Republicans in Hillsborough County (Tampa) Thwart Palace Coup by RINOs

TAMPA - It's a shame it had to come to this, especially so close to such a consequential midterm election. Hopefully, some fences can eventually be mended.

But dozens of so-called old-guard, establishment Republicans - many of them RINOs still upset that Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 - threw party unity under the bus Wednesday night (10/12/2022) as they attempted a very divisive, in-house "Palace Coup" to take control of the Hillsborough County Republican Party.

In the end, they were overcome and resoundingly defeated by a much larger group of hard-working, party stalwarts who backed local GOP Chairman Col. Jim Waurishuk, USAF (Ret.), a staunch MAGA Populist and Constitutional Conservative.?

They tried to force local Republicans to swear in a large slate of new members, many of whom were recruited for the sole purpose of voting out Col. Waurishuk at the upcoming December annual meeting of the Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee.

Many of these recruits apparently were promised they wouldn't even have to attend meetings next year or do any of the hard groundwork so crucial to putting a Republican back into the White House in 2024, as well as turning out the vote two years from now to back the entire local slate of GOP candidates.

The anti-Waurishuk faction is led by local State Committeewoman April Schiff. She is President and Co-Founder of Strategic Solutions of Florida, a political consulting firm. Some local Republicans believe Schiff remains embittered over her loss to Waurishuk for the local chairmanship a few years ago.

She timed her divisive stunt just weeks before the election instead of organizing a new membership group over the entire course of 2022 to back her or her chosen candidate for a new chair.

This Schiff-Waurishuk feud has been going on for some time and now it has devolved into our own little version of Liz Cheney v. Donald Trump. April Schiff is not a supporter of Donald Trump and Col. Waurishuk supports him.

Wednesday night's tumultuous meeting was just the latest unseemly tactic by Schiff, who has aligned herself with local anti-Republican media as she and her allies have “weaponized” the GOP's grievance process to replace the rules and procedures in the Constitution of the Republican State Executive Committee of Florida to strip Chairman Waurishuk of his authority.

It's all been a ruse as Schiff tried but failed yet again to supplant the local conservative majority of Republicans. On Wednesday, she was unable to stack the deck with new members against Waurishuk, whose accomplishments as chair have included establishing a nationally recognized orientation and training program for bringing on new Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen to strengthen the GOP in Hillsborough County, Florida. HILLSBOROUGH'S GOP NEEDS VOLUNTEERS!

In just over 90 minutes, Waurishuk was able to rally his conservative backers with a series of four different motions to eliminate the opposition's attempt to oust him and take control of the local party from the Conservative-led America First leadership.

Schiff's illegal and unconstitutionally contrived process of “member harvesting” was systematically killed by strategically calculated motions brought forth by the membership.

Chairman Jim Waurishuk used those key motions, along with energized and well-conceived arguments made by his now-angry conservative base, to strategically expose the RINOs (Republicans-In-Name-Only) and their leaders. This forced them to reveal their true motives in front of the party members at the meeting, which included Joe Gruters, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.

Col. Waurishuk's on-the-fly maneuvering and his quick assessment of a number of unknown challenges demonstrated the strength of his leadership and principles as a strong voice for conservatives throughout Hillsborough County.

In the end, Chairman Waurishuk's strategy and tactics shut down the contrived and planned coup attempt that had, by design, manipulated, marginalized, and used the people they recruited as “political pawns” to serve their unconstitutional quest and political agenda driven by their goals of power and control.?

Sadly, the RPOF leadership not only allowed this effort, but it sanctioned and orchestrated it by deliberately “weaponizing” the grievance process against Chairman Waurishuk.

The RPOF also intentionally denied Chairman Waurishuk “due process” to a series of covert grievances, under the GOP's Florida Constitution.

To date, the Chairman has yet to be officially notified of any grievances, nor allow him his right to refute the claims, the right to a hearing, the right to retain counsel, and the right to present witnesses.

With that said, the state GOP's Grievance Committee held secret deliberations in Tallahassee to recommend punitive action against Chairman Waurishuk.? Those actions translated into the orchestrated and enacted “palace coup” and denial of his Constitutional authorities as a county chairman witnessed at Wednesday's meeting.

The RPOF Grievance Committee Chairman also stated the official grievance process was intentionally broken to deny Chairman Waurishuk his Constitutional right to “Due Process.”? Hence, it became a truly sinister Stalinistic method to try and destroy conservative leadership because so-called establishment Republicans view it as a threat.

The RPOF used its clandestine edicts and mandates to serve as cover to allow Gruters and the Grievance Committee Chairman to issue their unconstitutional directives. They constantly moved the goalposts to create havoc and chaos within the Hillsborough Republican Executive Committee.

This resulted in wasted time, work and resources.? Worse, it obviously apparent, that it was also intended to force the Hillsborough REC staff to take valuable time away from the REAL PRIORITY at hand to Get Out the Vote and Assist Republican Candidates in the final three weeks of such a consequential election.??

Wednesday's meeting in Tampa was terribly difficult and acrimonious. This included many Schiff supporters seemingly on the edge of violence angrily shouting curses at Waurishuk just inches from his face after the meeting was over.

One person described Wednesday's meeting as an extremely raucous game of chess being played on a rolling ship at sea in the middle of a Cat-5 hurricane.?

Nevertheless, the end result was a critical win for party conservatives and leadership.?

While the attempted coup and the ensuing debate that followed were ugly, its impact was a critically important factor because it exposed what was actually at play.

The conservative voices and key motions brought to the floor were able to shut down the unconstitutional directives and mandates and stopped a concerted effort by the RINO establishment to get a strong foothold in the local party.

It was a difficult night, but in the end, the party's conservative majority prevailed.

- - - WHAT IS A TRUE CONSERVATIVE? - - -

Hillsborough County's Republican Party can now return to its regular process of bringing in new Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen to represent their respective precincts, and work to support and defend the U.S. Constitution, true Republican Party principles and the Party Platform.

In the end, a critically important message must be put forth.?

That message is that MAGA-led conservative county Republican Executive Committees across the country need to be aware of such efforts in their states.

Establishment RINOs are adopting Democrat-style tactics and attempting to take control at the county level – using the illicit practice of “member harvesting” RINOs to take back power and steer the party in a wholly unacceptable direction.

Anything worthwhile is never going to be easy.

To help preserve this great nation, and save us from President Biden and his radical Left Democrats, we all need to stand up for what's right!

Mike Kersmarki is Committeeman for Precinct 525 and is a member of the Hillsborough County Republican Executive Committee. His political experience includes working on the communications teams for the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa and the seven-state regional office in Tallahassee, Florida, for the John McCain for President campaign in 2008.