Really Right

Many years ago, I saw an episode of the Tonight Show where Johnny Carson took the microphone into the audience to let them ask questions. This was rare for Carson to do. One man asked Johnny, “I know that you recently got a divorce. Can you recommend a good attorney?”
Carson responded, “No, but my ex-wife can.”

So far this week, we have been treated to two posts regarding lawyers on Aaron and George Park’s Right-On-Daily blog. CRA’s resident attorney was surprised when I rightly predicted that the letters he sent would be posted on Aaron’s blog. This seems to be their practice. Post the lawyer letters and then mock the senders for their weakness.

I was confident in my ability to rightly assess the Park brothers until yesterday. Two separate things happened that peeled back yet another layer to their behavior that I had failed to properly observe. The first was a scanned copy of a lawyer letter sent to Aaron Park last year. It arrived in my IN box yesterday. I don’t know where it came from but I know it is genuine. The second was an offhanded comment by the Sith Lord.

First the letter.
As northern California has swung more into the Democrat column, Aaron has turned his attention more to the south.  In 2014, Aaron became involved in the 55th Assembly race. This is a solidly Republican district. Aaron was hired by candidate Phillip Chen to help combat Ling Ling Chang. Ling Ling had better name recognition in the district. To counter Ling Ling, Steve Tye came into the race as a stalking horse candidate.  His presence in the race was at least in part to divert support from Ling Ling.

There is no active CRA chapter within this district so per the Bylaws; the endorsement vote was scheduled at the CRA endorsing convention held at Knott’s Berry farm. At the CRA Convention it looked like Ling Ling would win the endorsement until she was asked about abortion. She failed to give anything close to a CRA approved answer. As a result, many flipped to Phillip. Right before the vote, Aaron took to the podium to speak in support of Phillip Chen.

If you will recall, Phillip came up one vote short of endorsement on the second ballot. On the third ballot, I flipped from Ling Ling to Phillip and he was endorsed. As soon as Chen was pronounced as the winner of the endorsement, Aaron came over to me and said he owed me a lunch because I was the decisive vote. At that point I learned from Aaron that he was working for Phillip.

Part of “helping” Phillip was attacking Ling Ling on his blogs. In addition to Right-On-Daily, Aaron was also posting on OCPoliticsBlog.com; these posts resulted in a terse letter for Ling Ling’s attorney.

The post referenced in this letter was published on May 24, 2014. It contains an audio file that is supposed to be from Ling Ling and contains some colorful metaphors. The attorney letter was sent May 25, 2014 and then the original post was modified on May 26, 2014.

Aaron apparently lit-up Ling Ling in harsh terms. Here is the lawyer letter.

Update: Faster than an April data breach, Aaron deleted the Raging-Panda.wav audio file once he figured out that I was linking to the copy that he posted on his website on May 24, 2014. For now, the lawyer letter is still there. Oh and here is the audio file.

Here is the revised May 26, 2014 post.

Ling Ling then used the blog attacks in a mailer to which Park responded to on May 30, 2014.
Here is the May 30, 2014 post.

By June 16, 2014 all entries were scrubbed from his blog.

Sith Lord Comment
The Sith Lord said to me yesterday that he thought some of Aaron’s posts were missing. Just for fun I checked. What a shocker. As it turns out, Aaron is missing more parts than Bruce Jenner.

My only question was why?
The first thing that popped into my head was a lyric from an old Eagles song:

Did you do it for love?
Did you do it for money?
Did you do it for spite?
Did you think you had to, honey?
—The Long Run 1979

Either he is trying to do his version of Extreme Home Makeover: Blogger’s Edition or someone like Doug Ose finally found a barrister willing to crush him like a tiny insect.

Most posts are related to Igor Birman v Doug Ose but a few are related to CRA and previous legal fights with Karen England. We also know from his blog that he deleted one entry concerning Ron Givens.

Remember this quote from Aaron?

To that end – I can be retained at a quite reasonable rate or for “projects”. I assume you’re both familiar with my work (ask Doug Ose or Meg Whitman how effective it is)…

Why delete your manifesto?

Below is a partial List of deleted entries.
Some URLs are good and some are broken but might be found elsewhere on the Internet. Reading the titles will give you a feel for the subject matter.

