State GOP boss McDonald: Wimmer is “impudent” and “imprudent” and wrong that party is dysfunctional

Monday, June 11, 2012 | 6:53 p.m.

On Friday, unbeknownst to most (or all) of the Nevada media, state GOP Chairman Michael McDonald sent a thoroughly bizarre news release to the Utah media in which he lashed out at Carl Wimmer, the ex-lawmaker who came to Las Vegas thinking he had a job and left a day later assailing the chairman and the organization formerly known as the Nevada Republican Party.

I reprint the entire release below because it is so amazing, with my annotations in italics:

The impudent ( maybe he means “imprudent,” or maybe not? ) remarks that Carl Wimmer has made about me and the Nevada Republican Party are deplorable.

It was Mr. Wimmer’s decision to personally contact the media and announce that he had secured employment with the Nevada Republican Party (NVGOP) despite having never been given any valid confirmation of that position. Mr. Wimmer should be taking full responsibility for the gaffe ( See, this is what this is all about, that Wimmer did not announce this on McDonald’s timetable) and cease attempting to transfer blame to the Nevada Republican Party or its Executive Board.

Mr. Wimmer was in communication with a volunteer of the NVGOP ( Volunteer! He’s referring to Jesse Law, McDonald’s handpicked choice to become executive director and who, emails I’ve obtained suggest, he had given authority to negotiate with Wimmer) and possibly a representative of Silver Bullet, LLC. Silver Bullet is a vendor that has no authorization or ability to make personnel decisions for the Nevada Republican Party. Any “confusion” set forth regarding the role of a vendor to the Nevada Republican Party belongs to Mr. Wimmer.

• Silver Bullet is a vendor to the Nevada Republican Party.

• As a fund raising vendor to the Nevada Republican Party, Silver Bullet is permitted to hire their own finance director for the project subject to approval by the Nevada Republican Party

• Any such position would be filled by Silver Bullet, not the Nevada Republican Party

• Vendors (Silver Bullet) and their representatives/employees have no authority to make personnel decisions for the Nevada Republican Party or its Executive Board.

( I am reliably told this entire section about Silver Bullet is McDonald’s fantasy. They never agreed to any of this and only might have hired Wimmer after McDonald pretended not to know who he was. Not once in any of the emails between Law and Wimmer does this seem to be the case. )

Mr. Wimmer has stated he had gotten caught in the middle of a “power struggle” within the Nevada Republican Party because there are two people that believe they are the Executive Director. He is absolutely mistaken and has no foundation for such a claim; David Gallagher is the Executive Director of the NVGOP and Mr. Gallagher, to my knowledge, has never had any conversations with Carl Wimmer. ( What he doesn’t say is that Gallagher was scheduled last Wednesday to be replaced by Law and McDonald knew it – and wanted it. )

It is the responsibility of an applicant to actually talk to the employer (The Chairman) before moving to another state for a job that he “believed” he had. I take great offense to the personal attacks that Mr. Wimmer has launched against me and the Nevada Republican Party. What right does Mr. Wimmer have to call me a liar since I have never held a conversation with him regarding this matter? ( Um, I think it’s called the First Amendment? )

Laura Myers of the Las Vegas Review Journal reported on June 4, 2012, “Wimmer said he had been talking with McDonald for a few weeks before accepting the job as the political director, a position focusing on strategy and fundraising. He said he and McDonald agreed to try to mend fences with the GOP factions and reach out to Team Nevada, too.”

June 7, 2012 Kimberly Houk of FOX Channel 13 reported that “Carl Wimmer released these emails he says proves that he had a job with the Nevada Republican Party. He says he thought he was being hired by a man who had the authority to hire him but now he admits he’s never actually had a conversation with the leader of the Nevada Republican Party.”

Mr. Wimmer lied about ever speaking to me. ( For the record, I don’t know what Wimmer told Myers or anyone else, but he told me he never spoke to McDonald and left him six voice mails – he showed me his phone records. )I have never spoken to, promised, implied or led Carl Wimmer to believe there was any employment available to him with the Nevada Republican Party. Because of his prevarications, Mr. Wimmer has placed me in a position that requires me to defend myself and the Nevada Republican Party against his unsubstantiated accusations.

Mr. Wimmer contends that NVGOP is in “turmoil” and that it is “not only dysfunctional but non-functional.” These baseless words of self expertise come from a man who spent only few hours in Las Vegas and never talked to a single officer of the Personnel Committee. Let me set the record straight for Mr. Wimmer and some members of the press who, for some reason, hang on every word this uninformed fellow utters: I have no need for his assistance in “mending fences” or “reaching out to Team Nevada;” I am in constant contact with both the Republican National Committee and Team Nevada. Bringing in an outsider would serve no purpose! We have candidates in Nevada that are highly qualified, motivated and have a vested interest in the Nevada Republican Party. The (alleged) hiring of Mr. Wimmer would have flown in the face of something that I have always promised the Nevada Republicans, “Nevada First.” ( News flash for McDonald: Team Nevada thinks you and your organization are a joke. They may patronize you, but that’s all you will get. Also, Wimmer figured that out very quickly. His words are accurate. )

Dave Montero reported in the Salt Lake Tribune on June 7, 2012 “Wimmer saved his harshest words for Nevada GOP Chairman Mike McDonald, who publicly said Tuesday he’d never heard of Wimmer and had no intention of hiring him” My actual statement, as reported by Laura Myers of the Las Vegas Review Journal on June 5, 2012, was printed as follows: "He's not coming on as political director." McDonald said in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I have never spoken to him. I'm sure he's a great guy, but I never committed to hiring him. And I think we have several people in Nevada capable of doing the job."

To clarify the matter further, I had heard of Mr. Wimmer but I had no interest in meeting him and that’s why I never spoke to him. ( Had heard of him? Really? I wonder how? How would he have heard of him? Let me explain as McDonald just pointed the smoking gun at himself: Because Law kept him informed every step of the way in the negotiations before Wimmer foolishly announced the job to the Utah media before the party folks could be notified. ) There was never any “push-back” and I never “changed my mind.” The implication that I “dug in my heels” to prevent Mr. Wimmer's employment is simply another lie. The cavernous silence from me and the Nevada Republican Party Executive Board should have been a clear indication that there was no interest-in and no employment available for Mr. Wimmer. At no point did Carl Wimmer ever speak to anyone that had the authority to offer him employment with the Nevada Republican Party. Sending the chairman carbon copies of emails between himself and others did not make Mr. Wimmer a candidate for any position in the Nevada Republican Party and it certainly didn't guarantee him employment with this or any organization. The blame that Mr. Wimmer is attempting to place on me and the Executive Board belongs solely to him. Mr. Wimmer's tack of slandering me and/or the Nevada Republican Party in the press due to his poor judgment is bad form and I find it inexcusable that he has chosen to do it. ( Well, you can sue him, Mr. Chairman! But you are close to defamation-proof. And you can’t slander a political party, especially the Nevada GOP. )The energy that Carl Wimmer has wasted in pointing fingers at me because of his own imprudence ( Or is it impudence? So confusing! )could have been much better spent assisting the Party in getting Republicans elected.