MEMORANDUM

TO: RPOF Grievance Committee

FROM: Doug Guetzloe

Orange County REC member – Precinct 403

DATE: March 19, 2009

SUBJ: Grievance statement by Lew Oliver

I am in receipt of the “grievance” filed by Lew Oliver and feel compelled to respond to
the numerous and seemingly endless misconception; misrepresentations; misstatements
and outright lies contained in the document.

As a matter of background, I have been an elected member of the Orange County REC on
and off since 1980. Prior to that I was the youngest member of a Florida REC when I
became a member of the Pinellas County REC at age 18 shortly after the right to vote
was lowered to 18.

I have been active in the Republican Party since I was thirteen. I have served as
Chairman of the Florida College Republican Federation; National Committeeman of the
FFYR and founder of the Central Florida Young Republicans – an organization that
became the third largest YR club in the nation within six months of founding it and
received the National YR Outstanding Club in the United States less than one year after
it’s founding.

I’ve served as President of the Student Body at both my community college and at FSU
where Governor Crist was my Vice President.

I’ve consulted with hundreds of GOP campaigns including US Senate and congressional
candidates (Hawkins, Keller; Feeney; Hering) dozens of legislative candidates as well as
hundreds of other campaigns.

Bottom line – I’ve been involved.

I currently have a radio talk show (www.Guetzloe.com) that has featured dozens of
prominent Republican US Senators; Governors and GOP leaders from around the nation.
A list of those that appeared on my show last October is attached.

I have known Mr. Long for several years since he was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush
(and re-appointed) to the St. Johns River Water Management District and served with
distinction.

Mr. Long has always conducted himself with the proper decorum and considerable
restraint in dealing with the rantings of Mr. Oliver and his associates, including Mr. Rob
Richmond – who during the last specially called meeting – used very disturbing racial
slurs to describe Mr. Long, who is African-American. This has been verified by
numerous witnesses as well as the Winter Park Police Department – who has issued a “no
trespass warning” against Mr. Richmond.

Mr. Oliver has called Mr. Long many names not the least of which is: “disruptive,
negative, and disingenuous and… downright dishonest.” I would suggest that these are
more appropriate for Mr. Oliver – who according to court documents – was described as
a “dishonest lawyer” by another member of the RPOF state committee.

I will attempt to answer each and every one of Mr. Oliver’s rantings.

