Republicans vote to keep their beleaguered committee chairman

Despite a low turnout, which some thought would favor a recall effort, Clark County Republican Central Committee members voted Tuesday night to keep their chairman.

Chairman Milton Schwartz kept his job by a vote of 199 to 69. Only 268 of the 850 members of the county Republican committee voted at the Showboat hotel-casino Tuesday night.

Party dissidents claimed that Schwartz and the other elected GOP leaders failed to provide a grass-roots effort for Republican office-seekers during last year's election.

Schwartz, who received flowers from registration volunteers when he voted, left before the ballots were counted and could not be reached for comment.

Committee member Tony Dane said that although the ballot counting was correct, the vote was a farce.

"They tried to stop us from distributing literature to voters, and elected committee members were mingling with voters while they were deciding on whether to vote for a recount," Dane said. "The whole thing is a farce."

Dane and his group had called for the recall of the group's leadership because, they alleged, $60,000 of Clark County Republican Party money that could have been used to back GOP candidates was not spent in the recent election.

Members showed a photo I.D. to enter the voting room at the Showboat and then registered and marked a ballot either for or against the recall. Dane and committee officials were present as the votes were tallied.

The recall effort required two-thirds of the votes, or 179 of those cast, committee member Phil Kinney said.

With the recall failing, Dane sees bad times ahead for the GOP in Clark County.

"I'm not going to give up on the Republicans of Clark County, and I've started the Clark County Republican grass-roots campaign independent of the committee," Dane said. "This vote means that I'll be watching as the Clark County Republican Party continues to sink, and go bankrupt before too much longer."

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