Alaska GOP Drama Results in Chairwoman Debbie Brown’s Ouster Monday
Locked out of the less-than-lavish headquarters of the Alaska Republican Party in a snowstorm, state leaders of the Grand Old Party adjourned to a comfortable, Midtown Anchorage office complex Monday evening and decided they’d had enough of the antics of party chairwoman Debbie Brown.
Officially, money — or the lack thereof — was the reason for Brown’s ouster. Like recently fired predecessor Russ Millette, who never officially made it into the chairman’s seat, Brown was accused of being unable to raise any.
Money that is. She seemed plenty good at raising the blood pressure of the party leadership.
First she tried to fire members of the party’s state executive committee. When they refused to go, she changed the locks on the party headquarters in Midtown Anchorage and left the state. When the executive committee called her up on charges of failure to meet her responsibilities as chair, she refused to appear.
Reports as to her whereabouts varied, but there seemed agreement she was still out of state, apparently on vacation or preparing for the Republican National Committee meeting in Hollywood, or both. Republican national committeeman Ralph Seekins from Fairbanks noted the RNC meeting starts Wednesday.
Much discussion was had about the whereabouts of Brown, normally a resident of Kasilof on the Kenai Peninsula, and the appearances of trying her in absentia. Attorney Wayne Anthony Ross — or WAR, as he is commonly know — sent the executive committee a wordy, six-page letter citing his lengthy party credentials, questioning the fairness of the hearing, and warning the actions “by these members who I call the ‘old guard led by our former chairman (Randy Ruderich), seriously lessen the credibility and effectiveness of the RPA to Republicans.”
The shortest-serving attorney general in Alaska history, WAR did not, however, show up to represent Brown, nor did anyone else. WAR did represent Millette before the executive committee booted him for the same reason Brown was shown the door Monday night — the inability to separate potential party donors from their cash.
Once the overstuffed Batman and lady Robin of Ron Paul for President forces in Alaska, Millette and Brown were voted into power at a contentious state Republican convention last April. It was all downhill from there.
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