01. doug-oses-contempt-for-republicans-started-before-1998
02. bs-campaign-claim-alert-1-vote-for-doug-ose-to-repeal-obamacare
03. doug-oses-contempt-for-republicans-part-2-bribery-per-diem
04. freedomworks-endorses-igor-birman
05. doug-ose-liberal-republican-avenger
06. the-ca-07-race
07. gun-owners-of-america-endorse-igor-birman
08. sacramento-bee-does-a-drive-by
09. bs-campaign-claim-alert-1-vote-for-doug-ose-to-repeal-obamacare
10. rumor-john-boehner-to-endorse-doug-ose-host-fundraiser
11. sacramento-bee-goes-on-rampage-against-placer-county-republican-party
12. team-ose-vs-team-mcclintock-round-two
13. the-tale-of-the-three-little-dougs
14. cra-wins-major-legal-victory
15. insider-info-on-the-dave-cox-seat-ca-sd-01-update-and-then-there-were-three
16. republican-activists-to-doug-ose-dont-run
17. doug-ose-the-grinch-that-stole-your-tax-cut
18. bs-alert-2-teamboehner-member-doug-ose-claims-he-opposes-budget-deal
19. teamboehner-doug-oses-legislative-achievements-tried-to-subsidize-the-solyndras-of-the-2000s
20. doug-oses-contempt-for-republicans-part-3-the-coup-detat
21. birman-bags-major-slavic-community-endorsement
22. its-reagans-birthday-today-and-ca07-candidate-doug-ose-is-no-reagan
23. madison-project-adopts-ca-07-on-behalf-of-igor-birman-with-massive-independent-expenditure
24. campaign-bs-alert-3-doug-ose-op-ed-in-elk-grove-citizen-exposes-the-real-doug-ose
25. candidate-doug-ose-social-engineer-before-it-was-in-style
26. candidate-doug-ose-the-un-republican
27. doug-ose-2-0-hits-a-major-technical-glitch
28. doug-ose-gets-a-taste-of-his-own-medicine
29. ask-doug-ose-if-he-opposes-the-abortion-mandate-in-obamacare
30. ask-doug-ose-if-he-supports-the-contraception-mandate-in-obamacare
31. millionaire-liberal-former-congressman-doug-oses-farm-welfare-payments
32. nothing-sums-up-the-ca07-race-better-than-this-ose-aligned-pac-attacks-ted-cruz
33. fraud-doctor-update-when-feeling-vulnerable-swing-wide-left
34. doug-oses-war-on-american-families
35. like-high-gas-prices-doug-ose-did-his-part
36. like-high-gas-prices-doug-ose-did-his-part
37. under-god-doug-ose-said-no-way
38. did-doug-ose-recruit-art-moore-ca04-ca07
39. wanna-have-lunch-with-doug-ose-250-and-a-3000-mile-plane-ride
40. there-is-a-reason-why-the-nra-gave-doug-ose-a-d
41. the-tale-of-two-campaigns-ose-twitter-spams-people-and-igor-gets-endorsed-by-rand-paul
42. will-ose-be-going-to-the-ritz-carlton-to-hang-out-with-the-union-backed-mainstreet-pac
43. doug-oses-vision-for-america-5-50-a-gallon-gas
44. look-at-all-the-dems-and-unions-funding-ose-founded-pac
45. from-the-floor-of-congress-doug-ose-pledges-undying-allegiance-to-the-epa
46. doug-oses-repeated-votes-to-make-gas-prices-skyrocket
47. nothing-sums-up-big-government-doug-better-the-tie-breaking-vote-to-increase-debt-limit
48. doug-oses-obsession-with-taxpayer-funded-abortion-overseas
49. doug-oses-support-for-sanctuary-cities
50. clone-andor-kill-attack-of-the-clones-doug-ose-style
51. mailer-bs-update-doug-ose-mailers-deceitful-and-misleading
52. 5-times-doug-ose-tried-to-derail-the-unborn-victims-of-violence-act
53. doug-ose-in-the-news-1998
54. doug-oses-extremist-views-tried-to-gut-partial-birth-abortion-ban
55. doug-ose-thou-shalt-not-cut-government-spending-ever
56. ex-congressman-doug-ose-busting-the-federal-piggy-bank-big-time
57. fraud-alert-sportsmen-for-doug-ose
58. doug-oses-greatest-hits-immigration-edition
59. ami-bera-likes-ruling-by-decree-bureaucrat

In the far right column of his blog is a list of months and number of entries. This is a comparison of now versus then. It shows a net change of 76 entries From December 2009 thru May 2014. Any changes within the same month would not be included in this total.

 

Yellow item on June 16, 2011 article on CRA legal victory was deleted

My series on the Just Us Brothers has concluded. I have left out the third brother in this triad, but today we will spend some time with him too.

