The Douglas County GOP Reorganization Meeting Debacle
Article - 16 minute read
Members of the Douglas County GOP came to gather at Flory Meeting Hall at the Douglas County Fairgrounds for their reorganization meeting on Wednesday, November 16. Due to redistricting, there were members from both the first and second U.S. Districts for Kansas attending the meeting.
Some of the attendees of the meeting had received a letter emailed to them on Tuesday, November 15 at 9:50 p.m. The letter was addressed to certain Douglas County precinct committeemen and committeewomen and was written by Chairman of the Kansas Republican Party Michael Kuckelman. The subject of the letter was regarding sanctioning 20 Douglas County Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen including Patricia A. Bates, Thomas E. Bates, Lorrie Belcher, Michael Bertels, Rylie Bertels, Brent Boeve, Linda Campbell, Susan Cary, Cynthia Folks, Marianne Hoffman, Reynold Hoffman, Sarah Irby, Sara Kutait, Cheryl McCrary, George McCrary, Pam McDermont, Rachel Price, Robert Price, Ann Spitz, and Nicole Vannicola.
The letter stated that on November 9 a unanimous vote to immediately remove the 20 precinct committee people from membership on any Party committee(s) along with revoking their Party voting rights was made by The Kansas Republican Party Loyalty Committee. The revocation of voting rights included the right to vote on any matter at the county’s upcoming party reorganization meeting.
This decision is in line with The Kansas Republican Party Constitution, Article XIII: Party Loyalty, which states,
“The Kansas Republican Party is dedicated to the promotion of Republican policies, candidates and principles. The members of its governing bodies defined in this Constitution (Article IV, V, VI) are charged with promoting these goals. Therefore, any individual with voting rights on any Party committee defined in this Constitution, who by any documented public action donates, contributes, or endorses a candidate other than the Republican nominee in a contested, partisan campaign for public office in the state of Kansas, shall forfeit their voting rights and membership on the committee(s) on which they serve. This shall not, in any way, restrict rights conferred on elected officials or precinct committeemen/women as defined in Kansas statute. (Section A)”
Prior to the Douglas County GOP reorganization meeting, which took place at around 7 p.m., an email was sent out to the state district chairs for the Kansas Republican Party Loyalty Committee including Laura Francis, 1st District Chair; Cheryl Reynolds, 2nd District Chair; Danedri Herbert, 3rd District Chair; and Debbie Luper, 4th District Chair. The Kansas Constitutional received the leaked email which was sent to the state district chair members an hour and a half before the reorganization meeting by Kuckelman.
The email stated that the Kansas Republican Party Loyalty Committee met that day “to consider the appeals filed to date related to sanctioned individuals.” Due to the number of appeals, “the Loyalty Committee voted to temporarily suspend all sanctions without prejudice” until a later date as it was not possible to hear and decide “each appeal in a timely manner without risk of unfairly disrupting county reorganization meetings.”
The Kansas Constitutional reached out to Kuckelman for comment, but he did not respond.
The reorganization meeting began a couple minutes late. According to member of the Executive Committee of the Douglas County Central Committee for the Republican Party Chris Burger he “personally observed” and “overheard” a “script” being developed by member of the Executive Committee of the Douglas County Central Committee for the Republican Party Richard Todd and his son Chair of the Douglas County Central Committee for the Republican Party Reese Todd. Burger stated that Richard Todd was standing behind Reese Todd in front of the room a little after 7 p.m. “telling him what to say and that when anyone made any objection to the segregation to declare the meeting suspended.” Burger also mentioned that 2nd District Chair Cheryl Reynolds helped guide in the making of the script.
No video or audio evidence given to The Kansas Constitutional has revealed a script at the meeting.
In a phone interview with Richard and Reese Todd, Reese Todd denied any script to shut down the meeting. He also said that they had nothing to gain from suspending the meeting except that they would have been able to hold a reorganization meeting.