1. The 2008 primary. Mr. Long was a candidate for State Committeeman in Orange
County. In spite of a rather negative campaign by Mr. Oliver and Mr. Braley – in
concert with robo-calls from Mr. Greer endorsing Mr. Braley and numerous
mailings – the funding for which as never been determined – Mr. Long lost that
vote by a mere 775 votes out of 31,882 – again in spite of considerable use of the
Republican Party symbol and name openly endorsing Mr. Braley. Mr. Long did
not complain or moan and groan about his unfairness or the possible illegal use of
the Party symbols – he simply moved along. Mr. Long’s campaign was open,
above board and very positive – no negative campaign mailings; no negative
robo-calls; nothing but positive campaign activities. This in spite of Mr. Braley’s
numerous questionable business practices; fraud penalties and the incident were
Mr. Braley and Mr. Oliver were accused of allegedly trying to extort a GOP
legislator. All of this documentation can be provided to you upon request. Of the
three individuals mentioned; Mr. Long, Mr. Oliver and Mr. Braley, the only ones
involved in “dirty tricks” in 2008 primary campaigns were Mr. Oliver and Mr.
Braley.
2. Mr. Oliver brings Mr. Nick Egoroff into the complaint. Mr. Oliver has hated Mr.
Egoroff since he came on the committee. Mr. Egoroff is one of those hated “Ron
Paul” people. Mr. Egoroff did send out a flyer in various precincts that listed his
choices for various Party offices and Mr. Oliver and his allies were obviously not
included in that endorsement piece. To my knowledge, Mr. Long was not
involved in that effort nor did he fund it. Mr. Egoroff and I provided the funding
for the postcard effort and the robo-calls that were sent out were done by a
volunteer. By the way, while Mr. Egoroff was a Ron Paul supporter, Mr. Long
was on the national steering committee for Governor Romney and I supported
Governor Huckabee.
3. You may be interested to note that Mr. Oliver spent the entire Primary day, along
with two other OCREC officers – accosting Republicans who entered Nick
Egoroff’s polling place. Again, Mr. Oliver spent twelve hours at one precinct
urging all Republicans to vote against Mr. Egoroff and two of our Ax the Tax
candidates for precinct committeemen. Mr. Oliver placed over dozen hand
painted signs that said various messages like “No to Egoroff” most of which had
hand-painted skull and crossbones on them. It was a serious embarrassment to
Republicans to have the county chairman; the vice chairman and several others
 shouting at Republican voters to vote against Egoroff and our two other
candidates. Interestingly, Mr. Egoroff and my two candidates defeated Mr.
Oliver’s three candidates in a landslide – a further testament to Mr. Oliver’s
campaign prowess. You may also be interested to know that Mr. Oliver only won
his precinct by a handful of votes – coming in next to last in a very crowded field
that elected four (4) committeemen. Oliver barely won in his own precinct. In
my precinct, Mr. Oliver used robo-calls and negative mailers to try to defeat me –
he actually does this every four years. I also had the dubious honor of having our
GOP State Committeewoman stand in front of my precinct denouncing me and
asking every one of my neighbors to vote against me. I won again as I have every
election since 1980.
4. As for the party oath issue – this is a serious problem affecting the entire state.
Mr. Oliver sent out several misleading statements – never placed on the party
website and never promulgated – discussing the party oath issue. Everyone
knows the problems incurred and the hostility and hatred generated by this
ridiculous effort to rid the state of “Ron Paul” people. Mr. Long was not involved
in recruiting candidates for OCREC in the last election and provided no candidate
oaths or forms to my knowledge. In other words, Mr. Oliver is lying again.
5. The OCREC election. Mr. Oliver failed to receive a “majority vote” at the
December meeting. As the former OCREC parliamentarian, I informed Mr.
Oliver that the 122-121 with 2 voting “none of the above” had failed to produce a
majority vote for him. Mr. Oliver started screaming and I informed Delmar that a
majority vote had not been obtained. End of story. A vast majority of OCREC
members contend that Mr. Oliver did not receive a majority vote since the two
votes were not “abstentions” as Oliver contends – they were cast ballots – a
distinction clearly made in Roberts Rules. Just prior to the balloting, Mr. Oliver
disqualified 17 duly elected OCREC members from voting. All of the members
not seated were committed to Mr. Long. It is obvious to most everyone that
fairness is certainly not a hallmark of Mr. Oliver.
6. Mr. Long, representing many of the disqualified members filed suit against
OCREC and Mr. Oliver – arguing the same successful claims made in the Miami
suit that seated those members who were in exact same circumstances. That suit
was dismissed without prejudice with the Judge recommended that it be re-filed
and that has been done. There is no doubt that we will prevail in this lawsuit and
that those 17 will be allowed to cast those ballots to be added to the pre-existing
total – once that order comes down – all of this will be moot – unless of course,
Mr. Oliver can get Mr. Long thrown off the committee – now the reasons are
clearer.
7. Mr. Oliver claims that the 17 oaths were never received, even though Mr. Egoroff
delivered the oaths to OCREC headquarters and was REFUSED a receipt. Mr.
Egoroff requested a receipt for all oaths and was REFUSED. Apparently much
easier for Mr. Oliver to lie about the receipt of these documents.
8. The special call to meetings – there have two of them – were legally done –
mailed ten days out and the meetings conducted. Mr. Long had nothing to do
with either special meeting. Mr. Long didn’t circulate the petitions; didn’t create
 the notice; didn’t mail the notice; didn’t run the meetings – Mr. Long had
NOTHING to do with either meeting.
9. It’s is interesting to note that both specially called meetings had 110 and 130
people attending – many of whom signed in and left which is not unusual. Mr.
Oliver has failed since December to get a quorum at either of his meetings and
only had approximately 50 of his supporters at each meeting. Since his election
over thirty of “his” supporters have resigned the committee due to his antics.
10. The February special meeting was well attended and again Mr. Long had nothing
to do with the meeting – didn’t call it – didn’t distribute the petition – nada. At
the meeting Mr. Rob Richmond went around and rather obnoxiously videotaped
everyone and spoke loudly into his cell phone telling everyone who cared to listen
that he was representing “RPOF.” We have about 100 witnesses to that.
Richmond also told several dozen people that he was talking to “Delmar” the
entire time. Following the meeting Richmond angrily confronted Mr. Long – who
stood his ground but did not otherwise engage Mr. Richmond – while Mr.
Richmond used extremely derogatory racially disgusting language in describing
Mr. Long. After the maintenance man called the WP police, I gently tapped Mr.
Richmond on the shoulder to let him know that the police were on their way. At
that point Mr. Richmond scurried out the door and now has a “no-trespass”
warning filed against him by Winter Park Police.
11. Mr. Oliver claims that Mr. Long has “issued news releases claiming he was the
new OCREC chairman.” I’m not aware of, nor has anyone seen these alleged
“news releases.”
12. As for Mr. Long’s “closely identified himself and cooperated with Mr. Guetzloe
and Egoroff” – both Mr. Egoroff and myself have supported Mr. Long and
continue to do so. I would hazard a guess that nearly 65 – 70% of the existing
OCREC support Mr. Long, a fact that will bear out in the very near future. Mr.
Oliver has long detested my involvement in the party and in politics and he’s not
alone. After establishing my highly successful Ax the Tax movement in 1982
(www.AxTheTax.org) I have been a target by many vested special interests and
have been the subject of a great deal of prosecutorial selective prosecution and
have been wrongly accused many times. Mr. Oliver makes a big deal of the fact
that I was charged in a misdemeanor election law violation and found guilty of
that violation. What Mr. Oliver doesn’t tell you is that I was charged with 14
counts and sentenced to 60 days in jail. What Mr. Oliver also doesn’t tell you is
that the 5th District Court of Appeal threw out the entire sentence and 13 of the 14
counts. The law that I was convicted of was recently declared unconstitutional by
Federal District Court Judge Stephen Mickel who issued an injunction against the
State from enforcing any aspect of the law. Our motion to set aside the judgment
simply awaits a decision by the Florida Supreme Court – where my case is
currently – as to whom will hear the motion to set aside the judgment.
Additionally, both NewsMax and TownHall.com have strongly endorsed our
battle for the First Amendment in their editorial pages as have individuals like
Paul Jacob of the Sam Adams Alliance and the Center for Competitive Politics
that joined as co-counsel in our lawsuit.
I have been involved in politics for a great many years. I have been dragged through the
mud; attacked and vilified, always by vanquished opponents. I admit that I have made a
great many mistakes in my life and I have hopefully learned from them. One thing I have
learned is that to build this party back to where it was years ago, we need all the good
talent we can find. Using this weapon of “party cleansing” will not help us in Orange
County or in the state.

