It soon became apparent that there was going to be no way to rectify the situation within the Penobscot County Republican Committee, given that the declared Chair was refusing to hold a legal election.
I had spoken to the declared Penobscot County Chair Deb Plowman, explaining that approximately half of the people who had voted in the election were not legal voting members. I had asked her to call for a clean election, with only verified voting members allowed to participate.
Her continuing response to this request was, "My position is I received 40 votes and Bryan received 31."
The weekend before the appeal was sent, there was a State Committee meeting in Augusta.
Mrs. Plowman beckoned to me in the hallway after the meeting and, with her hands literally inches from my face, began gesticulating wildly, warning me that if we were to make "an issue" of the illegal election, we would be "throwing Bryan, Traci, Julie, and your other friends" under the bus.
I tried to explain to Mrs. Plowman that the issue was that the process was corrupt; that we did not care about the outcome, but about the process.
She did not seem to understand what I was saying. I asked her as patiently as I could to get her hands out of my face. She refused. I left the building.
That was the last time I spoke to her.
Pertinent Links:
Ken Anderson's appeal to the Maine State Republican Committee