Current National Chairman, Eric Hoplin, sent the following letter out to many of the CR state chairman as an “open” letter to Michael Davidson. Beyond being a disgusting personal smear, and using CRNC resources to blatantly campaign for Gourley, it continues the CRNC’s tactic of using fear to keep chapters in line and to silence legitimate dissent. I urge all College Republicans to unite in opposing this absolute non-sense.

Here is a wonderful exceprt:

I apologize for the tone of this letter. Perhaps it would be more fair if
it were also directed at all those who have been unfairly critical of my
team in the past. I suspect you will better understand this letter one
day, when you and an organization you love is unfairly attacked, after you
have worked tirelessly and selflessly to fix a difficult problem, leaving
the organization much stronger than you found it.

Full text of letter available by clicking “more…”

Dear Mr. Davidson,

I was disappointed by the content and tone of your statement entitled
“looking forward” following the CRNC’s termination of the RDI contract.
At first I decided to ignore your statement, judging it and the questions
raised to be a harmless campaign tactic. Upon further reflection however,
and after considering your participation in the handling of RDI since
2003, I have concluded that your statement is misleading and worthy of a
response.

In your statement, you suggested that the termination was the “vital first
step” and that “it’s about time we have an open and honest discussion
about the CRNC’s relationship with RDI.” The fact is Michael, the
termination was one of the final steps in an arduous process that began
more than a year ago.

As executive director of the CRNC, I implemented many reforms that
improved the operations of RDI, including, but not limited to the
important refunds for unsatisfied donors. Upon election as chairman, I
decided those reforms did not go far enough and we needed to terminate RDI
once and for all. Thus Michael, I began the conversation with an open and
honest discussion of the RDI situation at the National Board Meeting in
Las Vegas in November 2003. You were there. Long before any media
stories appeared, I laid out the problems with RDI to the Board and
suggested the CRNC voluntarily give up more than a million dollars per
election cycle because it was the right thing to do. I informed the Board
of the many steps and length of time it would take to solve the problem.
Michael, you voted along with every other state chair in support of my
plan. To call our action together in Las Vegas the “first step” would
even be a stretch, but it was certainly a definitive moment where the
termination of RDI started in earnest.

I continued the open and honest discussion by updating state chairs on our
enormous progress at the state chairman training seminar in Arlington in
June of 2004. I did so also because many new chairmen had been elected
since the Las Vegas meeting and I wanted to make sure they knew all about
the situation. I recall taking questions on the topic for some time.
Sadly, you were not at the state chairman training seminar to participate
in the ongoing conversation. Our state chairman training was a vital next
step in the process of terminating the contract with RDI. You were not
only absent, you were silent on the issue.

The conversation continued yet again at the National Board Meeting in New
Orleans in November 2004. Having blown through several of the necessary
steps faster than anticipated, we estimated that the CRNC would finally be
able to terminate the RDI contract in April or May. It was at this
meeting that the CRNC Executive Committee took unanimous action
authorizing me to enter into legal negotiations to terminate the RDI
contract. After again discussing the issues we faced with regard to RDI,
the National Board unanimously endorsed the Executive Committee’s
resolution. Again, for this important next step, you were absent, and you
remained silent.

Further in your statement you said “the fallout from our contractual ties
with RDI is anything but over,” thus implying the next chairman would have
to continue dealing with RDI. If you recall, when you first informed me
that you were considering running for national chairman, I spent a long
time bringing you up to speed on the financial health and future of the
CRNC. I thought it fair for you to know how things stood so you could
better plan to lead and offer a realistic platform that the Committee
could afford. I shared with you confidential details about the final
stages of the RDI negotiations, including the plan for refunds.

When you officially decided to run and called me some time later, I
updated you on the progress we had made. At that time we discussed how
fortunate it was that this issue came to a head following Election Day and
that it would be finished before the next national chairman took over. I
informed you that press outlets were telling me one of the main reasons
they were running stories was because of the feuding and leaks within the
organization. We talked about how these press stories were not just
affecting the National Committee, but were harming chapters nationwide.

You then promised me that you would never make RDI an issue in the
campaign, so as not to hurt the Committee and would instead focus on the
future direction of the CRNC. I was very impressed by your commitment,
and took you at your word.

The portion of your statement that puzzles me most is the following: “The
sooner these questions are answered, the sooner we can confront and solve
these problems and get back to our true mission.” Michael, you know from
our conversations that all aspects of RDI will be gone before the next
chairman is elected. Further you know the answer to each of the questions
you raised. Further still you know the problem has been solved and that
the Committee is already moving on. Thus I find it peculiar that just
when we are finally able to put the RDI issue behind us, you seem so
desperate to bring it back to life.

The silence you maintained on this issue, until you entered this race, is
deafening. Your noticeable absence throughout the process speaks volumes
in light of your recent letter. The only conclusion I can come to (and I
hear from people that this is the case) is that you have decided to make
RDI a (if not the) central component of your campaign, despite giving me
your word that you would not. If you decided to break your promise and
raise this issue for some alternate reason than as a politicization of the
RDI issue in hopes that it will help you win this race, I feel the Board
is entitled to hear it.

The termination of RDI should be celebrated, not politicized. If I had
started this process after the initial Seattle Times story, I could
understand some criticism. However, because I have been open and honest
at every turn, long before the press coverage, and have been unanimously
supported by the Board from day one and because I have worked tirelessly
with the Executive Committee and staff to bring an end to this complicated
problem, it is insulting for you to fail to show up for two thirds of the
national meetings where the issue was discussed and decided, then for
political expedience to attack the very leaders who actually showed up and
dealt with this problem that you seem so determined to demagogue.

To be honest Michael, I would have expected such statements from this
misinformed, dishonest, racist, silly little “truth blog” I’ve been told
about, but not from a candidate seeking to lead this organization that I
love.

As to the questions included in your statement, while I have not been able
to discuss them with all 200,000 CRs around the nation, I have been open
and honest about them when asked, including in the private conversations
between the two of us. Sadly, I cannot proudly tout the leadership of
this administration in dealing with this problem to the extent that I
would like, nor discuss all of the details of our negotiation with RDI via
email. This is because there are certain state chairs who are so
desperate to stroke their egos by reading their names in the paper, that
they are willing to purposely hurt the Committee by passing along
confidential information to the press.

You can rest assured, as we’ve previously discussed, that RDI and any
fallout from the problem will be gone forever, before I hand the gavel to
the next chairman.

I apologize for the tone of this letter. Perhaps it would be more fair if
it were also directed at all those who have been unfairly critical of my
team in the past. I suspect you will better understand this letter one
day, when you and an organization you love is unfairly attacked, after you
have worked tirelessly and selflessly to fix a difficult problem, leaving
the organization much stronger than you found it.

In the meantime, please feel free to inform the Board if you did not
intend to use RDI as an issue in your campaign. Then, refocus your
message to discuss how we can elect the Republican leaders of today, and
recruit, train, mobilize, and empower the leaders of tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Eric Hoplin
Chairman
College Republican National Committee