Regrouping for Removal
In our previous article,
Massachusetts Morass Part 1: Disgruntled Dissent After the 2022 Election, we set the stage and named the players involved in the backroom scheme to remove Ashley Sullivan as Chair of the Gloucester Republican City Committee in early 2023. In the following months, Bjorlie and her cohorts would make several more underhanded attempts at overtaking the committee leadership. But Bjorlie would soon delegate her role as opposition group leader to Clayton Sova, a man willing to be the face of the insurrection.
Ides of March Madness
After Bjorlie’s comeuppance at the February GRCC meeting and her failed attempt to garner the support of State Committeewoman Amanda Orlando, Bjorlie began holding meetings at her house, which were attended by a core group of malcontents mentioned in the previous article, Nicole Coles, Robin Hubbard, Clayton Sova, Irene Frontiero (Sova), and Ralph “Bud” Hobbs Jr.1
Orlando had previously alerted Sullivan to Bjorlie’s activities, and Sullivan was prepared to deal with them at the next committee meeting on March 29. However, when Sullivan’s daughter was unexpectedly hospitalized, she could not attend the meeting, offering a prime opportunity for the opposition group to execute their plan. According to an official Letter from the Chair Sullivan sent to GRCC members on March 30, 2023:
Taking advantage of the situation, Bjorlie put forth a motion to remove Sullivan as chair. Since the motion did not comply with the committee bylaws or procedures, State Committeeman Richard Baker helped Secretary Doug Parsons table the motion. In the above email, Sullivan also included a copy of the bylaws and a GRCC Meeting Request Form, which is used to request agenda items for the next meeting.
After receiving the email, Bjorlie invited Sullivan to her office to discuss her concerns with the GRCC. The meeting occurred on Wednesday, April 5, with Bjorlie, Sullivan, Parsons, and State Committeewoman Orlando in attendance. According to Ms. Sullivan:
“We arrived to find she had no intention of discussing anything, in fact – the woman had the nerve to demand my resignation, or she would “remove me”… she couldn’t point to anything I had done warranting removal, in fact, she even stated I had done nothing wrong – yet would hear nothing short of me stepping down.”2
Also, according to Ms. Sullivan, Bjorlie had other motives for disrupting the committee leadership:
“She flat out said to us all, ‘ I do not care about the GOP or most of the issues, but I do care about mandates – and when I was in a meeting with my mandate group, I was thinking about infrastructure and remembered the GRCC. ‘ She wanted the infrastructure and data and told us as much.’
Spring Renewal: Planning a Second Attempt
On April 10, State Committeewoman Amanda Orlando received an email written by Robin Hubbard, with an attached letter requesting a motion to be brought forward at the next meeting to replace Ashley Sullivan as chair of the GRCC. On April 12, Orlando addressed the GRCC in an email to members stating that she would be speaking at the next meeting, explaining the bylaws that governed the motion to remove process, and expressing her full support of Sullivan: 3
In what seems like a power move, Robin Hubbard said in an email response that she had invited MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale to the April meeting.4
In the following days, several people, including Orlando, GRCC Sec. Doug Parsons, Jonathan Ring, Chairman of the Rockport RTC, Rockport RTC Sec. Bea Reardon, GRCC member Rick Roberts Jr., and Joe Orlando sent emails supporting Sullivan to GRCC members.
Behind the scenes in the opposition camp, a plan to recruit votes against Sullivan was in motion. On April 2, in an email to GRCC Sec. Doug Parsons, Patti Page stated she had recently registered as a Republican with the City Clerk and requested he call a ward meeting to hold a vote on her membership. Unsure of the procedure for voting in new members, Parsons forwarded the email to Sullivan, asking for guidance.
Sullivan responded with suspicion:
“I’m not surprised as Robin [Hubbard] is trying to bring her in. They’re going to try and gain membership so they can vote on this [motion for removal]…They’re not actually [R]epublicans, but they want control of the party to push their own agenda.” 5
We will learn that Ms. Page was not the only person from the opposition group to attempt to change their voter registration as a ploy to gain membership for the sole purpose of voting out the chair. Would they be successful?
Next up: The April Meeting
by Citizens for Truth Contributor
To continue reading this series: Massachusetts Morass Part 3: The April Meeting
Sources
[1] Orlando, A. (2023a, April 3). Calls this Weekend.
[2] Sullivan, A. (2023, October 16). Gloucester Story.
[3] Orlando, A. (2023b, April 12). Gloucester GOP Meeting on 4/18-Hope to see you there!
[4] Hubbard, R. (2023, April 13). RE: Tuesday’s meeting.
[5] Sullivan, A. (2023a, April 3). Re: GRCC Patti Page.
Massachusetts First 
Leave a comment