- April 28, 2024
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The Flagler County Republican Executive Committee has said it will not renew charters of the Flagler County Republican Club and the Republican Club of Palm Coast, a move that would effectively dissolve both clubs and force them to transfer their remaining assets to the Republican Party of Florida. The Republican Party of Florida would then distribute the assets to the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee.
The announcement comes in the context of a running conflict between the Ronald Reagan Republican Assembly of Flagler County — now firmly at the helm of the Executive Committee — and other county Republicans.
Ronald Reagan Republican member Anne-Marie Shaffer, who wrote a letter to Flagler County Republican Club President Wes Priest announcing the Executive Committee’s decision not to renew the Flagler County Republican Club’s charter, was elected chairwoman of the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee in a Dec. 17 vote after running for the seat unopposed.
Palm Coast City Councilman Bill McGuire, a former RRR Assembly member, said in an interview following Shaffer’s election that the Ronald Reagan Republican Club had “swallowed (the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee), and it’s pretty much part of them,” and suggested that Shaffer might move to suspend the Republican Club’s charter.
Shaffer declined to answer that question in an interview following her Dec. 17 election, saying only that as chairwoman she would like to “put an end to the disorder and chaos that we have been trapped in for a number of years, and restore order so that we can continue the mission given to us by the Florida Republican Party and the REC.”
In her Feb. 18 letter to Priest, Shaffer wrote that the decision not to renew the Flagler County Republcan Club’s charter “was not made for casual, trivial, or personal disagreements, but only to protect the interests of the Republican Party of Florida from the offenses committed by this club. … The FCRC has violated its current charter, put the Republican Party of Flagler County at risk of legal action, violated campaign finance law, and publically misrepresented itself as the authority of the Republican Party in Flagler County.”
Shaffer closed her letter asking that the Flagler County Republican Club “promptly comply with Republican Party of Florida Rules of Party Procedure Rule 1F as soon as your charter expires on March 31, 2015.”
Rule 1F states, “If any entity chartered under this rule becomes inactive, fails to renew its charter, or has its charter revoked; the assets of such inactive entity shall become the property of the Republican Party of Florida. …Within 60 days of the transfer of assets to the RPOF, the Chairman of the RPOF shall distribute such assets in an equitable manner to the County Republican Executive Committee or Committees in the counties in which the formerly chartered organization was authorized to operate.”
Repubilcan Club of Palm Coast Vice President Susie Moya confirmed March 2 that Shaffer had also said she would not renew that club's charter.
The two Republican Clubs could also lose the right to use the Republican Party name: Under Republican Party of Florida rules, “no person or group of persons shall use the name, abbreviation or symbol of the Republican Party in connection with any club, group, association or organization of any kind unless approval and permission have been given in writing by the chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee and at least two of the following officials of that county: State Committeeman, State Committeewoman and County Chairman.”
Priest and Shaffer had not responded to requests for comment on Shaffer’s letter at the time this story was published.
To view the letter from Shaffer to Priest, CLICK HERE.
This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the Executive Comittee has announced plans not to renew the Repubilcan Club of Palm Coast's charter as well as the charter of the Flagler County Republican Club.
