AZ GOP Chairman Robert Graham, who has earned the scorn of the Party’s grassroots over the years, could be facing a resolution calling for his resignation at the AZGOP 2016 State Convention scheduled for April 30. Graham and his cohorts had used numerous maneuvers to prevent a vote on the resolution at the at the Arizona Republican Party’s Annual Meeting that was held on January 23, 2016.
Unfortunately for Graham, he may have run out of maneuvers.
According to popular grassroots leader, A.J. LaFaro, he submitted the resolution for consideration “on March 14, 2016, in accordance with the Continuing Bylaws of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Article VI Section F. Resolutions. On March 15, 2016, he received an e-mail from Robert Graham stating “I have received your resolution and it will be presented to the Resolutions Committee in due time.”
A day later, Graham’s minion, Tim Sifert notified A.J. LaFaro by email:
To all who have sent in resolutions intended for the April 30th convention:
Only the members of a body can submit resolutions to that body. The state delegates will be members of the state convention and only state delegates can submit resolutions to the state convention. As of this date, we don’t have any state delegates elected.
As per the AZGOP bylaws, the deadline to submit resolutions is 45 days before the meeting. But none of the state delegates get elected 45 days before the meeting. This is a problem in the bylaws, which was discussed in the AZGOP Executive Committee meeting last week and it was decided that the only way to submit a resolution is to submit them from the floor on the day of state convention.
Anyone who would like to submit resolutions to the state convention is free to get elected as a state delegate first and then submit from the floor with the requisite signatures.
Much to Graham’s chagrin, LaFaro was elected a LD18 state delegate on April 5, 2016. LaFaro advised Graham and other Party leaders in an email, “I have completed all of the required AZGOP follow-up paperwork and even wrote a check under protest for the unconstitutional $50 poll tax being extorted by Robert Graham and the AZGOP.”
LaFaro is referring to highly irregular requirement in Arizona that Party members pay a $50 to be considered for a delegate slot. That fee has widely become known as Graham’s “poll tax,” designed to prevent Party members who are not members of the establishment from participating in the presidential selection process.
“I am resubmitting the attached resolution entitled “AZGOP State Convention Delegates’ Resolution Demanding Chairman Robert Graham Resign.” I expect, no I insist, the resolution be included in the official Call Letter to the AZGOP 2016 State Convention scheduled for April 30, 2016,” stated LaFaro in an email dated April 6.
Graham outraged the grassroots when he prevented a resolution calling for the censure of Senator John McCain and himself at the January meeting. McCain is the most unpopular elected official in the state, and Graham has been his most ardent protector. As a result, Graham, who had run for the AZGOP chairmanship on the promise that the grassroots would play an integral role in the Party, is nearly as unpopular as McCain now.