Today’s long and sordid tale includes fraud, deception, treachery, jealousy and the stuff that you would expect from the novels of Agatha Christy or Allison Brennan. Some of this information was presented in previous blogs, but without context. Today, dear reader, you will get the context.  Once you do, you will be mad as hell. So without further explanation, here we go.

The seeds of their plan have been germinating for some time now in the fertile recesses of George and Aaron’s minds. The original plan was revealed last year when Aaron proposed eliminating the office of Executive Vice President. Aaron pulled the proposed bylaws amendment, but was still moving forward. The goal was the same, but the path was modified due to changes in the battlefield.

The revised plan was to elect Aaron as Executive Vice President and then promote George to President of CRA. The Park brothers would control CRA. They could promote their friends and dismember their enemies. Like Barbara Alby and her friends, they could be major players in the State Party and the GOP.

The plan was moving forward until they hit some unexpected resistance on two fronts. In their own backyard were Barry Pruitt and the Nevada County Republican Assembly. The other obstacle was those nagging, pesky committees for Chartering and Credentials.

January 24, 2015
Despite their best efforts, the Park boys could only get to fifty percent on a two-thirds vote to suspend the charter of the Nevada County RA. They blamed Tim Thiesen and the Charter Review Committee for screwing up what should have been a slam-dunk vote. The opposition to the Parks at the January 2015 board meeting was led by Tom Hudson, the Executive Vice President.

When Charter Review refused to recommend a second suspension vote, the alliance the Parks thought they had with the members of Charter Review was broken. George shutdown access to the membership files and battened down the hatches to ride-out the storm until the Convention. Placer County RA was the host of the 2015 Convention and George was the Convention Director.  Going into the Convention, George and Aaron did not ask for help from the neighboring CRA units. Instead, they chose to run the entire convention themselves.

Annual Convention March 13 – 15, 2015
At the Convention, the Park boys controlled everything, including the Senate District elections. They were trying to shape CRA into one even more favorable to them. They purposely tried to keep paper copies of everything limited and in short supply. This was partly due to a lack of preparation and also a way to get items approved by the Board and Convention without too much scrutiny.

In the proposed 2015-2016 budget, George gave himself $4,000 for expenses. The CRA President was given $2,500 for travel expenses. This was their walking around money to build goodwill with local units and build a base for George’s ascension to the Presidency. Who decided to abort the traditional Board meeting after the convention I’m not sure, but it certainly was.

John Briscoe would often negotiate business items with others on the Board and then get overridden by George and Aaron. The abbreviated Board meeting after the convention was one example and the other was the call for a May 30th board meeting. Briscoe agreed to it and then balked.

April 15, 2015
John believed that was the end of the meeting idea and had moved on; but eight state officers, seven district directors and seven deputy district directors thought it was necessary. Since Briscoe failed to act, they utilized a seldom used provision in the CRA Bylaws to call a board meeting for May 30, 2015 in Santa Barbara as was originally agreed to by John and eight Vice-Presidents.

At first, the Parks tried to disqualify enough board members to invalidate the call to meeting. They had leverage because they possessed the caucus ballots for the Senate District elections. No one has seen the ballots since Aaron and George took possession of them at the Convention. However, they could not theoretically disqualify enough Board members to invalidate the call, so they had John put up what they falsely called an alternative which was a July 25th board meeting. This was put to an online vote. Voting took place from April 15 to 20.

As results began to come in on the online vote, Aaron and George were dumbfounded. They had never been rebuked like this in CRA. This was their organization, how dare others oppose them.

Aaron decides to post his famous five blogs on April 17th. Then a curious thing happened, these folks didn’t back down. They were pressing for more. It was clear that CRA was not the friendly playground that the Parks thought it was, so Aaron and George implemented plan B.

April 18, 2015
Before the voting period was even closed for the proposed July 25th meeting, the three Park brothers—Aaron, George and John—implemented their version of Operation Chaos.

Not only had they implemented a scorched earth approach on their blog, but they had done so behind the scenes as well. You know about the deletion of our records on Hightail and Mailchimp, but that was only part of the plan.

The other part of the plan required subterfuge and stealth. Also on April 18, 2015, Aaron Park registered the domain name for the website that he, George and John Briscoe planned to create. Impact Republicans

www.whois.com/whois/impactrepublicans.com

April 20, 2015
As a stall tactic, John Briscoe rolled-out the proposal for an Investigative Committee even before voting was completed on the July 25th meeting. This was their version of three card Monty. John was to keep the Board occupied while Aaron and George went to work.

