The elections have passed. Liberty Dispatch is certainly glad Mr. Trump won the election. Liberty County moved along. The local Republican Party, under new leadership, became more active and the ending term of the outgoing Chairman Ken Coleman, filled with sharp criticism, settled down. Hence, the less troubles to report on for us here at Liberty Dispatch. We appreciated the break.
But, as with most of the political history and corruption in Liberty County, as soon as one beast is slain another rises.
Once the past Chairman was gone, a new hope fell over us here for the Republican Party. Perhaps differences would be put aside and work could begin to build a strong, united party. As the party kicked into gear it looked very much that way. Most of the fallen that remained, three at most is all that was left, seemed to lick their wounds. They didn't show up for any of the party meetings which lead to, for the first time in recent memory, committees being formed, resolutions being passed, events being planned. Positions that were empty started to be filled. The State convention produced a group of delegates that worked together and did Liberty County well. Those who remained from previous leadership did what was expected and fell down on their obligations to attend convention as delegates, which in the end lead to a more solid group of delegates working for purpose.
All parties must come to an end. The cracks started to appear as the Elector, Art Sisneros, elected to represent this area with a vote in the Electoral College, decided he would not support the party nominee. That unleashed untold amounts of anger. Sighting his religious views didn't do much for covering his betrayal to his oath to represent us and vote for Donald Trump. The current Chairman did do a good job of not jumping the gun and calling for heads to roll and clearly stated he felt Mr. Sisneros should do his duty and vote for Mr. Trump. There were plenty of us doing that. In the end, Mr. Sisneros resigned from the last Liberty Dispatch has seen. There seems to be confusing information, but we will still get our representation and our Elector for Trump as we should. Liberty Dispatch agrees Mr. Sisneros was way off. He was to represent us, he should have been removed.
But, the biggest problem Mr. Sisneros caused was his actions feed the deflated old rulers just enough food to retake to the public platform of calling for heads to roll and misplaced anger and blame. This has made the perfect environment for the most socially awkward member left from the old guard in the party, Paul Newton, a soapbox. Mr. Newton has taken to the social media wasteland to proclaim that now somehow all of this is a failure of leadership on the part of the new Chairman and Vice Chairman and a group of Libertarians which he proposes is Jeff Leblanc, Mr. Sisneros and Keith Strahan just to name a few.
Liberty Dispatch, as first, was actually in agreement with Mr. Newton, and this is how this investigation started. But, as we set out on this report and spoke to party members, we noticed there was much more at play in all of this. Being Liberty County as it was, this wasn't shocking.
Mr. Newton is a precinct chairman in the local party. We have found he rarely has attended most meetings since new leadership took over the party. The party now, since new leadership has taken over, has moved to having monthly meetings, not just quarterly meetings as the past leadership had. it seems Mr. Newton has only made tow of those meetings. This was out first clue something wasn't right. If Mr. Newton hardly invests in the party, how can he claim there is some group influencing leadership? Additionally, surely Mr. Newton is not naive enough to think that local leaders could change anything Mr. Sisneros did on his own. Mr. Sisneros, according to news reports, was getting calls from all over the Nation. If that didn't force him to honor his role, we doubt Mr. Daniel or Mr. Bush could have. At this point, as some have pointed out, Mr. Newton seems like a rabid dog chasing a bone. Clearly, Mr. Sisneros was elected at convention not by them alone. He was elected at convention by over 400 delegates from all around this area. And these are solid republican delegates. So, placing this blame on local party leaders is asinine.
At this point, Liberty Dispatch has to wonder just what Mr. Newton's angle is? He shares his contempt for the party leaders while he serves as a precinct chair in the very group he tears down. His actions have gone far beyond some personal issues he has with his political adversaries to an outright liability himself to the local party. He's harming all outreach the party is trying to accomplish. No one wants to be involved with the train wreck he is trying to paint of a party. Liberty Dispatch's biggest issue here is why does Mr. Newton still serve in the party? His own actions, in our opinion, have now become more harmful to the party's future than anything Mr. Sisneros might have been. His actions are almost schizophrenic. Liberty Dispatch did see where some have actually questioned whether Mr. Newton is even a Republican. If he is, why cause the party harm? According to his voting, record he did vote in the democratic primary in 2008, which was the rise of Obama, so perhaps those rumors aren't unfounded? Perhaps Mr. Newton has other agendas in mind. Perhaps if he tears the party down to shreds he can place the blame on the current administration so he can suggest he can be the savior and same the day come next election cycle? No matter his reasons, the harm he is causing the party is criminal and he should be ashamed of himself.
Liberty Dispatch suggests to Mr. Newton he resign his position immediately, just as Mr. Sisneros did. If he believes the party is as bad as he has been stating, why stay and destroy its good works? If he doesn't want to resign, Liberty Dispatch suggests he either join party efforts or local leadership take a rightful role, in this local situation unlike with Mr. Sisneros, and consider censure of Mr. Newton and his removal from office. As far as the future, voters in his district should be desperately seeking a man of character and a spirit of optimism bold to replace him next election cycle. As with before leadership change, and still after, Mr. Newton claims so many others are causing problems, perhaps someone needs to get him a mirror.
Our message, get over your personal feelings, Mr. Newton and do the job you were seated to do. And, that job was to help build a party, not destroy it.
