David Harmer Disappoints
UPDATED NOV 21 — Alameda County- This past Tuesday, the Alameda County Republican Central Committee held its November monthly meeting in San Leandro at the County Party Headquarters. Over fifty local Republicans attended to conduct official Party business.
At the meeting the committee considered several proposed resolutions. One of the resolutions was in opposition to a recent ammunition restrictions bill (A.B.962) passed in the California State legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Most of the Republicans’ on the committee were not supportive of the Governor’s decision to sign A.B.962 into law. The California National Rifle Association and the California Rifle & Pistol Association have already decided to get behind efforts to repeal the restrictive new law. Republican Assemblyman Curt Hagman [AD-60 Chino Hills] plans to introduce an amended version of his bill (A.B.373) in January that would repeal A.B.962.
If efforts to repeal A.B.962 fail, the new law will take effect in February 2011 and California residents’ looking to purchase or transfer handgun ammunition will be required to submit their right thumb print to gun-retailers along with other detailed identity verifications. The retailer would then be required by the State to keep the information on file and make records available for inspection by the California Department of Justice. The new law bans all mail-order and Internet sales of handgun ammunition as well.
That brings us to Republican David Harmer, the newest Ex-Officio Member of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee byway of receiving the GOP nomination in California’s special election to replace Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher (D). Unable to overcome the large voter-registration disadvantage, Harmer ended up getting pounded on election day by former California Lt. Governor John Garamendi (D). Harmer came up short in three of the four counties that make up Congressional District 10. Alameda County was the only bright spot in the district that Harmer actually received enough votes to beat Garamendi. Harmer won there by 7% of the vote.
How does Harmer return the favor to the volunteers that helped his campaign in Alameda County? Well, Harmer’s first order of business as a committee Member was to appoint an Alternate, Diane Hefner [AD-15 Livermore] to attend the meeting and cast an anti-gun vote against a proposed resolution in opposition to A.B.962. Harmer, and other Ex-Officio Members’ appoint alternates’ to vote on their behalf on matters concerning official Party business when they are unable to attend meetings themselves.
During Harmer’s campaign he claimed to be a Republican that supported gun-rights. He even received an endorsement from Gun Owners of America. However, like many other politicians interested in advancing their political careers’, Harmer found it hard to live up to his own campaign promise of being a strong supporter of gun-rights.
Harmer failed to respond to numerous requests for information about why he supports A.B.962 and what made him decide to vote against the proposed resolution calling for its repeal.
Gun Owners of America (GOA) is known for being “the only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington.” They have consistently held the line when it comes to protecting the 2nd Amendment and have always held candidates to the highest standard when making endorsements.
Turns out that the GOA may have let one slip through the cracks when it comes to David Harmer!
GOA Executive Director Larry Pratt said, “Harmer’s grade was based on an ‘A’ survey” and his “BYU Law Review article titled Securing a Free State: Why the Second Amendment Matters.”
Executive Committee Member David LaTour [AD-18 Hayward] told Halfway to Concord that, “Harmer must have forgotten why the Second Amendment matters from what I saw at the monthly meeting on Tuesday.” LaTour continued, “David Harmer doesn’t deserve an ‘A’ rating from the Gun Owners of America. They should take it back!”
Pratt said, “We [the GOA] certainly would have been content to sit this one out… if this is true. We could not find anything out about it. If this was known before the election maybe we could have done something about Harmer. We’ll certainly keep this on file in case he runs again. Pratt concluded by suggesting, “We [the GOA] can also simply take him off our Political Victory Fund [endorsement] page.”
Now, that would be totally appropriate coming from a group that doesn’t support compromising our gun rights! After all why would the Gun Owners of America want to tarnish their good name supporting a fraud like David J. Harmer?
CONTACT INFO: Gun Owners of America, 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151 Phone: (703) 321-8585
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I just received an email from Mr. Harmer in reply to the one I sent him asking his stance on gun rights. As he told me before the election, he is solidly pro-gun rights and against AB 962.
I am happy to report that Gun Owners of America (GOA) has removed their Political Victory Fund endorsement of David Harmer from the Internet.
See Here: http://www.goapvf.org/ca10.htm
I would like to thank Gun Owners of America, Executive Director Larry Pratt and GOA representative Edi Eisler for acting and conducting some much needed quality control regarding this situation.
If David Harmer plans to run for office in the future, I don’t see his campaign receiving any more endorsements from pro-gun organizations working to protect the 2nd Amendment.
And David Harmer should be aware that he will be held accountable now, and in the future as a voting Member of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee. This accountability measure will also be extended to other Ex-Officio Members of the committee.
Bill, in response to your query about CCRP finances – I happened to attend the meeting at which it was announced that David Harmer and Jon Del Arroz would be contributing $50,000 each for voter registration. David Harmer was not there. I am not sure about Jon Del Arroz.
Treasurer Darcy Linn asked everyone to congratulate Tom Del Beccaro, Greg Poulos, and Michael Caporusso for their efforts in securing this money.
Thus far $10,000 has been contributed by the parents of Jon Del Arroz, presumably for voter registration. There doesn’t seem to be a highly active voter registration program at this time.
