My post yesterday on a local unit of the California Republican Assembly voting to endorse Marymount College's Measure P touched a nerve.
Rick Marshall, secretary to the Palos Verdes Peninsula unit and Senate District Director for the 25th Senate District, leapt to take the blame for the vote. He apologized for the incident, saying the vote was nullified.
"On these kinds of things, the speculation is rampant," Marshall told me. "I fully take responsibility for the error. It created a controversy where it didn't need to be."
Though he knew the unit's bylaws required membership for 30 days before voting in a "local endorsing convention," Marshall said he did not know the rule existed at the statewide level and could not be suspended.
"What happened is I made an error," Marshall said.
After the jump, you can read on to learn more about this fun installment in the Marymount College expansion controversy.
Rick Marshall, secretary to the Palos Verdes Peninsula unit and Senate District Director for the 25th Senate District, leapt to take the blame for the vote. He apologized for the incident, saying the vote was nullified.
"On these kinds of things, the speculation is rampant," Marshall told me. "I fully take responsibility for the error. It created a controversy where it didn't need to be."
Though he knew the unit's bylaws required membership for 30 days before voting in a "local endorsing convention," Marshall said he did not know the rule existed at the statewide level and could not be suspended.
"What happened is I made an error," Marshall said.
After the jump, you can read on to learn more about this fun installment in the Marymount College expansion controversy.
Marshall said the group was motivated to suspend the 30-day rule because
prospective members were at the event -- other than (anti-P) Ken Dyda and those
that came from Marymount's side -- who existing members wanted to
welcome.
Allowing them to join on the spot meant allowing others to join, Marshall said. So, during a break, Dyda, Brophy and three others joined, paying $25 in dues. Then the group voted, 12-3 to support Measure P.
Marshall that even without the new members, the endorsement would have gone in favor of Measure P.
But when statewide CRA President Celeste Greig stepped in (and when I blogged about a series of e-mails related to all of this), more e-mails flew. Today, Marymount's political consultant expressed displeasure with the attention.
And former RPV Mayor Barbara Ferraro, a proponent of Measure P who joined the CRA and voted in favor at the Sunday event, said Councilman Brian Campbell had overreacted.
(By the way, if you tried to comment on the earlier post and were unable to, I apologize. We appear to be having some kind of technical problem with our blog comments.)
Allowing them to join on the spot meant allowing others to join, Marshall said. So, during a break, Dyda, Brophy and three others joined, paying $25 in dues. Then the group voted, 12-3 to support Measure P.
Marshall that even without the new members, the endorsement would have gone in favor of Measure P.
But when statewide CRA President Celeste Greig stepped in (and when I blogged about a series of e-mails related to all of this), more e-mails flew. Today, Marymount's political consultant expressed displeasure with the attention.
And former RPV Mayor Barbara Ferraro, a proponent of Measure P who joined the CRA and voted in favor at the Sunday event, said Councilman Brian Campbell had overreacted.
"There wasn't anything appalling about it. Maybe blundering," Ferraro said. "There wasn't anything nefarious about it."
Ferraro also said that she and the other Marymount supporters only joined the group because Dyda made a move to do so first. Dyda contradicted this, saying in an e-mail to me, "I don't believe I was the first or the catalyst."
Marshall said he could not tell who joined the group first.
Isn't this fun? Don't you wish that YOU could be covering this election for the Breeze?
(By the way, if you tried to comment on the earlier post and were unable to, I apologize. We appear to be having some kind of technical problem with our blog comments.)
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