In a text, I asked Reese Todd if I could receive the notes taken that night at the meeting. Reese Todd responded, saying he didn’t have any notes aside from “the credentialling numbers written on the agenda that was available for the meeting.” The Kansas Constitutional received no notes from Reese Todd.
In a last-ditch effort to find physical evidence of a script, I called the Douglas County Fairgrounds Friday afternoon to see when their trash day was. No one answered so I left a voicemail. Saturday morning, I called again, and again no one answered. That same morning, I went back to Flory Meeting Hall and looked through the two trashcans in the meeting room for anything that resembled a script. Nothing was obtained.
An email was also sent to Reynolds about her involvement, but she has not responded.
“What happened when we suspended the meeting was the response to the changes in how the State Party was going to be handling these sanctions,” Reese Todd said. He also said that once the meeting was suspended, it was “uncivilized” and wasn’t “following the rules of order of how a meeting is supposed to go.” However, Chris Burger, a lawyer in Lawrence, said that Reese Todd did not follow Robert’s Rules. Burger explained that a chairperson may order things, but has no power to suspend, adjourn, or cancel. He said once the meeting is “duly called,” the meeting belongs to the members who make those decisions.
At the start of the meeting, it was noted that with 51 regular present from District 1 and 4 proxy for a total of 55 votes, meaning it would require for their delegates 28 votes to win. For Congressional District 2, 31 were present with 12 proxies for a total of 43, meaning the delegates would need 22 votes. Overall, there were 82 regular and 16 proxies for a total of 98. This meant for the officer elections, they would need 50 votes to win.
“With a new development on our way in tonight, we ask that all of the sanctioned votes—there will be a provisional—we will ask that those individuals, please move to the 20 chairs in the back,” Reese Todd said, about three minutes into the meeting.
It was at this point the crowd came into an uproar, saying things like, “I do not accept” and “objection.” One woman said, “There’s no such thing as a provisional. Move on.”
It was at this point Reese Todd stated the meeting was suspended. In the phone interview, Reese Todd explained the reasoning behind this.
“As our meeting was planned, there was guidance from the State Party that members were to be sanctioned,” Reese Todd said. “We had about 20 members that would not be able to vote. So, going into the meeting, that is what we had planned on. From the State Party, one person who was present at our meeting was notified, none of the County Officers were notified, that these sanctions were temporarily suspended. So, about 30 minutes before the meeting, we were not able to change our course of action quick enough to properly implement that. So, we made the decision to allow everyone to still be able to vote, but the people who were sanctioned would have a provisional vote.”
Reese Todd explained that the provisional vote was due to the appeal of the sanctioned people by the State Party. The appealing process will be done by the State Party and neither a timeline nor a formal notification has been received yet.
“The intent was everyone had gathered because the meeting was called and there was this last-minute change while people were walking into the door,” Richard Todd explained. “The determination was made that the best thing to do, rather than canceling the meeting then is to say, ‘let’s let everybody who made the effort to get here vote and do the Provisionals’—much like you’d do at a polling place when there’s a questionable ballot, it goes into the provisional pile, then they verify that it’s a legal one, and then they count it.”
According to Party Rules, a certified election must take place within 14 days of the general election.
“It would be horribly difficult to get [the appeal process] done by the 22 of November at this point,” Richard Todd said. “So, we decided best course was to allow the election to occur with those provisions. That way everybody gets to cast their vote. We had a large attendance… so there’s no reason to make people not vote.”
Despite allowing a provisional vote, the crowd was not happy with the decision.
“As far as those who signed the petition to put Dennis Pyle on the ballot, it is my understanding that that petition had a deadline prior to the primary in which all those people were elected and until that time, they were not bound by any loyalty oath,” reorganization meeting attendee Michelle Eagleman said in an email.