Part of the $10,000 has been used to pay regular expenses.
If the Del Arroz money was only to be used for voter registration, the money could be replaced once the CCRP brings in additional funds. They have an event scheduled in December with Michael Reagan that could help solve their debt problem.
Caporusso and poulos are del beccarro proxies
Capo and Poulos are each incompetent in their own right but BOTH were put into place by Del Beccaro
That the GOP leadership in the county, bay area, and state, including electeds, continues to tolerate this self dealing clown makes all Republicans a running joke
There’s a reason Ron Nehring hasn’t been recalled or forced to resign and his name is Tom Del Beccaro
There is so much paranoid secrecy at at CCRP about finances it’s hard to kniw
Can someone please document these donations, purpose and how money is now being spent
Anyone?
Bill: The $10,000 actually came from the Del Arroz family, not David Harmer.
Jun,
(ACRP Bylaws) Article 3, Sec. 8: “…Ex-Officio Members who have paid their dues in full are each entitled to appoint one Alternate Member TO REPRESENT THEM and TO VOTE IN THEIR ABSENCE at meetings of the County Committee…”
Diane Hefner was appointed (in writing) to represent Harmer and vote on his behalf when he is unable to attend meetings. To accept the notion that Hefner was appointed by Harmer to become his Alternate, while at the same time suggesting that she does not represent Harmer when a vote takes place is just simply wrong, and hardly representative.
Alternates’ are not elected to the committee by voters’ in their respective Assembly Districts’ to represent the positions that they ran on during their campaigns’, they are appointed to represent individual Elected or Ex-Officio Members.
An Alternates’ sole purpose is to represent the Member that appointed them to the committee when they can’t be there to represent themselves.
BGR, Don’t let Harmer off the hook so easily! He most certainly was aware of the election for chair, and the resolutions to be considered at the meeting on the 17th. Lets hold him accountable on this!
If Harmer wants to make excuses for his unaccountable actions and claim that he didn’t know what was going on (or even worse: that he didn’t care) those excuses might make him feel better, but it doesn’t make the situation any better, or acceptable for that matter.
*Citizen Harmer did pay his Membership dues prior to the monthly meeting, however he gave it to the wrong person which was cause for some confusion.
Jun,
(ACRP Bylaws) Article 3, Sec. 8: “…Ex-Officio Members who have paid their dues in full are each entitled to appoint one Alternate Member TO REPRESENT THEM and TO VOTE IN THEIR ABSENCE at meetings of the County Committee…”
Diane Hefner was appointed (in writing) to represent David Harmer and vote on his behalf when he is unable to attend meetings. To accept the notion that Hefner was appointed by Harmer to become his Alternate, while at the same time suggesting that she does not represent Harmer when a vote takes place is just simply wrong, and hardly representative.
Alternates’ are not elected to the committee by voters’ in their respective Assembly Districts’ to represent the positions that they ran on during their campaigns’, they are appointed to represent individual Elected or Ex-Officio Members.
An Alternates’ sole purpose is to represent the Member that appointed them to the committee when they can’t be there to represent themselves.
BGR, Don’t let Harmer off the hook so easily! He most certainly was aware of the election for chair, and the resolutions to be considered at the meeting on the 17th. Lets hold him accountable on this!
If Harmer wants to make excuses for his unaccountable actions and claim that he didn’t know what was going on (or even worse: that he didn’t care) those excuses might make him feel better, but it doesn’t make the situation any better, or acceptable for that matter.
*Citizen Harmer did pay his Membership dues prior to the monthly meeting, however he gave it to the wrong person which was cause for some confusion.
You can’t get ahold of Harmer’s campaign manager because his name is, or was, Mike Caparusso.
And while I’m at it…
There is a huge reason why Harmer lost this election, it’s name is Caparusso.
There is a reason why the CCRP doesn’t employ and Executive Director anymore, and it’s name is Caparusso.
There is a reason why the CCRP hasn’t been able to drum up support or funds for the last few years, and his name is Caparusso.
There is are reason why the Republican Party will fail to bring in new support and voters that are willing to donate time and money, their names are Caparusso and Del Beccarro.
There is a reseaon why the CCRP is underwater financially, their name is Caparusso and Del Beccarro. There is a reason why the CCRP hasn’t been able to vet and good candidates capable of running a honest campaign, their names are Caparusso, Del Beccarro, and Poulos.
There is a reason that why none of the other affiliated Republican Parties do not want to “affiliate” themselves with the CCRP, their names are Caparusso, Del Beccarro and Poulos.
There is a reason why the Democrats do not take the CCRP seriously, their names are Caparusso, Del Becarro, and Poulos.
Wake up Republicans!!
Caparusso=Del Becarro=Poulos=Failure!!
Time to move on…
Hate to be the one to break it to you, but David Harmer probably doesn’t give a hoot about what goes on at any County level meeting so it did not matter and sent an alternative just so he would not be bothered to have to go to the meetings. Most likely he did not know about the agenda including the gun or leadership vote.
Alternatively, the only other explanation is he must have given explicit instructions to his alternate.