I strongly support the clash of ideas and philosophy – this “grievance” is neither. It is a
personal attack on Mr. Long – nothing more, nothing less.

Mr. Long has nothing but act in an ethical, gentlemanly and truly honest manner. Mr.
Long’s only real sin has been to challenge Mr. Oliver’s failed regime.

Don’t be misled by innuendo, misinformation and outright lies. Investigate all the facts
before leaping to the wrong conclusion. To remove Mr. Long, our only prominent
African-American Republican leader would be a huge mistake. Couple that with Mr.
Richmond’s clearly racist remarks and you have what could be huge public relations
nightmare for RPOF and Mr. Greer. Not to mention that you will gain the ire of the
overwhelming majority of the Orange County Republican Executive committee.

In conclusion, it is Mr. Oliver who has been “extraordinarily disruptive, disingenuous,

destructive, mean-spirited, obnoxious and injurious to the Republican Party at all levels”
It is Mr. Oliver who has been “willfully dishonest.”

Please consider this an official grievance against Mr. Oliver and Mr. Richmond. We
have no room for puffed-up; self-appointed, disruptive individuals like Mr. Oliver or
apparent racists like Mr. Richmond.

Doug Guetzloe
Chairman
Ax the Tax
www.AxTheTax.org
P. O. Box 531101
Orlando, FL 32853
Phone: (407) 312-1781
Fax: (407) 895-8331
doug@axthetax.org