Eagleman also said there were other anomalies she didn’t support like the meeting itself not being announced with a two weeks’ notice; the fact that the petition signers were not uniformly being kept from voting, but only kept in certain counties; that if this was an issue now, it was certainly an issue in August, at which time there was ample time for those affected to defend themselves, or appeal; and the fact that Michael Kuckelman, the chair of the loyalty committee, said the ‘twenty’ should vote with 'no prejudice' at the reorganization meeting and that the meeting should go forward.
After Reese Todd had suspended the meeting, Chris Burger stood and took to the front of the room to take over the meeting which was met with applause.
“We had a report that has been presented and accepted everyone here as a lawful voter,” Burger said at the meeting. “We, as Douglas County residents, will respect our precincts and our voters of our precincts.”
During the phone interview with Richard Todd, he said “the person who stepped in (Chris Burger) had no authority to do so. He has the same position that I do. I could have just as easily gone up there and said the same thing. That I’m an Executive Committee member, that I’m in control and I’m going to run it. But the bottom line is when the Chairman suspends the meeting under the guise of not being able to follow the rules of order, then the meeting can’t proceed.”
2nd District Chair Cheryl Reynolds tried to explain how things were to work but was met with rebuttals by the crowd.
Meeting attendee from District 2 Rich Lorenzo stood to quote the drafter of the Loyalty Clause, stating, “The text of the Loyalty Article only refers to take away rights from the party official who already has them. It cannot be interpreted to prohibit someone from getting voting rights before he or she has them.”
Lorenzo declared that those running the meeting were wrong and creating division within the Republican party. In an email to The Kansas Constitutional, Lorenzo explained his reasoning behind wanting to move forward with the election.
“The meeting was scheduled for November 16,” Lorenzo said. “The committee people were duly elected by Republican voters in Douglas County and their job is to represent their precincts. It appeared to me that a large majority of the committee people were there to do that. To me, the meeting being suspended/adjourned without a vote of the body was wrong. The elections must go on!”
It is important to note that the continuation of the meeting does disregard those who showed up with the intention to vote and ended up leaving after the meeting was suspended.
Eventually, the group made a decision to designate Chris Burger as temporary Chair to hold the meeting. John McDermott, who is not a committeeperson but whose wife was originally sanctioned for signing Pyle’s petition stepped up to be the secretary of the meeting. People were asked to leave by those who originally directed the meeting as the meeting was over, and while a few did go, the majority of the crowd stayed to listen. The table and some of the chairs were put away but brought out again by some who chose to stay. The group then began voting on amendments and voting in new members including Brent Hoffman, nominated by Scott Huffman, to be Douglas County GOP Chair.
There was confusion as to who all gives a speech and for how long, but Hoffman did get three minutes to give a speech he had prepared where he gave his ideas on how to better improve the Douglas County Republican Party.
“I plan to raise committees to give opportunity and purpose to all Republicans who want to engage now and over the next several months and years,” said Hoffman. “We will have a committee that raises money, successfully. We will have a committee that plans events that will be fun and build community. We will have a committee to identify and recruit solid candidates that represent us in this county and at the state level. We will dramatically improve communications with precinct committee members and registered Republicans. We will fix and update the County Party website, which hasn’t been updated since 2017. We will increase our presence on social media platforms where there is no current presence. And we will put together a solid plan to promote and support our candidates during the height of election season. There will be improvement if I’m elected tonight.”
The vast majority of people who were at the meeting were excited to have Hoffman elected Douglas County GOP Chair.
Lorenzo, who got voted to be an “at-large” committeeperson stated in an email, “Douglas County needs a leader with vision and someone who will actually go out and do something. Brent Hoffman is that guy.”
“When I heard there were some who didn’t trust Brent Hoffman as being a legitimate Republican, I asked some other people I knew and trusted, who knew Brent better than I did what their thoughts were and any concern that I had was really gone,” Michelle Eagleman, who was also voted to be an “at-large” committeeperson, said in an email. “I accepted his explanation as to why he participated in the effort against the jail through Justice Matters, a liberal group. That seemed to be the biggest charge against him. I do believe in his sincerity to energize our party.”
