Carl DeMaio Says Travis Allen ‘Unfit’ To Be CA GOP Chairman
Says ‘restore,’ not ‘resist’ needs to be the GOP mantra
By Katy Grimes, February 23, 2019 5:01 pm
Reform California Chairman Carl DeMaio held a press conference Saturday during the California Republican Party Convention to discuss “the catastrophic prospect of a Travis Allen California Republican Party Chairmanship.”
“From unpaid campaign debt for a failed gubernatorial race to running a misleading campaign to repeal the gas tax, it’s critical for delegates to face the facts that Travis Allen is unfit to lead,” DeMaio said.
DeMaio’s primary issue was Allen’s attempt to qualify a gas tax repeal for the ballot, in spite of the campaign DeMaio and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association already had in the works. DeMaio warned that under an Allen GOP Chairmanship, funding for the party would dry up. During the gas tax repeal campaign, DeMaio said Allen received more than $300,000 to push out his ballot measure on video ads that starred himself, while also running for governor.
“Travis Allen was never interested in qualifying a gas tax repeal for the ballot,” said DeMaio. “Travis Allen was interested in one thing: promoting Travis Allen. In fact, it’s the only thing he seems to be good at.”
DeMaio said he met Travis Allen at a gas station when DeMaio’s grassroots initiative was kicked off in the recall effort of Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), tied closely to the gas tax repeal initiative.
Allen responded back to a reporter who had texted him to ask his reply to DeMaio’s press conference:
“Unfortunately, after failing Californians with a badly managed campaign to repeal the gas tax, he now is looking for excuses and issues to distract from his failure,” Allen said in a text, the reporter read outloud.
Asked to respond, DeMaio said, “Ask him how his hair looks. He has audacity to criticize that grass roots effort…“Travis, just go away.”
Another reporter asked DeMaio about Allen’s “Resist” (the establishment) theme. “It should be ‘restore,'” DeMaio said. “Restore the American dream in California. Restore the economic opportunity that used to be in California. Restore hope, pride, and restore opportunity.”
DeMaio added: “I still have hope the California Republican Party can still do the things it needs to do.”
DeMaio said he wasn’t going to endorse anyone, but decided to endorse Jessica Patterson, “who has the experience.” Patterson is currently the CEO of California Trailblazers, which recruits, trains and elects Republicans to state legislative office.
“Jessica believes what I believe,” DeMaio said. “We need elected officials and the grassroots to get this thing done.”
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Way to close ranks and air your grievances in private, Mr. DeMaio….
You’re already facing a huge uphill battle and you air your divisive rhetoric in public??? The Democrat operatives and party leaders are laughing their jackasses off…
Easy solution…I’ll take Stephen Frank for the win… the Patterson model has proven itself to be ineffective and gave us rich, Chamber of Commerce sellout RINO ‘s like Charlie Munger…. abject failure….
This is the kind of public bickering that destroys the GOP and allows the progressive socialist Democrats to continue winning over feckless GOP representatives. The GOP can’t even articulate its platform or support a sitting GOP President.
This article gives voice to Carl DeMaio’s accusations, but not to Travis Allen. Under CAGOP’s years-long “We Love To Lose” mantra, all California republicans have been marginalized by our “Plundering ‘conservative’ elites”, MainStreamMedia, academia, my former party, K-12-“education”, The DC Swamp,, the Sac Bee, et al, et al! Travis is more like Trump! We Need Travis, despite certain accused imperfections!
Reform CA is a liberal leftist grp of so-called Repbs who think that Kaly politics require a leftist Repub to attract more leftists form the D party. Wrongo. At that point, I would just stop voting period and let the entire state fall into the ocean. We need a principled party leader and Allen is it. For the last two years, these same drones refuse to follow Presidents Trumps lead and keep losing and losing and they think you have to go hard left to attract D’s.. This grp includes crying John Kasich and Arnold and sell out Chad Mayes.. All losers. Allen is the man !!.
Can we stop playing games and get to the truth of the matter here? Is this a sincere warning to Californians or just personal animosity on the part of DeMaio? Are there any adults in the room anymore? Any adults who ask “what is best for California?” before opening their mouths with incendiary accusations, which by the way are delivered at the last minute in an apparent attempt to torpedo campaigns?
By the way, in the past I have supported both of these politicians — perhaps naively — with money, time, and energy. Travis Allen is not perfect by any means but Carl DeMaio is not without sin himself. It is my opinion that he pushed John Cox for Governor by raising his profile in appointing him chairman of Yes on 6 after Cox gave a large donation to Reform California. You may recall that Cox was a nice guy but a less-than-effective candidate, to put it lightly! Also recall that Travis Allen disappointed us by refusing to endorse Cox for Governor after the primary.
Of course we will never know what would have happened if DeMaio and Allen had managed to conquer their egos and personal animosity and had done the right thing by GOP voters who desperately want, above all, a turnaround in the rapidly-deteriorating California that has happened under Democrat rule.
Beggars can’t be choosers and we don’t expect perfection from otherwise effective GOP leaders and politicians. Personally I like Stephen Frank for the job, but Travis Allen has been energetically campaigning for it and IF it turns out he wants it because he has designs on someday running for Gov. wouldn’t that motivate him to be a good GOP Chairman? He will be incentivized to actually do what he has promised, won’t he?
We are obviously starved for leadership and would benefit from strong leadership but who can be trusted at this point? That’s what I asked myself when I learned of this latest event. Extremely disappointing.
So Carl DeMaio with all of his negativity wants to run for Congress in conservative East County of San Diego? Give me a break.
So Carl DeMaio gets to decide who the Republican party should pick as its leader? Not right. The Republican party is irrelevant and we need a leader with out of the box ideas. The only person with those ideas is Travis Allen. Any one else and we will get the same results. I have talked with all 3 candidates and the 2 others are too mainstream. Why would we do that to ourselves. Unless you want California to turn completely BLUE, hope and pray the GOP delegates choose wisely and vote for Travis. Capeesh?.