By: TRUTH CAUCUS OPERATIVE · 06/29/2007 · AIM: crnctruthcaucus · Section:

SILER RESPONDS...

From an email:

The other night, The Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans decided to rescind its endorsement of Charlie Smith and remove Mike Miltenberger from its slate of delegates. Yesterday, we all received a letter from Mike Miltenberger that made a number of wild, far-fetched allegations with no basis in fact. While unfortunate, this is nothing more than a continuation of tactics used against me by members of the NewCRNC team for quite some time. Now that the NewCRNC campaign has decided to finally make these attacks public, I feel obligated to respond.

The Massachusetts College Republicans made their own decision about how to address the upcoming national convention. They made a unanimous decision about their future and the type of people that they want to represent them. They made a unanimous decision about the actions of the NewCRNC team. Insinuating that I have any control over the decisions of Brian Gwozdz and the entire board of the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans is absurd.

During my term, the Ohio College Republican Federation raised more than $200,000 from private donors. We did not file with the Ohio Secretary of State or the Federal Election Commission because all of our finances and filing go through the Ohio Republican Party. To assert that I laundered money is ridiculous and completely out of line. I have never refused to answer questions about our fundraising and would have been more than willing to explain our structure to Mr. Miltenberger had he taken the time to call me.

The success of the Ohio College Republican Federation over the course of the past year afforded us the opportunity to give our chapters more than $40,000 in block grants. With these funds, our chapters have fully sponsored conservative weeks on campus, initiated chapter fundraising programs, sponsored events for candidates, and much more. While Mr. Miltenberger would have you believe that we used these funds to pay off chapters, the disbursement of chapter block grants occurred months before our annual convention and long before our current chairman even decided to run. Moreover, every federated chapter in the state that submitted a request received a block grant. Further, I was not appointed national committeeman at our annual convention; rather, that decision occurred in the past month.

The 2006 election cycle was an important time in Ohio and for the OCRF. The sheer size of our organization during the past election cycle required full-time management. I took the fall quarter off from school and spent approximately 80 hours per week managing 12 full-time staffers and our state-run field plan. The state board of the Ohio College Republican Federation decided and voted to pay two of my appointed officers and myself a stipend for the last few months of the campaign to take care of basic expenses.

We are very proud of our accomplishments in Ohio during the past year. I am proud of my record and my accomplishments in the OCRF. I am also proud of being a constructive voice for reform on the national scene. I authored the Real Reform platform with Brent Ludeman of Washington State to shape the national debate around the reforms that we all know are necessary. These reforms became the genesis for the amendments that are currently being proposed at the national convention.

I have never met, spoken to, e-mailed, mailed, telegraphed, pony expressed or otherwise communicated in any way with John Plecnik in my entire life.

Taylor Burks is a good man serving our country in the United States Navy. The Missouri Federation of College Republicans elected him unanimously in April because of his strong leadership in carrying his federation forward after the past chairman resigned. Taylor was a fine chairman and should not have been impeached. I am sure that Taylor will tell his story in full.

Like many of you, I’ve watched the last couple of days disgusted by the negative attacks, revelations, conspiracy theories, lying and outright betrayal of principle by so many of our leaders. Our organization is on a path of destruction that threatens to ruin the efforts that our grassroots leaders make on a daily basis. This organization has hit rock bottom. In order for us to regain our credibility, I believe it is imperative that the full facts surrounding any indiscretions during Paul Gourley’s term be brought to light. I encourage others to join me in this dialogue and to ask the critical questions that deserve answers.

Kindest Regards
Brian Siler

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