Placer Central Committee Meeting – Karen England’s / Ken Campbell’s Coming Out Party as Moderates

Blogger’s Note – the CRA endorsed Ted Gaines for State Senate in the SD-01 Special. Ted Gaines stayed true to his CRA roots and voted with the CRA 100% of the time last night. It is exceedingly rare for an elected to be present at a Central Committee Meeting voting for themself – Ted was there all evening.

Karen England and Ken Campbell were a different story. Both claim to be conservative, both claimed affiliation with the CRA at one point.

Both supported Moderate Republican Jon Green (who is a good guy, by the way, just liberal) over Past CRA State Vice President Jeff Atteberry for Chairman.

Both participated in the drama that was brought to last night’s meeting mostly by Committee Member Cheryl Bly-Chester (who is also a candidate for Assembly against John Allard and Beth Gaines for AD-04).

Cheryl Bly-Chester is a more libertatian Republican (pro-choice, non descript on Prop 8 etc) that was appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger to two commissions. She also ran for Governor in the 2003 recall election.

Karen England is the executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute – a pro-life, pro-family organization and a former state officer in the CRA. The CRA is the most conservative organized grassroots group in the California Republican Party.

You’d have never been able to prove any difference between the two of them last night.

Ken Campbell said next to nothing, but voted with the Moderates all evening. This is ironic since the Placer CCR unit (aka the Placer Congress) attempted to overthrow then Placer County Chairman Ken Campbell’s team from the Central Committee in 2002 – and Ken supported their current President, Jon Green for Central Committee Chairman!

What a difference 8 years makes… Campbell seems to think that the current FPPC audit that the Central Committee is going through is unique. Tom Hudson reminded him that he represented the Central Committee at least twice during his (Ken Campbell’s) tenure as Chairman in FPPC audits…

What both Cheryl and Karen England had to say was far beyond Ken Campbell’s attempt to re-write history.

Cheryl basically said in a packed room that George and Tom embezzled money from the Central Committee. She repeated that lie multiple times during the evening. It is generally not wise to start an Assembly campaign by slandering activists.

During officer elections – Karen England, in the disguise of a question – asked George if he had ever been treasurer or officer of a committee that had been investigated by the FPPC and/or the FBI. She then proceeded to tell a story about how the FBI came to her house to get a copy of the check her then adult daughter had been paid for participating the Placer Cent Com’s 2008 prop 8 effort – followed by the FBI agents asking 1 1/2 hours of questions. She forgot to talk about the black helicopters.

Karen also spoke out at a different time about needing “diversity” – yes, she used that word – as a reason to support Liberal Republican Mike Holmes (who opposed prop 8 ) over Placer CRA board member Joe Dorr.

From a CRA standpoint – Karen England who was once a leader in the Prop 8 and conservative movement supported no on 8 moderates for leadership positions in the Placer County Republican Party. Let that sink in.

Jon Green – the President of the Placer Congress, is a man I have excellent rapport with. He did not really participate in the personal attacks that were levelled against George and Tom. I worked with him on the endorsement committee and I was taken aback that hostilities were renewed.

None of us in the CRA / Conservative Movement showed up that night ready for a brawl. There were some that wanted to “get” Tom Hudson, but this is not a post I wanted to write, either – no one wins when dirty laundry is aired.

As far as Karen England and Ken Campbell are concerned – personal hatred trumps values, end of story. They no longer have the cannon of being a social conservative any more.

As a P.S. – it should be noted that Doug LaMalfa in the person of Mark Spannagel voted with the Moderates for the duration of the evening. (CORRECTION – Spannagel left after Jeff Atteberry was elected Chairman, Spannagel voted for Green) He was the only partisan elected with a seat on the Central Committee that sided with the Moderates.