Given the rumour that citizen Harmer hasn’t even paid his party dues leads me to lean toward him just not caring to know what’s going on right now after a grueling 8 month campaign of silently biting his tongue and rolling his eyes at countless GOP gaffs and campaign team embarrassments.
I would not be surprised if Harmer is so burnt out about now that he doesn’t even care that the $10K he put up for voter registration is now being frittered away to pay down CCRP debt just so he can get Del Beccaro and company off his back; not to mention Central Committee infighting in Alameda.
Walter,
Thanks for your energy in the ACRCC. I’m disappointed in the vote of Harmer’s alternate Diane Hefner on AB 962. I will point out though that I think an alternate has freedom to decide how to vote on issues that may not be consistent with the member she is an alternate for. In my view of a representative republic we have delegates that decide not necessarily what their constituents want, but what the delegate thinks is right or what is constitutional. I apply the same idea to elected members and their alternates. When an alternate’s votes are inconsistent with the member it may reflect poor decision-making by the member, but I wouldn’t go as far as to assume Harmer’s position to be reflected in an alternate’s vote.
No Surprise here… just another run of the mill politician (i.e. Hypocritical, self-serving bleepity bleep) as I suspected from the beginning after hearing an interview of his before the election.
Just to be clear…
On Wednesday November 18th (the morning following David Harmer’s anti-gun vote) I sent Mr. Harmer a private email asking him about his position on A.B.962. I have yet to receive a response back from Mr. Harmer. Attempts to contact Mr. Harmer were also made through Facebook and Twitter. I also followed up with his campaign manager, and I never heard back from him either.
I was very disappointed, especially after having drafted a post about the GOA endorsement of Harmer’s campaign. I’m confident that the GOA would never knowingly support a candidate that favors such restrictions on ammunition. (No-Compromise!) That’s why they need to retract their endorsement.
http://www.halfwaytoconcord.com/gun-owners-endorse-harmer/
Losing by 10% of the votes (43% to 53%), even with the boost from Alameda County, would qualify as a resounding defeat, in my opinion.
Furthermore, this law is not in concert with the stated platform of the California Republican Party, so I am surprised that Harmer has not clearly come out in opposition.
Finally, I cannot think of how this law is actually going to keep ammunition out of the hands of people who intend to use firearms to commit a crime. It will probably make it more expensive, though.
David Harmer needs to take responsibility for the person he appoints to act as his alternate. Either she should check with him on key votes or at least know his views.
A response from Mr. Harmer regarding his apparent support for AB 962 would be helpful to this discussion.
Mr. Harmer, care to comment? If not, those of us who support gun rights and repeal of AB 962 will have no choice but to concur with Mr. Stanley’s analysis.
Harmer’s silence must be interpreted as tacit agreement — or a lack of a plausible explanation for his alternate’s vote on this issue.
“Harmer Disappoints”, indeed.
Arne,
David Harmer has been contacted by e-mail, facebook, etc. He has failed to respond since the Tuesday meeting. I can only assume that means he is anti-gun. I am extremely offended by his vote.
Kyle, an anti-war, gun toating America was basically what we had for the first hundred years of our country’s existence. We were definitely better of than we are today.
This is the resolution that David Harmer voted against:
- Alameda County Republican Party Proposed Resolution –
- Status: Resolution in Opposition to A.B. 962 & in Support of A.B. 373
- Submitted by: Walter Stanley Vice Chairman of the Alameda County Republican Party
A.B. 962, which will take effect on February 1, 2011, mandates individuals purchasing ammunition to be fingerprinted and registered at the time of sale and requires retailers to maintain these records for at least five years and make them available for inspection by the California Department of Justice upon request. A.B. 962 requires all sales to be done face to face and outlaws Internet and mail order ammunition purchases throughout the State of California. As an additional burden, ammunition retailers are also required to store ammunition in locked containers away from purchasers, and become certified with the State of California.
Whereas, the Alameda County Republican Party is opposed to laws that infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms as set forth in the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution; and
Whereas, we reject the notion that A.B. 962 will serve to improve public safety; and
Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED that we as Members’ of the Alameda County Republican Party respectfully, but strongly urge the support for A.B. 373 and the repeal of A.B. 962.
11 NAY VOTES AGAINST PROPOSED RESOLUTION: David Harmer (alt: Diane Hefner), Claudia Bermudez (alt: Brion Wikes), Mary Lou Weggenmann, Paul Cummings, Dick Spees, Frank Cherry, Rosann Slonsky-Breault, Christine Anderson, Ryan Hatcher, Anne Woodell, Karen Wind
http://www.goapvf.org/ca10.htm
First off, David Hammer did not get “pounded” is losing to Garamendi. In fact, Harmer held Garamendi’s victory to under 55% (way below what Tauscher ever received).
As for Harmer’s Alamenda County Alternate, a phone call to Harmer might help rectify that poor vote choice by Diane Hefner!
Oh no! There are heratics loose in the Republican Party! I guess according to Walter David Harmer deserves the same fate as Galileo!
Walter you are the man. An Anti-War, gun toating vision of freedom.
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