Leaders of the Virginia GOP’s 2nd Congressional District Committee ousted Laura Hughes, chairwoman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, late Wednesday night.
The vote by secret ballot came after a four-hour meeting at the Chesapeake GOP office. Not all of the district committee members attended; instead five sent proxies to vote on their behalf, which drew criticism from more than 50 Hughes’ supporters who waited outside.
The meeting was closed to party members and the public. Just after 11 p.m., 15 ballots were cast. Eleven were in favor of removing Hughes for failing to function as the chair.
“It was a difficult decision,” said Dennis Free, chair of the 2nd District Committee. “We’ll move forward with a minimum of disruption, and I think we’ll correct anything that we thought that contributed to this decision.”
The committee also voted to appoint Virginia Beach member Larry Lane as the interim chair.
The turbulence within the party leadership has become an unwanted distraction in the crux of a critical election season. Efforts should instead be focused on electing a Republican governor, lieutenant governor and state delegates, said former Virginia Beach Republican Party chair Kenny Golden.
“It’s extremely hurtful for our party, and it’s going to be extremely difficult to put things back together for the election,” Golden said Wednesday night.
Turmoil in GOP pits Virginia Beach Republican party chair against party leaders
The 2nd District Committee is made up of party leaders within the district, including the city’s of Chesapeake, Suffolk and Franklin as well as the counties of Accomack and Northhampton, among others.
Party members, who are volunteers, work the polls and promote candidates leading up to the November election.
Free declined to elaborate on Hughes’ missteps citing confidentiality of the executive session. A financial report of the Virginia Beach party, which was requested by Hughes, may have played a role in her removal from office, though she denies any wrongdoing.
Hughes had hoped to hear which committee members supported her. Instead, members wrote their votes on a folded piece of paper, and only Free saw the votes and read the tally aloud. The voting process was open to the public.
“It would be hard to express the cowardness involved with wanting a secret ballot,” Hughes said after the vote.
Hughes plans to appeal the decision to the state party. If she wins the appeal, she could be reinstated.
Supporters of the chairwoman wore “I stand with Laura Hughes” buttons on their shirts. Many of them said they couldn’t understand what she had done wrong and claimed Free and other committee members have been nitpicking at her since she won the seat last year.
“Everything she tries to do, they drag down,” said member Marie Dottino. “My heart goes out to her.”
“It’s a witch hunt, and it’s sad,” said Elaine Fekete, chairwoman of the finance committee.
Hughes was elected last March. The schism between her and party leadership began a few months later, according to Hughes, when she engaged a city auditor to conduct an audit of the Virginia Beach Republican Party. In a Facebook post on April 30, Hughes wrote that the task was long overdue, and when she pursued the audit, the past administration failed to turn over key documents, and the process was delayed.
The Republican Party of Virginia ultimately conducted a financial review. Hughes maintains the findings of that report should be made public, But, she said, in order to view a copy of the report, she had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Soon after Hughes received the report from Free, he called the executive session to vote on whether Hughes should leave office.
The report was distributed to party members Wednesday night.
“It showed us we have some things we have to fix,” Golden said. “If she had done something wrong, she certainly wouldn’t have wanted an audit.”
Hughes’ appeal process will begin with the state central committee, which meets in August. Mark Peake, a state senator representing Lynchburg and chairman of the state Republican Party, will appoint an appeals committee, which will produce a report.
“All splits can be rectified, and that’s my job to do everything I can to get everybody back together, because no matter how many fights we’re involved with amongst each other, the big fight is against the Democrats in November,” Peake said.
Staff writer Kate Seltzer contributed to this report.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, [email protected]
Read the full article here