Before forming their own group, the Park boys made an attempt to find a new home in another existing organization. Aaron and George began hunting for sanctuary within competing groups such as the Conservative Republicans of California. Can you imagine the stones these guys have to run Karen England from CRA, ban her for life, and then talk to her group and offer to join? Oh, and as an added bonus, they promised to bring at least one third of the statewide CRA membership with them.

Well, surprise, no one wanted them. So they did the next best thing, they started their own Republican club to compete directly with CRA. Their group is called CIR on their internal emails. To this end, Aaron and George repurposed the CRA membership lists.

It costs lots of money to start your own group. It was reported that Aaron was looking for at least five thousand dollars to start the new organization. It was also reported that he was having trouble finding anyone willing to write him a check.

April 21, 2015
Treasurer closes Legal Defense Fund account and transfers money to general account.

April 22, 2015
John Briscoe resigns.

April 26, 2015
Tom Hudson announces the results of the vote on the Investigative Committee, which was approved.
CRA website just happens to get hacked on this date.

April 30, 2015
George Park deletes the Hightail account and presumably the Mailchimp data also.

gparkjr Apr 30 02:20 pm

I have removed or already retrieved copies of all the files I need from this account. I have cancelled the subscription plan as well. Please delete the free account effective immediately and delete all data that my be left in the account immediately.

Senate District Director Carl Brickey emails the six additional complaints to the Parks and CRA Board seven and a half hours after George had deleted everything.
Here is date stamp from the email
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2015 23:54:04 -0700

May 3, 2015
Aaron begins to blog about getting banned for life. Please note that the majority on the board did not call for this punishment. At this stage, most just wanted Aaron and George off the board and exiled to Placer County…although that opinion was beginning to change.

May 18, 2015
Convention Financial Summary given to CRA Treasurer with no supporting documents (receipts).

Today
We are six weeks into the Park Brother’s version of Operation Chaos. Those of you that stayed loyal to them have been played for fools. They decided to leave before the first online vote was concluded on April 20th and twelve days before the ten charges were sent to them and the CRA Board.

Lastly, and we did save the best for last, is the proverbial smoking gun. You may read from their own email about their plans. The Sith Lord said you guys were idiots when it comes to technology. Here’s the proof.

RE: Delays in producing CIR Documents??? We need to be ready to go on 5/30
—Forwarded Message Attachment—
Date: Thu, 21 May 2015 21:10:04 -0700
Subject: Re: Delays in producing CIR Documents??? We need to be ready to go on 5/30
From: benitagagne@gmail,com
To: aaronfpark71@yahoo,com; gparkjr@yahoo,com; tjblair62@yahoo,com; pres@cragop,org

The only changes to this section VI is the deletion of VP Charter Support and substitution of VP Endorsement and Legislation with job duties.

Todd, Marketing VP has outreach communications as part of the job description.

What job duties does the Engagement VP have in your view?
One suggestion: I suggest the order of the officers in Article V get carried over to Article VI.

Benita

Article VI – Officers Duties

Section 6.01.    President. The President shall preside at all board meetings and conventions of the CIR. The President is also the Chief Executive Officer of the CIR.  In order to serve as President of the CIR, the candidate for this office must have been a member of the CIR for a minimum of 3 years.

Section 6.02. Executive Vice President.  When or if the President is absent or unable to perform his/her duties, the Executive Vice President shall Preside and act as President. The Executive Vice President must be a member of CIR 3 years prior to being a candidate for this office. Upon the written resignation of the President, the Executive Vice President automatically assumes the office of CIR President.

Section 6.03. Regional Vice Presidents. Regional Vice Presidents shall organize and preside over regional endorsing conventions and be responsible for developing and starting new CIR Chapters. There shall be one northern Vice President and one Southern Vice President. A Regional Vice President must have been a member of the CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.

Section 6.04. Administrative Vice President. The Administrative Vice President shall record the meeting minutes for all CIR Board meetings and shall be the custodian of CIR records not related to membership. The Administrative Vice President shall also responsible for internal communications within the CIR. The Administrative Vice President must have been a member of the CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.

Section 6.05. Marketing Vice President. The Marketing Vice President is responsible for all outreach communications, social media, electronic presence, and media relations for CIR. The Marketing Vice President must have been a member of CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.

Section 6.06. Membership Vice President. The Membership Vice President is responsible for all membership records, and verifying the integrity of membership data for CIR. The Membership Vice President must have been a member of CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.

