On Sunday we printed this story about how the Chairman of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee has filed suit against the Registrar of Voters and several people of his Minutemen/Ron Paul-loving opponents who won committee seats in June. The suit alleges that seven of the victors hadn’t been registered Republicans long enough to have qualified for the ballot.
Last night was the first central committee meeting since the lawsuit was filed and a couple of people who were in attendance said it was feisty. Click here for some pictures, including a gigantic poster of Abe Lincoln.
FYI, in my story I imply that the Republicans can’t reach a quorum at meetings even with the recently elected members. Turns out the new members, who haven’t taken their seats yet, don’t qualify as part of a quorum.
As we reported here a week or so ago, the Golden Gate Minutemen are planning to run at least two members for Fremont City Council. It turns out that any candidate who wants to have a candidate statement in the voter guide –and everyone does except Linda Susoev — must pay $2,300.
The fee covers printing, mailing and translating the statement. County law requires that the statements be translated into Chinese and Spanish. So you know what that means. The minutemen candidates will have pay $2,300 essentially to get their statements translated into Spanish.
Minuteman Charles Bartlett just called to say his group has decided to march in Fremont’s Fourth of July Parade.
He also said that at least two members of the Golden Gate Minutemen will run for City Council this year. Should be interesting.
The minutemen and their allies apparently have inched closer to gaining a majority of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee. The group’s write-in candidate in Livermore, Judy Fenta, has been elected, Bartlett said. None of the three write-in candidates backed by what Bartlett called “the country club Republicans” got enough votes, he said.
I just found out that the Golden Gate Minutemen will be invited after all to march in Fremont’s Fourth of July Parade. Parade Chairwoman Patty Hitchcock told me that she and other organizers decided it was better to just let the minutemen march even though they have concerns that groups opposed to the minutemen could start trouble.
“They’re in the parade,” Hitchcock said. “It’s not worth the fighting.”
As a goodwill gesture, she said, the Minutemen will be offered the opportunity to carry three large red, white and blue balloons.
Here we go again. The local minuteman group isn’t being allowed to participate in Fremont’s Fourth of July parade because its presence would require more police officers to work the parade and, consequently, a bigger police overtime bill for parade organizers.
Last year the parade spent an extra $4k on police officers, including plain-clothed officers for fear that the minutemen’s presence would lead to violence, parade chairwoman Patty Hitchcock.
It didn’t.
Charles Birkman, a local minuteman, said he thinks the police and parade organizers are using the policing issue to keep them out of this year’s parade. The group is planning to file suit in order to be allowed in for the second straight year. The group was only allowed to march last year after the city gave parade organizers a $15,000 grant.
The parade is run by a nonprofit group and can chose who it wants to march, Hitchcock said. Fremont police determine how much policing is needed for an event. This is the second time this week that police overtime has affected a civic celebration. The League of Volunteers cancelled a carnival scheduled for the Fremont Hub when it couldn’t afford to pay for police overtime.
On Sunday we printed this story about how the Chairman of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee has filed suit against the Registrar of Voters and several people of his Minutemen/Ron Paul-loving opponents who won committee seats in June. The suit alleges that seven of the victors hadn’t been registered Republicans long enough to have qualified for the ballot.