However, precinct committeewoman and slated to be nominated Vice Chairwoman of the Republican Party Linda Weinmaster, took to the front of the room after Hoffman’s speech to question him. These were questions like what his role is in Justice Matters and why he wants to be the Chair of the Douglas County GOP. Weinmaster was stopped as questions were raised as to how the meeting should continue. Brady Wagner, who was there for credentialling purposes could be heard in the back saying the meeting was illegitimate as some people left and people would have to be recredentialed. Chris Burger stated that they were already credentialed, and it didn’t matter if some people left. Eventually, Weinmaster did get to speak but was met with laughter as the crowd shouted things at her like, “You sound ridiculous,” and “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Weinmaster stated in an email that she has always had an off feeling about Hoffman.
“Brent Hoffman seems to be left leaning socialist,” Weinmaster said. “I am a very thorough person and started to look at the mission of Justice Matters. They seem to follow a socialistic program that does not serve the community well and is financially draining. It is difficult to oppose their agenda because of their ties to churches in the community.”
Weinmaster, who has a long history of doing research into issues on vaccines and mercury poisoning and has even worked to get bills passed, provided a list of resources she found in her research on Hoffman which can be found here.
The biggest issues brought forth was his work with left leaning organization Justice Matters and his support for George Soros funded organization Vera Institute of Justice.
Questions and accusations have also been raised about Hoffman’s honesty when it comes to his involvement with Justice Matters. Hoffman had a chance to defend himself, ultimately stating that he stepped down from Justice Matters in 2020. According to zoominfo, whose page shows it was updated as recently as November 14, 2022 at the time of this publishing, it lists Hoffman as Co-President of Justice Matters. However, according to the Justice Matters website for Kansas, Hoffman is not listed as holding any current executive committee or staff positions.
When asked via email about whether he is still active in Justice Matters and why, Hoffman said he was not.
“As I said at the meeting on 11/16/2022, I did not support the Jail Expansion plans that the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners was pursuing,” Hoffman said in his email. “Those plans were rescinded by the County Commission in June of 2020. At that point I considered my role in Justice Matters completed, and I stepped away from the organization shortly thereafter. I have not been part of JM in any way since I stepped down, officially, in November of 2020.”
Later, in a phone interview with reorganization meeting attendee Dr. Justin Spiehs, who ran as a Republican for Douglas County Commissioner District 1 in the November 8 election, Dr. Spiehs spoke on Hoffman’s advocacy as it related to taxes.
“He stood up there and said that through his work with Justice Matters—their advocacy work on the jail—they ‘saved the taxpayers $150 million.’ First of all, I would like to see how he came to that conclusion. That’s a lot of money. The County Commission’s yearly operating budget is only $170 million. I don’t know where he’s getting that number from.”
He also said Hoffman pushed for a quarter cent sales tax, being at the “forefront” on raising taxes, something Dr. Spiehs opposes.
After the events at Flory Meeting Hall, Dr. Spiehs posted a 22-minute video to his YouTube Channel to speak about the events of the night of November 16 and some of his thoughts on it. His video refers to the events of the night as a “Republican Party coup.”
“I thought it was a takeover of the Republican Party,” Dr. Spiehs said in the phone interview. “I thought it was a planned out, orchestrated takeover of the Party by pretty much all of the precinct committee people… some of them did get up and left when the meeting got suspended, but the overwhelming majority of the committee people remained. So, I think it was a planned thing by the majority of them to have this meeting no matter what. I thought it was a circus… there were no rules followed at all. Once the meeting was suspended, it’s done and over with.”
Despite the votes, nothing from Wednesday night is considered valid due to the suspension of the meeting, according to Reese Todd.
“Officially, we have not reorganized and there is no one who has been elected to the Douglas County Party,” Reese Todd said.
Reese Todd also said that at this point what happens next will be up to the State Committee and they will have to discuss with them how they move forward, but no current dates have been set.