Section 6.07. Endorsement and Legislation Vice President is responsible for formulating and administrating a procedure for endorsing both candidates and legislation at the state level and assisting chapters, counties and regions to understand and properly engage in the endorsement process. The Endorsement and Legislation Vice President must have been a member of CIR for 2 years before for becoming a candidate for this office.

Section 6.08. Chief Financial Officer. Chief Financial Officer is responsible for the financial management of the CIR.  The Chief Financial Officer must have been a member of CIR for 2 years before becoming a candidate for this office.

Section 6.09. County Commissioners and Senate District Directors. County Commissioners and Senate District Directors shall execute duties assigned to them by the CIR Board of Directors. County Commissioners and Senate Directors must have been a member of CIR for 1 year before becoming a candidate for this office.

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 6:19 AM, Aaron Park <aaronfpark71@yahoo.com> wrote:</aaronfpark71@yahoo.com>

That ROCKS!

Sent from my iPhone

On May 21, 2015, at 6:14 AM, Benita Gagne <benitagagne@gmail.com> wrote:</benitagagne@gmail.com>

Let me recap the status of the documents as I am aware.

May 19th: George sent out all documents via Dropbox. The Chapter Bylaws and CIR state bylaws have recent changes. The other three may not have had recent changes, however I don’t know if Todd and John have commented/cleared them in the past.

We were considering adding an Issues VP – vacant – suggested name – Endorsements and Legislation VP; I think the VP Engagement was for Outreach.I suggest dumping the VP Chapter Support for now as it was created for me and I am not taking it. It can stay a Committee Function under the VP Admin direction, in my opinion.

My suggested workflow as of today, May 21:

I work up the VP job descriptions for my above suggestions and send them around. If that is agreeable I can have that done by tomorrow.

Receive Todd and John’s changes (Track Changes option) on any and all documents. By Sunday morning if possible.

My status: Doing a final review. Estimated time/date for this review: Monday, May 25th if not before.

Aaron/George – please let me know if you are ok with this suggested workflow.

Benita

On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 3:51 PM, Aaron Park aaronfpark71@yahoo,com wrote:

Hi Guys – we are almost out of time.

We do not have two months. We need to be able to call people the first week of June and give them somewhere to go.

A lot of people are unable to visualize or grasp “something that might be”. I have at least three units that need me to have something in front of them the first week of June.

you may not realize it – but once we get expelled, it is going to set off a mass exodus. If we do not have the unit transfer kit and the organization by-laws ready to go, we will miss the opportunity with several of them.

Please help.

Aaron F Park

http://www.rightondaily.com Blog
Cell 916-316-9570 Fax 916-244-0167
follow me on twitter @aaronfpark

Lastly, why C.I.R.?
Everyone knows Karen England’s group is C.R.I. (Capital Resource Institute).
At least you could get original letters in your acronym.

George, Aaron, Benita, John, and Todd; don’t bother showing-up of Saturday. We’ve wasted enough time on you guys. Just go away and take your three chapters with you. If you are fool hardy enough to attend the board meeting, be prepared to answer some though questions.

 

 

Since Celeste Grieg was shown the exit in 2013, many peculiar financial arrangements have come to light. For a full accounting of these and others, you may need to attend the CRA Board meeting on May 30th. Perhaps you will leave with more questions than I am about to raise but here is a preview of likely topics.

• The Antelope Valley Republican Assembly credit with CRA

• Why were twelve ATM cards running about the state for CRA bank accounts? Who had them?

• Why did CRA have four different accounts? Why was this not in the Treasurer reports?

• Where is the accounting of expenses for 2014? The Treasurer has zero receipts for the entire year.

• Why were some chapters allowed to pay their convention registration by personal check but members of other clubs were required to pay cash?

• Why did the Membership Secretary get paid for mileage and expenses this year and last? When was that authorized? Where are receipts? Who signed the checks? Was this on CRA ATM card?

• Why was the Membership Secretary given $2,000 for travel and $2,000 for expenses in the proposed 2015-2016 budget?

• What happened to the CRA Business Round Table?

• Where is the accounting of the CRA conventions this year and last that were sponsored by the Placer County Republican Assembly? No deposit records for money received or receipts for expenses were ever presented to the Board.

• Why did the account for legal defense have $6,000 in it? All legal bills were paid before Celeste left office. Why was the account even open? Bonus question: why did John Briscoe promptly resign after this account was closed?

Oh, once again I remind you that Aaron claims that he and George are experts in the financial services sector. They have superior training or so he has asserted. Based on what I’m about to present, I wouldn’t trust them with the neighborhood lemonade stand.

