Coös County GOP fires back, blasts 'Republican establishment machine' over donation flap
Members of the Coös County Republican Committee, apparently facing harsh criticism over their rejection of a $1000 donation from Scott Brown’s political action committee, are firing back.
“I am so completely dumbfounded that people are so worked up about the fact we declined a ‘donation’ from a candidate,” wrote chairman Eric Catman in a Facebook post.
“Money is thrown around today by the well-to-do and they expect others to take their money,” he wrote, “however when some people stand on their own principles and moral values (whether you like them or not, matters not) people are beside themselves and get in a frenzy because some people dared to say 'NO’?” he asked.
In a separate post, Secretary Barbara Rossell explained the committee’s reasoning for rejecting the donation. “We as a committee were told by no less than our state party Chairman Mrs Horn that we needed to remain absolutely impartial during the primary,” she wrote. “To my mind, accepting the check from Mr Brown’s PAC would have been a clear violation of that.”
“I understand it was offered sincerely and 'with no strings’ attached,” she continued. “However, I am old enough to understand that when money changes hands such a view is either disingenuous or dangerously naive. There are ALWAYS strings attached,” she insisted, “no matter how subtle or how much either party wishes there weren’t.”
Rossell then blasted the GOP leadership. "I think most can agree that there are a large and growing number of independents, conservatives, and Republicans who are disaffected and alienated by the establishment machine that is the current Republican party,“ she wrote. "Accepting this check would have sent a signal to those groups that the Coos Co committee was part of that machine the public is so heartily sick of.”