With just over a week to go until the next meeting of the California Republican Party, the lack of noise coming from the Just Us Brothers is noticeable. What looked to be a carefully orchestrated beginning to their California Impact Republicans (CIR) has gone dark. After announcing three chapters—none of which was from Placer County—not a peep has been heard.
What many thought would be a systematic roll-out of the requisite ten chapters and 200 statewide members prior to the grand announcement of the CIR submission of an application for recognition with the California Republican Party has instead become a non-starter.
The Just Us Brothers seem to find themselves in a moral dilemma. Should they keep going down this path? It seems fruitless when they can’t get Placer, Sutter-Yuba, and Yolo CIR chapters off the ground. These folks are literally in their backyard and were in their back-pocket on May 30th, but four months after they did their “final exit” from CRA, they still have nothing to show. Aaron’s prediction of a mass exodus from CRA has proved to be a figment of his fertile imagination. Contrary to his earlier statements, CRA has added units and members since the Just Us Brother left.
The other choice the Brothers can consider now is one they railed against when Karen England tried her hostile takeover of CRA in 2011. However, it does go with Aaron’s theme of “an advertisement with us carries an automatic endorsement.” They could let candidates buy an endorsement with the sponsorship of any CIR chapter in their district.
This option might be a win/win/win for the Brothers. They could get some badly needed loot from candidates, look legit to the casual observer in the CRP volunteer organizations committee, and because the CIR chapters would exist only on paper, they could maintain indefinite control of the group. This pay-to-play formula might be their logical move for 2016.
Since the CIR website still won’t offer even basic information on joining, it’s clear this group is a private club not a Republican organization open to interested voters.
CIR is an epic failure. As a straight-up group it is dead. The question now is will it be resurrected next year as a zombie puppet to financially benefit the Brothers?
