Clark County Republican Party Seeks Disaffiliation of the Washoe County Republican Party from the Nevada Republican Party

(Las Vegas, NV) – At its August 7, 2012 meeting, the Executive Board of the Clark County Republican Party (CCRP) voted to call upon the Executive Committee of the Nevada Republican Party (NRP) to disaffiliate the Washoe County Republican Party (WCRP) from the state party. This call was expressed on August 11th by a letter sent from CCRP Chairman Cindy Lake to members of the NRP Executive Committee informing them of the CCRP Executive Board’s resolution.
In late June, the WCRP, led by Chairman Dave Buell, filed with the Federal Election Commission and claimed to be unaffiliated with the NRP; despite this, the WCRP simultaneously continues to retain direct influence over the NRP. Under NRP Bylaws, the Washoe affiliate of the state party is granted significant control over NRP operations and finances. The WCRP chairman sits ex officio on the NRP Executive Committee, and it has the second-largest county delegation to the Nevada Republican Central Committee (the governing body of the NRP).
The CCRP Executive Board finds it impermissible that the WCRP be allowed to remain a part of the NRP after they have declared themselves unaffiliated with the NRP and are competing for federal donors and influence against the state party. Not only does such a situation strike at the core structure of the Republican Party; it also puts the NRP (and, by extension, all of its county affiliates) in danger of receiving FEC complaints for appearing to “coordinate” with the WCRP’s federal activities.
The Nevada Republican Central Committee previously voted at its biannual meeting on July 21st to empower the NRP Executive Committee to take whatever actions necessary to protect the NRP from the WCRP’s actions. For all of the aforementioned reasons, the CCRP Executive Board has called on the NRP Executive Committee to use the authority granted by the State Central Committee and completely separate the NRP from the WCRP via disaffiliation, thus eliminating the ability of the WCRP to affect NRP business and, consequently, eliminate the potential of “coordination” complaints to the FEC.
The CCRP Executive Board has also called upon Chairman Buell to immediately resign as WCRP Chairman for his actions that have endangered the Nevada Republican Party and all of its county affiliates.
The CCRP sympathizes with those Republicans in Washoe County who have been caught in this situation by the decrees of autocratic party leadership, and hopes that if the WCRP is disaffiliated from the NRP, those Republicans in Washoe who truly seek to elect conservatives will help to rebuild and form what can become a new, efficient NRP affiliate in Washoe County.