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Minnesota 8th Congressional District GOPFull Committee

June 2, 2015To:State GOP Executive Committee/co Keith Downey

Mr. Downey:

We urge you to re-consider the culture of opacity that seems to increasingly define your management of the state party.

Our concerns with conducting the partys business in closed sessions without minutes was outlined in our letter of March 3rd (attached for your review). It is unclear whether our concerns with closed meetings have been recognized or addressed.

In view of the suspension of the PCR again, we urge you to maintain a strong focus on debt retirementin spite of a temptation to do otherwise. Perennial debt continues to threaten conservative fundraising ability.

The idea of confidentiality agreements is troubling. Executive Committee members who are elected to represent their respective congressional districts are bound, most fundamentally, to those who elected them. Without the ability of each Executive Committee member to enjoy a full exchange of ideas with their constituency, the very idea of a grass roots organization is corrupted. This CD organization can hardly forward its thoughts and preferences to the state party when our only representative on the Executive Committee cannot freely share what issues are under review.

The idea of consolidating GOP emails to a common system for the ostensible purpose of monitoring or controlling information flow concerns us. The ability of each Executive Committee member to conduct their communications in the manner deemed appropriate to them is fundamental to the robust exchange of ideas that characterizes and fosters a grass roots organization.

We expect substantive minutes of Executive Committee meetings to be widely distributed to us in a timely manner. The timely distribution of minutes is central to the transparency that is the lifeblood of a grassroots organization.

It is unacceptable that you again appear to have chosen to second-guess the salaries of State GOP officers elected by the Central Committee. The election of an officer in view of his/her salary needs is, in every real sense, a binding contract between the delegates and the candidate they elect.

Your reported efforts to marginalize Chris Fields and to eliminate his agreed salary has created a hostile work environment to the detriment of the GOP statewide. We do not view the deputy chair position of MNGOP as a ceremonial volunteer position. The deputy chair should manage a portfolio of productive meaningful projects, provide problem-solving management expertise and should be paid for his/her professional commitment. We are hopeful that this situation is resolved quickly.

A common thread throughout our concerns seems to be repeated efforts to implement and enforce various top-down management measures on a statewide organization that has been legendarily grassroots.

This CD organization supports and requires transparency from our state party. We are not alone in our displeasure with a lack of transparency that seems more suitable to a secret government defense program. A case can be made that the current lack of transparency and repeated financial surprises has negatively affected fund-raising for the MNGOP.

The idea of openness seems to have wide appeal among activists. Chris Fields campaigned for the job of Vice-chair on a platform of transparency and information exchange. The Central Committee apparently found transparency and openness agreeable and handed him the widest margin of victory April 11thwider than for any other officer elected.

This congressional district urges you to build transparency, unencumbered communications and greater respect for the bottom-up process on which our organizations are grounded.

By separate action, we have directed that this letter be widely distributed to, at minimum, CD leadership and BPOU chairs. We encourage a dialogue on these issues for the general good of the Minnesota GOP.

Ted Lovdahl, Chair