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Minnesota 8th Congressional District GOP

Full Committee
June 2, 2015
To:

State GOP Executive Committee/co Keith Downey

Mr. Downey:
We urge you to re-consider the culture of opacity that seems to increasingly define your
management of the state party.
Our concerns with conducting the partys business in closed sessions without minutes
was outlined in our letter of March 3rd (attached for your review). It is unclear whether
our concerns with closed meetings have been recognized or addressed.
In view of the suspension of the PCR again, we urge you to maintain a strong focus on
debt retirementin spite of a temptation to do otherwise. Perennial debt continues to
threaten conservative fundraising ability.
The idea of confidentiality agreements is troubling. Executive Committee members who
are elected to represent their respective congressional districts are bound, most
fundamentally, to those who elected them. Without the ability of each Executive
Committee member to enjoy a full exchange of ideas with their constituency, the very
idea of a grass roots organization is corrupted. This CD organization can hardly forward
its thoughts and preferences to the state party when our only representative on the
Executive Committee cannot freely share what issues are under review.
The idea of consolidating GOP emails to a common system for the ostensible purpose
of monitoring or controlling information flow concerns us. The ability of each Executive
Committee member to conduct their communications in the manner deemed
appropriate to them is fundamental to the robust exchange of ideas that characterizes
and fosters a grass roots organization.
We expect substantive minutes of Executive Committee meetings to be widely
distributed to us in a timely manner. The timely distribution of minutes is central to the
transparency that is the lifeblood of a grassroots organization.

It is unacceptable that you again appear to have chosen to second-guess the salaries of
State GOP officers elected by the Central Committee. The election of an officer in view
of his/her salary needs is, in every real sense, a binding contract between the delegates
and the candidate they elect.
Your reported efforts to marginalize Chris Fields and to eliminate his agreed salary has
created a hostile work environment to the detriment of the GOP statewide. We do not
view the deputy chair position of MNGOP as a ceremonial volunteer position. The
deputy chair should manage a portfolio of productive meaningful projects, provide
problem-solving management expertise and should be paid for his/her professional
commitment. We are hopeful that this situation is resolved quickly.
A common thread throughout our concerns seems to be repeated efforts to implement
and enforce various top-down management measures on a statewide organization that
has been legendarily grassroots.
This CD organization supports and requires transparency from our state party. We are
not alone in our displeasure with a lack of transparency that seems more suitable to a
secret government defense program. A case can be made that the current lack of
transparency and repeated financial surprises has negatively affected fund-raising for
the MNGOP.
The idea of openness seems to have wide appeal among activists. Chris Fields
campaigned for the job of Vice-chair on a platform of transparency and information
exchange. The Central Committee apparently found transparency and openness
agreeable and handed him the widest margin of victory April 11thwider than for any
other officer elected.
This congressional district urges you to build transparency, unencumbered
communications and greater respect for the bottom-up process on which our
organizations are grounded.
By separate action, we have directed that this letter be widely distributed to, at
minimum, CD leadership and BPOU chairs. We encourage a dialogue on these issues
for the general good of the Minnesota GOP.

Ted Lovdahl, Chair