Below is the final report of the March 2015 CRA Annual Convention.

That’s it. This is the whole report.

Breakdown of Convention Registration Fees: NONE
Breakdown of Convention sponsors: NONE
Number of receipts for Convention Expenses: NONE
Receipt for Michael Reagan honorarium: NONE
Receipts for Convention advertising: NONE

What about the $800 from the raffle at the last Convention?

Again, this is from the self-proclaimed experts in financial matters.

Over the last week or so I have presented what the news is, tomorrow you’re going to learn the rest of the story.

 

Following the purge of consultants from CRA in 2011, the Parks began to explore the new environment that they had created. Celeste Grieg had survived the coup attempt by Karen England but she had proven vulnerable. Over the next two years, Aaron and George found and recruited John Briscoe to challenge Celeste for statewide President. When Celeste stood for election in 2013, the Park brothers threw all their weight into the Briscoe campaign. For the first time in memory, a sitting CRA President lost re-election. This was April of 2013.

After Briscoe was elected, the Park brothers began participation in a series of special projects that were kept from the Board. That is not to say that nobody knew about them just that nobody was talking. The Board as a whole was left out. There were a whole series of “side deals” and “off the books” financial activities that were conducted. It is clear that John Briscoe knew about them but never brought them before the Board.  If the Treasurer knew, he never put them in his reports.

The first of these concerns the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly.

The Parks characterized the fight with Karen England as a battle to remove consultants and politicians that were using CRA as a “pay to play” organization in order to buy CRA endorsements. Money for political access was reportedly prohibited with the Parks overseeing the Membership and Chartering process of CRA. They claimed then—as they do now—to be the bulwarks of fraud prevention in the group. As you continue to read, please keep this in mind.

I heard rumblings about this transaction several weeks ago. Thru a series of emails with the principals involved, I was able to verify the following.

On December 10, 2013 a resolution passed by the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly is published on Aaron’s blog. Here is the Link
(Please note that this resolution was also passed by the Santa Clarita RA. This is quite possibly the last time Aaron ever praised the SCVRA on his blog.)

This resolution was issued in support of California Senator Steve Knight and encouraged him to run for Congress. The first two Whereas clauses are omitted.

  WHEREAS; conservative state Senator Steve Knight has been a longtime member of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly; and

WHEREAS; if elected, Steve Knight will be the only person from the Antelope Valley ever to serve in Congress; and

WHEREAS; Steve Knight earned a 100% voting record from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association; and

WHEREAS; Steve Knight has consistently fought for second amendment rights and the sanctity of life; and

WHEREAS; Steve Knight continues to stand for the same conservative values as he promised us he would in his first campaign as he does today;

THEREFORE; be it resolved that the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly opposes Tony Strickland running for the 25th congressional district and will support state Senator Steve Knight with our delegates to the California Republican Assembly endorsing convention if Congressman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon decides to retire in 2014.

The next day, December 11, 2013, the Steve Knight for Senate 2016 campaign committee issues a check to CRA for “CAMPAIGN PARAPHERNALIA/MISCELLANEOUS”

There is no record of CRA giving any material goods to Senator Knight in return for this check other than good will. While the check was written to CRA, it arrived with the understanding that this $4,000 was to be used as a club credit for the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly. Using this credit meant AVRA did not have to submit any dues payments until the credit was used-up.

I contacted AVRA about this matter and confirmed the money came from Steve Knight and surprise of surprises, the CRA contact was George Park.

We “have submitted numbers/accounting accordingly with our annual membership documents as required for all CRA units to the CRA Membership Chair.”

Email from AVRA member

The only question that I could not ascertain was how much of the $4K balance is remaining.

This transaction has been kept off the books of CRA. It should have been carried on all Treasurer Reports since George deposited the check. The Board was kept in the dark. John Briscoe had to OK this arrangement.

Per accounting rules, such an obligation should be shown on the CRA books as a long term debt (over one year). I don’t fault AVRA because of this; however, the few leaders that hid this from the rest of the Board should answer for this.

In my mind this raises a whole host of questions:
Why is a politician allowed to prepay chapter memberships years in advance?
Why did the CRA leadership—including the Membership Secretary—OK this arrangement?
Why was this kept from the Board if it was such a great idea?
Why not let other politicians do this?
Would George let Ted Gaines or Tom McClintock do this in Placer County?
Were campaign laws followed when CRA deposited this check?
What is the current balance that CRA owes AVRA?
Why didn’t Knight just donate to AVRA? He gave them $1,000 directly in 2014.

