ANAHEIM, Calif.—A political firestorm over alleged pay-to-play politics at the recent California Republican Party Convention has burned some candidates who have claimed that party leadership used proxy votes to favor establishment candidates for endorsements.
After the reelection campaign for state Sen. Brian Dahle’s wife, Assemblywoman Megan Dahle, gave a $40,500 donation to the Republican Party on April 22, the first day of the weekend-long convention, gubernatorial candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux made the pay-to-play allegation in a text message sent out to Republican delegates that was later leaked on social media.
“Last night at 8:15 p.m., Megan Dahle made a payment from her campaign account to the CAGOP [California Republican Party]. Two hours later 400 proxies were given to her husband’s campaign for Governor by party leadership,” Le Roux wrote in the text message. “We are not the party of rigged elections. The Republican endorsement should not be for sale. I am calling for the return of the suspicious payment and for everyone to vote their conscience tomorrow.”
The next morning, California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher sent an email to delegates stating that he had asked Megan Dahle for the donation.
“I asked for and Megan Dahle gave money to the Party that goes directly to helping win the Assembly seats. Period. End of story,” Gallagher wrote. “Anything else is just desperate politics. A Governor candidate should know that we need to win all the way down the ticket. Brian Dahle is a proven leader and he deserves our nomination today.”
In response, Le Roux also sent an email to delegates.
“I stand by my position that endorsements should be earned, not bought,” she wrote.
“Megan Dahle’s transfer to the party just hours before those assignments was over 5X the size of any prior contribution. ... Many of you have known for years that these deals are regularly made. I found the courage to lead with my own conviction.”
Sen. Dahle, who has held elected public office for more than 25 years, was endorsed by the party for governor on April 24.
Dahle told The Epoch Times via text message on April 25 that he was “in committee” and couldn’t respond to an inquiry.
Le Roux alluded to the pay-to-play scandal during her campaign speech at a candidates’ forum on April 23, alleging that the endorsement had been “purchased” just before organizers cut her mic. She asked the party to return the money.
Ellie Hockenbury, a CAGOP spokesperson, told The Epoch Times on April 25 that the $40,500 was a routine donation.
“This is a routine member contribution to the Assembly Republican Caucus. Nothingburger,” Hockenbury said in a text message.
Le Roux confirmed that she wrote the text message and sent it out to delegates, but suggested that she had put the incident behind her.
“It’s time to move on,” she told The Epoch Times on April 25.
“I’ve got a race to win,” she said, referring to the June 7 Republican primary, “so I can face off with Gavin Newsom in November.”
Rachel Hamm, who’s running for California secretary of state, also had her speech cut short when party leadership cut her mic more than a minute before her five-minute time limit had expired.
“I got cut off unjustly,” she told The Epoch Times.
Hamm said that according to the CAGOP leadership, she broke the rules to not speak negatively about other Republicans when she encouraged other candidates to be conservatives and “stop running to the middle, leaning left, [and] acting like liberals.”
Several sources within the party told The Epoch Times that the party is controlled by RINOs, an acronym for “Republicans in Name Only” and that there are rifts between pro-Trump “America First” candidates and the California Republican Party establishment.
Hamm said she was told that another candidate was offered an endorsement in exchange for a donation. She accused party leadership of favoring moderate candidates and smearing those it opposes.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts. They did very specific things to sabotage very specific people, me being one of them,” she said.
Hamm had been the sole Republican candidate for secretary of state until the party recruited others to run against her, according to Hamm.
“People on the board began making phone calls ... telling people that I was a satanic witch, and therefore they needed someone—for the sake of the greater good for the party—to step up and run for secretary of state in order to sabotage my campaign,” she said.
Shocked at the allegation, Hamm said she was in a state of disbelief until she heard the same claim from more than 20 people.
“I’m such a strong, outspoken Christian. So, it’s a very weird, stupid lie. It’s so easily just disputed and put to rest ... and then I heard it from another person and then another person,” she said.
Hamm, a Trump supporter, said RINOs and “liberal infiltrators” have risen into key party leadership positions and are trying to destroy the party from within.
Mike Netter, campaign manager for Attorney General candidate Eric Early, told The Epoch Times that he believes party leadership conspired to control blank proxy votes to sway which candidates received endorsements.
“The CAGOP used a paid candidate operative to give out hundreds of signed proxy votes to delegates attending the convention and told them to use those hundreds of proxies to vote against the opponents,” Netter said.
Of the 1,379 eligible delegates, 522 voted at the convention and 534 votes were cast by proxy for other delegates who didn’t attend.
“No one knows who these proxies are,” Netter said.
Each delegate in attendance can “carry” up to two proxy votes, meaning that they can cast up to three ballots—their own and one or two proxy votes.
Although proxy votes require a wet signature from a delegate, the delegate doesn’t have to specify the candidates for whom they’re voting. In other words, it’s like a “blank check,” he said.
Netter is calling for more transparency and a breakdown of how many proxy votes were cast for each candidate.
“The California GOP needs to make visible the wet-signature proxies to the delegates,” he said. “There is currently no way to validate that the proxies are valid, and there is no mechanism, rules, or procedures apparently in place as to how and to what delegates these proxies are distributed.”
Netter said the timing of Megan Dahle’s donation has also created suspicion.
“It’s bad optics,” he said.
“It sure makes delegates and many people in the Republican Party suspicious. We would like someone to come out and show us specifically what that money is used for because it makes delegates not trust the party because everybody thinks proxies are being purchased. Don’t tell me there’s nothing to look at. Prove me wrong.”
California Republican Assembly (CRA) Regional Vice President Jennye Bigelow told The Epoch Times on April 26 that the CAGOP policy of allowing a majority of delegates to vote by proxy opens the door to influence by lobbyists and pay-to-play schemes in which “the proxy votes will go to the highest bidder.”
“The system is designed to favor establishment candidates,” Bigelow said.
“I had several people reach out to me, after the voting on [April 24] at the convention, confused about the way the system works. They were under the impression it was one delegate, one vote, but they quickly realized it was one delegate with multiple votes,” she said. “The California GOP allows proxy votes, and when you have more proxy votes than actual delegates there to vote, the outcome is always going to be in the favor of the proxies.”
The CRA, although chartered by the California Republican Party, is an independent volunteer organization that makes its own endorsements and doesn’t allow delegates to vote by proxy.
“That’s the reason why endorsements are always different between the CRA and the California GOP,” Bigelow said.
Supporting Moderates
Earlier this year, party leadership was accused of considering the idea of supporting “moderate Democrats” in the 2022 midterm elections.When asked by the party secretary about CAGOP’s policy on “possibly either endorsing or unofficially throwing support behind some of the moderate Democrats,” at a meeting on Jan. 22, Chairwoman Jessica Patterson suggested supporting incumbent Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, District 3, who’s a member of the Democratic Party.
Party Endorsements
At the convention in Anaheim on April 24, the CAGOP endorsed several other statewide candidates: Mark Meuser for U.S. Senate; Lance Christensen for superintendent of public instruction; Nathan Hochman for attorney general; Lanhee Chen for controller; and Angela Underwood Jacobs for lieutenant governor.“After three days of party building, exceptional speakers, insightful trainings, and official business, our delegates endorsed quality and talented candidates for statewide office,” Patterson said in a statement. “I look forward to supporting them as they challenge California Democrats’ failed one-party rule with visions for a brighter tomorrow.”
The CAGOP board of directors also voted to endorse several candidates for local office. The full list of endorsed candidates can be found on the party’s website.
