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More Parsky Watch Parsky Watch - The Magazine Take the Parsky Watch IQ Test Visit the Parsky Watch Store	Back to Parsky Watch archives Parsky seizes monies for CRP Parsky Watch #13 June 14, 2002 THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE Several Republican volunteer leaders recently signed and sent out an e-mail appealing to Simon volunteers and California Republican Party members to “set aside their efforts on the election of California Republican Party officers in February of 2003 until after the November election.” This is a laudatory and sensible suggestion. Contests for state party offices involve the expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars and massive amounts of volunteers’ time and energy – all of which are more productively directed at electing Bill Simon and the rest of the GOP ticket. This isn’t the first call for a temporary moratorium on campaigning for the state party chairmanship. Other prominent California GOP leaders have asked the two candidates – CRP Vice Chairman Bill Back and CRP Secretary Shannon Reeves – to suspend their campaigns until after November. For our part, the Parsky Watch hereby moves these two gentlemen heed this call and place their campaigns in suspended animation until after the election – and we anxiously await a hearty “second” from CRP Shadow Chairman Gerry Parsky. That figures to be a long wait – despite Mr. Parsky’s busy promotion of himself, of late, as head cheerleader for party unity, touting his “successful” meeting last week with the RNC (“successful” in the sense that RNC expenditures for Simon will be controlled by Parsky, not the Simon campaign). So why is has Gerry Parsky become The Man Who Wasn’t There when it comes to postponing a bruising internal party battle that will only distract time, money and attention from more pressing matters? Because Gerry Parsky’s top priority is control, not victory. A little background: once Parsky established himself as the state party Viceroy, Bill Back saw which way the wind was blowing (or more precisely, which way the dollars were flowing) and made himself a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parsky, Inc. A Bill Back chairmanship will solidify Parsky’s shadow chairmanship. So you see, actually doing something concrete for party unity like calling on both Back and Reeves to give it a rest for a few months would be a set-back to Parsky’s ongoing work of tightening his grip on the state party. Back would no doubt heed his master’s voice, but Reeves is not a Parsky satellite and may decline (although we hope Reeves would do the upstanding thing and likewise call a halt to his campaigning). Do you see a pattern emerging here? Parsky muscles through “reforms” transferring all real control of the state party to an Operations Committee he dominates. The funds needed to implement the state party political plan will come from sources controlled by Parsky. The flow of GOP VIPs from D.C. is controlled by Parsky. And now Parsky stands silently on the sidelines and refuses to ask his candidate for the party chairmanship to suspend operations until after the election – because his goal is what is best for Parsky, not the Party. Parsky’s every exertion, every movement, tactic and stratagem is oriented toward establishing and expanding his control of the California Republican Party. His attitude seems to be, if those efforts help the party, great – if they hinder, then so be it. It’s an unfortunate and perplexing attitude from a powerful man who’s avowed goal is “helping to refocus CRP efforts into putting the volunteers back in politics.”