On January 17, 2013, the Penobscot County Republican Committee in Maine held its elections for officers.
According to the bylaws of that committee, there were fewer than 37 voting members of the Penobscot County Republican Committee, yet at the end of the evening, 71 votes had been cast.
When all was said and done, two appeals were filed per the Maine State Republican Committee’s bylaws, and both of them were essentially ignored by the Maine Republican Committee Chair Richard M. “Rich” Cebra.
As of Thursday, April 4, 2012, five Maine State GOP Committee members have resigned from the Maine State Committee: three of them from Penobscot County and two of them from York County.
Several Penobscot Committee members have resigned, and some will simply not come back.
It is impossible to tell how many Republican voters in Penobscot County have unenrolled or simply decided not to be Republicans any more.
Because Maine State GOP Chair Rich Cebra has not been forthcoming about the facts of the case, his mishandling of it, the consequences to all Republican Committee members at all levels who dared to speak out, or the fact that his mandate from the Governor to maintain the facade of “party unity” at all costs, we have created this site.
Here you will find all of the documents — the appeals, the memos and letters to the appellants and committee members from Chairman Rich Cebra as well as the lawyers he consulted to ensure that he could find a way not to address the corrupt election in Penobscot County, and several chats with key people, including Deb Plowman, the woman who was decreed to be the Chair of Penobscot County in what was undeniably riddled with “irregularities” — which would have been presented had the Chair not dodged the investigation and remedy which the Maine State Republican Party bylaws promised.
And here you will find the background as to:
- how the illegal election was set up at a prior meeting;
- how the GOP Chair, Rich Cebra, refused to do anything to keep it from happening despite warnings weeks before the election;
- how a legal voter and active Republican whose vote was drowned out by illegal voters was minimized and alienated by GOP Chair Rich Cebra and his lawyer;
- how principled members of both the Maine State GOP Committee and the Penobscot County GOP Committee have left and are leaving the party; and
- how the Maine State Republican Committee is just one of many state GOP committees which are even now driving out principled Republicans and those who dissent from the parties, using legal maneuvers, bylaw-twisting, and crony partisanship.