Were it up to me, I would cut AVRA a check today and be done with this. Make them submit their dues just like any other chapter. Why do they get a pass on following the rules the rest of us have to abide by?

Stay tuned, more on the next thrilling episode of the Just Us Brothers.

The Parks political “consulting” goes back to at least the 2010 election cycle per the public record. From the period of 2010 to 2013, they gradually moved from a regional force to have a statewide influence.

Below I will walk thru some info from the Secretary of State concerning brother George.

Note: Additional activity of the Parks can be found from the Secretary of State’s Office if you look up Headquarters Partnership. Most activity is under consultants. Reported activity pre-dates June, 2010. Any campaigns with less than $50,000 don’t have to file electronically so you need to resort to paper copies for more details. Also, Placer County GOP was paying rent to Headquarters Partnership (HQP) for many years. Aaron was nice enough to post this press release about HQP.

NorCal Tea Party Patriots Concerned about Ethics in Placer County Republican Central Committee

For Immediate Release March 7, 2011

AUBURN, CA – The Executive Board of NorCal Tea Party Patriots is concerned about ethical questions surrounding the Placer County Republican Central Committee. Specifically its relationship with a private company called Headquarters Partnership.

Red flags were raised when it came to light that members of the PCRCC executive board were also principals in HQP. On its face this appears to be a conflict of interest. The situation is further complicated by the fact that PCRCC members have been thwarted in their efforts to look into HQP’s operation. HQP was ostensibly set up as a leasing agent to handle payments on the PCRCC headquarters. It has since been turned into something more.

Rumors have flown about HQP’s involvement in political campaigns and other activities that have nothing to do with its original mandate. In the current atmosphere it’s possible for these activities to continue without oversight since the majority of the PCRCC votes down such requests. This has left the PCRCC much less effective in Placer County and can have a negative impact on elections in 2012.

Blog Post

George’s Political Consulting
George Park’s first client per the SOS website was Sam Aanestad in 2010. Dr. Sam, as he was often called, was a State Senator that was term limited out, so he decided to run for Lieutenant Governor. As you can see from the screen print below, George did well for a six month, part-time job.

George and Aaron began their political consultant work for “Dr. Sam” by delivering an endorsement from Placer County Republican Central Committee in January 2010. Blog Post

Then in February, they got Tom Hudson to send a letter on behalf of CRA to try to block Abel Maldonado from becoming the next Lt Governor. If Maldonado became LT. Governor, it would undercut Aanestad’s chances for winning the Republican Primary because Abel would go into the race as the incumbent. Blog Post

Maldonado did win in June despite the heroic work of George and Aaron on behalf of their client.

Rumor has it that the good Senator fell short of their monetary arrangement and that is the explanation for the late payment in May 2011. Reportedly the Park brothers are still waiting for the balance of their fees from this campaign. I can’t confirm this but such things often happen in political campaigns.

Aaron and George were able to provide a one stop shop for candidates. In addition to the regular stuff provided by consultants, they could provide a headquarters, endorsements from the County Party and Placer RA, and access volunteers from both organizations. Plus Aaron was developing his skills in other areas.

In 2012, George Park had two other clients. Assembly Candidate Andy Pugno and Les Baugh for Senate. The checks were made to George but in reality you got both brothers.

Linda Park was recruited to run against Assemblywoman Beth Gaines and Les Baugh was recruited to run against Senator Ted Gaines.

On June 3, 2012, Aaron wrote:

Les Baugh – the client of mine … is a pastor of a Church in Anderson, CA and believes that there are only two pledges he should ever make in his life – to God and his wife.
Blog Post

There is no record that Aaron was retained by Mr. Baugh. The only payments went to George. I know Aaron worked for Andy Pugno during the 2012 election cycle but again there is no record of payments to Aaron. In fact, whichever name was on the check, you got both brothers.

 

2014 electronic records don’t seem to show any activity for the Park Brothers.

Park Brothers Transition to Statewide Operation
Beginning about 2010, the Park’s hold on Placer County began to be challenged by both the Tea Party and other political players such as Karen England. This period was both a challenge for the Parks and an opportunity. The challenge was to defeat Karen and the opportunity was that George and Aaron had the chance to sweep most of their competition—consultants, many aligned with Karen—out of the CRA. To do this, the Parks had to move from a regional power (Placer County) to a statewide operation.

