Massachusetts First

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By Every Means Necessary

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Strap in; this is a long one…

The weeks following the April 18^th GRCC monthly meeting were dominated by a barrage of false allegations of voter fraud aimed at scandalizing GRCC leadership. As detailed in Part 4, opposition group member Robin Hubbard sent two emails to the Gloucester Board of Registrars, claiming Joe and Connie Orlando had illegally voted in previous elections, a move that took the disgruntled members’ tactics to a new level and eventually led to the Orlandos filing a defamation lawsuit against Bjorlie, Hubbard, and Coles. Tensions were high leading into the May 24^th meeting, where the Bjorlie cabal planned for a third attempt at removing Chairwoman Ashley Sullivan.

May Meeting Ameliorations

The meeting began with an attempt by the opposition group to move the motion to remove the chair from Agenda Item #10 to Agenda Item #1. The attempt was ruled invalid per the committee bylaws, so Bjorlie and her cohorts had to sit through the entire meeting before getting to the only issue they cared about. Note that Agenda item #5 regarded the Horribles Parade, for which Bjorlie, who had volunteered to lead the effort, had no progress to report.

Finally came Bjorlie’s turn to speak to her motion to remove the chair. She read a prepared statement explaining her motivation. She reiterated the false claims of voter fraud against the Orlandos and said they were being investigated by The Gloucester Board of Registrars and the Mass. Board of Bar Overseers. You can read the full statement here:

Then followed a discussion of rules, part of the motion was reworded, and Joe Orlando Jr. offered a compromise amendment. This compromise would allow the leadership team to elect opposition group member Clayton Sova as Vice Chair while maintaining Sullivan as Chairwoman until the next election. Again, members of Bjorlie’s group tried to make the vote by secret ballot, which was voted down. In the end, the reworded motion passed, and Sova was elected Vice Chair of the leadership team. This made Bjorlie’s motion to remove the chair moot, and she withdrew her motion (an ongoing point of dispute). This marked the end of attempts to remove Chairwoman Sullivan. Or did it?

The Perpetual Motion

The GRCC Leadership Team, including newly appointed Vice Chair Clayton Sova, met on Thursday, June 1.

Despite the optimistic tone, the opposition’s plan to remove the chair was still underway behind the scenes. On June 10, Bjorlie emailed Sullivan requesting a top-line agenda item for the June meeting: GRCC leadership.

Chairwoman Sullivan responded in an email to all GRCC members, explaining that according to Robert’s Rules, the effort by a minority group to make a perpetual motion (re-introducing it over and over at each meeting) is not allowed.

“The majority voted for that compromise. So, after debate and vote, the matter is concluded.”

GRCC Chairwoman Ashley Sullivan

She also revealed that, despite Clayton Sova’s appointment to the leadership team, he still included himself among the opposition group.

Sullivan went on to say that anyone who attempted to re-introduce the issue of removal may be ruled out of order and subject to dismissal from the meeting.

On June 13, Bjorlie mailed and emailed a letter to all GRCC members calling for new leadership. The letter was signed by the usual suspects, including GRCC Vice Chair Clayton Sova.

It seems the attempts by Chairwoman Sullivan, State Committeewoman Orlando, and other members of the GRCC leadership to appease the disgruntled members of Bjorlie’s clan had failed. Despite efforts to include them in leadership roles, they were laser-focused on getting Sullivan removed.

Infiltration

According to Chairwoman Sullivan, evidence surfaced that Bjorlie and her cohorts were working with Democrats disguised as Unenrolled to get her voted out as chair. On June 8, State Committeewoman Orlando sent an email to the GRCC Leadership Team stating she had run the names of all the people who were “voted” in as new members at the May meeting through the GOP database, a routine action. She discovered that, according to the database, most of those people were not registered Republicans. Among those “voted” in at the May meeting, 3 of the 6 were listed as Unregistered, including 2 signers of the opposition group letters, Mary Pat Derosa and Brent Sexton. Among those to be voted in at the upcoming June meeting, 4 of the 7 were listed as Unregistered, including Joe Muse, who, according to Ms. Orlando, is “ranked by the GOP Data Center as “HARD DEMOCRAT” based on his voting record.

On June 8, Orlando emailed Derosa, who was seeking a seat as Ward 4 City Councilor, to let her know she was listed as Unenrolled in the GOP database. Derosa’s campaign manager, Nicole Coles, responded to Chairwoman Sullivan, stating that the “City Clerk in Gloucester says otherwise” and calling Sullivan a liar. After days of back and forth, Derosa provided proof of her Republican registration to Orlando in an email on June 16. Orlando responded by explaining the flow of registration data and how there can be a delay at the National GOP level.

By Every Means Necessary

In addition to smearing State Committeewoman Orlando’s parents as a way to delegitimize her, they also accused her of campaign finance fraud in a May 29^th letter to MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale. Those accusations had already been deemed unwarranted by Carnevale on May 22^nd.

They also tried delegitimizing GRCC Chairwoman Sullivan by claiming she had been appointed rather than elected, which State Committeewoman Orlando addressed in a May 30^th email. In summary, Ms. Sullivan was elected as Chair by unanimous vote on April 4, 2020, via conference call because all in-person events were canceled due to the COVID restrictions. Ms. Orlando went on to note that:

And, according to a June 3 email sent by Committeewoman Orlando, GRCC Treasurer Linda Charpentier found herself at the receiving end of a threatening phone call:

The opposition group was very busy doing everything they could to break into and dismantle the GRCC leadership, including publicizing their accusations on social media and contacting news media organizations, according to court documents (Orlando v. Bjorlie et al.) and emails we obtained.

However, their next actions would make their previous schemes seem like child’s play.

Next up: The June Meeting

by Citizens for Truth Contributor

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Sources