PCO Comeback in Spokane County GOP
By Rob Chase
In our Republic we have had a battle within the Republican Party for many decades between Conservatives and RINOs. Although I became active in the Republican Party in 2007, I had already run for State Senate and Congress as a Libertarian.
In 2000 I ran against Republican State Senator Bob McCaslin Sr. He had voted for public funds to build the new stadiums for the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners. Other than that, we seemed to agree on most things since he was a Conservative also. We went on to become friends and he was an important mentor in my life. In 2002 I ran against Congressman George Nethercutt primarily because he was all for invading Iraq, which I knew would be another Viet Nam, and we would lose a lot of lives and spend a lot of money. In retrospect I was right, even though I only received 5% of the vote.
In 2007 Republican Congressman Ron Paul announced his candidacy for President, and I was back in the game as an activist. It helped me that Ron Paul had run for President as a Libertarian in 1988, but also that he had contended in 2002 that we should issue a Constitutional Letter of Marque and Reprisal, only if it could be proven Sadaam Hussein and/or Osama Bin Laden were behind the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. That made too much sense, so we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and lost 5,000 American servicemen killed, and at least a million other people who, prior to our invasion, had nothing against us, plus spending at least $5 Trillion to do so.
Ron Paul should have been the Republican Party Candidate the GOP always wanted. He was a 12 term Congressman, a Veteran, a celebrated Economist, a devout Christian, a Pro – Life Doctor who delivered 4,000 babies, and who followed the US Constitution religiously. The GOP would have nothing of that and gave us two Deep State RINOs in 2008 and 2012, who both lost anyway.
In 2008 the excitement of Ron Paul running for President caused us to get a lot of conservative Republican Precinct Committee Officers appointed and we swept the Spokane County GOP Convention, and nearly won the State Convention. That only lasted two years as the RINO’s regained control in 2010 and held it ever since. Those of us who stayed fought back, but we could not prevail against the Club, whose primary motivation seemed to be the ability to represent the GOP Hierarchy.
In 2016 everything changed with the advent of Donald Trump into the game. The GOP cabal threw their best against him and he destroyed them all, along with the Mainstream Press. Despite intensive cheating by the Uni Party (D’s and R’s) he became President (partly due to Ron Paul’s efforts in 2008 and 2012) and ushered in the positive transformation of the Make America Great Again doctrine. It is amazing he did so well despite all the backstabbing, and constant litigation aimed at him that no other President has had to endure.
In 2017 author Daniel Schulz wrote a book: ‘How To Get Into The Real Ball Game Of Politics Where You Live To Help President Donald J. Trump Make America Great.’
He foresaw that the Deep State would spare no effort to get Trump out of office and return to the controllable mediocrity that worked so well for them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and Joe Biden came into office in 2020 on the wings of massive vote cheating.
However, in 2022 two things happened, and in my view that will set us up for victory in 2024 for Trump.
One – Unbeknownst to me some voters with little experience in politics read Daniel Schultz’s book and started organizing. In April of 2022 I was invited to speak to some activists who wanted to understand what had happened to the Spokane GOP over the previous ten years. I was expecting a few people but was amazed to see around 60 people in that room. I urged them to keep a low profile and recruit others. When filing week occurred we had a huge majority which led to victory at the Re-organization Meeting in December, and the newbies swept every position on the Spokane County GOP Board.
Two – My friend, former Spokane Valley City Councilman Brenda Grassel, had moved to Coeur d’ Alene and said that the Kootenai County GOP Chair, Brent Regan, had contrived a way that led to huge success in electing candidates to office who followed the County Platform. Brenda urged us to meet with Brent and we did so.
Brent stressed the importance of the Party only recommending candidates who were knowledgeable enough to pass an in-depth interview adhering to the Party Platform. This led to the success of Kootenay County only installing real Republicans into office. In contrast, the Spokane County GOP often supported RINO’s whose only interest was the power and influence that accompanied the office. They knew what to say to get elected, but did not serve the people, except for those who had money to give. In fact, I think some of our elected officials were Democrats who just enhanced their chances by putting an “R” behind their names. After an election most voters don’t pay too much attention, and the news media isn’t about to illuminate them.
It remains to be seen if we can make progress in Spokane County this November. I really don’t trust ballot integrity in Spokane County. But what we have done is a good start thanks to many of the ‘We the People’ taking the time to do their civic duty and becoming PCO’s.
Rob Chase is currently leading the ‘East Washington Statehood Foundation’ with a website at eastwashingtonstatehbood.org. He is a former 2 term (8 yrs) Spokane County Treasurer, a past Washington State Representative and a current candidate for Spokane Valley City Council.