By mid-2011, not only was Karen England ejected from CRA, but almost every political consultant in the state that was involved in CRA was purged also. At the July 2011 Board meeting, they wiped the CRA map of all England’s paper clubs and simultaneously began trying creative ways of making new CRA units that would be under their sway. In effect, the Parks cleared the decks of the competition and then had CRA mostly to themselves. Only Steve Frank survived and by 2013, he and Celeste were gone too. The projection of their newly acquired power was an evolving process that they experimented with over the next two years.

The Park brother’s first attempt at flexing their new political muscle post Karen England was establishing the Republican Assembly of the Greater Santa Clarita Valley. This chapter was created after the July 2011 Board meeting was ended. This “chartering” was added into the minutes as if it occurred as part of the meeting. After all, rules should not get in the way of progress.

…a New CRA Unit was Chartered, the Greater Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly.

As of the writing of this email – plans are in the works for several new CRA units – please look out for updates on the movement to re-build the CRA with new activist-driven units. Blog Post

• Oh, the new Santa Clarita club (RAGSCV) they chartered in the hallway became the “great Satan” by 2013 and needed to be de-chartered. If you can’t control it, kill it.

During that discussion Sgt. At Arms Aaron Park (who was in favor of the de-chartering of the newer RAGSCV unit) stood up and told the entire board that he had lied to the board about the newer unit that was being considered for de-chartering.  That after the April 2011 CRA convention, that he and two other Board members (who are no longer on the CRA board) decided to promote and create the new unit on top of the older unit as punishment for the SCVRA’s support of another candidate for CRA President during the 2011 convention.  Vice President Steve Macias posted this on his blog post:

After over an hour of lively debate before the board, Sergeant-at-Arms Aaron Park stepped forward to lend clarity to his role in the chartering of the RAGSCV. Aaron explained that the charter was intentionally pushed through against the bylaws for “political revenge.” Aaron elaborated that the new group was part of a plot to retaliate against the SCVRA’s refusal to support President Celeste Greig. “Bob Hauter, Steve Frank, and I lied,” confessed Park. “We perpetrated a lie, we lied to the board of directors. We knew what we were doing.”



(http://www.stevemacias.com/end-of-cra-drama/)  (This URL is no longer correct)
From the CRA Vice-President Craig Alexander, email to CRA Board, Sunday, June 30, 2013 12:58 AM

• Antelope Valley was slated to be dismantled in April of 2013 but as you will read in the next installment, they became the special friend of our Membership Secretary by December of that same year.

• Nevada RA must go now because they chose to support Tom McClintock. Barry Pruit used to be supported by the Park brothers as was Tom McClintock.

• Re-constituting Ventura RA was their greatest success of 2013 and by 2015 Ventura needed to be put down as a fraudulent unit. If you recall, Aaron and George handpicked most of the core members. Re-chartering this club in 2013 was a way to hurt Celeste Grieg and Steve Frank while delivering votes for John Briscoe. However, when the club voted against the Parks in the 2014 local endorsing convention, then they were an obstacle.

If you wondered why their relationships with various chapters ran so hot and cold, I think you can begin to see why. Look at the Santa Clarita units, Ventura, Antelope Valley, Pasadena, Nevada, and a host of others. When you were on their side everything was great. If you stood in the way of their money making ventures then they would turn on you on a dime. Always to oppose them was fraud. This is their playbook. When they confronted other consultants, this worked; and very effectively.

Often, the Parks were just as guilty as the other consultants that they attacked but since they were not known as consultants within CRA, they would frame the issue as grassroots volunteers versus the professional political class. They managed to remain concealed as the men behind the curtain and masqueraded as something that they were not. They often framed their confrontations as David versus Goliath. They were common men just like us or so we were expected to believe.

Most of the people they attack now were once their friends and fellow travelers on the Conservative trail. Tom McClintock, Ted Gaines, Steve Frank, Barry Pruett, Bill Cardoza, Tim Thiesen, Alice Khosravy, Celeste Grieg, Carl Brickey, etc. Once you get in their way then they throw you under the bus.

Just remember, Aaron said “perception is more important than truth.” The only political consultants in CRA that won’t admit what they are, happen to be named Aaron and George. They hide behind the label, “activist” but clearly there is more than meets the eye.

I think my last few installments are enough to prove that the brothers are up to their necks in consulting and special projects, and they are not just grassroots activists as they pretend to be. The Parks may start from a conservative bent but they eventually are all about power and money, their principles are negotiable.

Tomorrow we begin to examine financial dealings involving the Parks and CRA.