore and Debbie Dooley together -any other year that might seem strange…
I guess I’m feeling the Vern