Posted on 06/18/2003 6:23:23 PM PDT by Scoop
By David Bradley Staff Writer
A certificate which Loudoun County Chairman Scott K. York (I-At Large) has said is evidence that a U.S. Senator considers York “a Republican leader” is part of a form letter sent to thousands of potential contributors to a national Republican organization, according to the organization’s chairman.
During the June 16 Board of Supervisors meeting, York read from a letter he said was signed by U.S. Senator George Allen (R-Va.). Allen, York said, had written that York is “a Republican leader” who “represents the highest Republican ideals and principles.” The letter, York said, “should put to rest” any question of his Republican pedigree.
The “Certificate of Membership” York read is part of a fundraising package sent to current and former Republican office holders and other likely contributors to the Republican Presidential Task Force, a branch of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to Jay Timmons, Executive Director of the RPTF. The signatures of Timmons and Allen, the Chairman of the NRSC, are both on the certificate.
The two organizations raise money to help finance the campaigns of Republican candidates in races nationwide. Those receiving the Certificate and an accompanying six page letter are asked to contribute $120 to the Task Force. Contributors are named Platinum Members and receive benefits including a membership card, a ceremonial flag, and the inscription of their names on a granite tablet at the Task Force’s national headquarters in Washington DC, according to the letter. If recipients of the mailing choose not to contribute within 30 days, the Task Force “will be forced to fill your position with someone else,” according to the bulk mail envelope.
According to Timmons the organization has a mailing list of “probably a couple hundred thousand people across the country.” Local Republicans who received copies of the same letter include former Loudoun County Chairman Dale Polen Myers.
York, who left the Republican party three months ago to run for reelection as an Independent, Monday cited the letter as evidence of his own Republican credentials. Since leaving the GOP, York has criticized Bob Gordon, who was nominated as the Republican candidate for Chairman at a party convention last month, claiming that Gordon has supported Democrats in the past.
York announced his resignation from the Republican party March 4. At the time he said a decision by the Loudoun County Republican Committee to choose GOP candidates at a convention, rather than the open primary York had asked for, was the driving force behind his resignation.
Some LCRC members say York campaign materials, and a photograph of York with Allen, posted on the York campaign web site, are misleading voters by implying that the former Republican is still a member of the GOP.
The picture with Allen was taken on the lawn of the White House during the welcoming ceremony of a foreign dignitary May 19. York was invited to the ceremony because he is chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. York has said he and Allen discussed “problems effecting Loudoun County” at the event.
“Scott York has been a friend in the past and we enjoyed working with him,”said Timmons, who works in Allen’s Senate Office. “But as a Republican leader, Senator Allen endorses Republican candidates. Senator Allen is supporting the Republican candidate, Bob Gordon.”
Campaign bumper stickers, like the one displayed in the back window of York’s new car, use the word “Republican” because they were printed before he made his decision to leave the party, York said. York campaigned for the Board of Supervisors in 1995 and 1999 as a Republican.
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