FL GOPers Revolt Against Greer
By Reid Wilson
FL GOP chair Jim Greer has come under extreme pressure to resign from top party leaders in his state in a public battle over the contested Senate primary.
Greer, who has served as party chair for 3 years, is a close ally of Gov. Charlie Crist (R), whom he has endorsed for Senate. But state GOP leaders who back ex-state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R), running to Crist's right in the GOP primary, have assaulted Greer's overt support for Crist and dredged up old complaints over his chairmanship in urging him to step aside.
The push has been led by Allen Cox, the party's vice chairman and former head of the budget committee, along with other leading Rubio backers. Cox and others have assailed Greer for what they call an undisciplined fiscal house, along with his efforts to promote Crist over Rubio.
Earlier in his tenure, Greer had to reimburse the FL GOP for expenses he charged the state party, including a $5,100 bill he ran up at the Breakers Hotel. Greer, Cox has said, also missed fundraising targets by some $4M this year, putting the party in dire financial straits. Making matters worse, a former employee has accused Greer of mistreatment; she was yelled at, she says, when she didn't clean his condo or bringing the wrong type of coffee.
The effort to oust Greer will come to a head this weekend, when the FL GOP holds their quarterly meeting in Orlando. Several FL insiders, both those who support Greer and those who want him gone, say they are unsure whether a vote to recall Greer is actually possible. The chief counsel for the FL GOP has said there is no mechanism for removing the chair, while Cox and other Greer foes are citing parliamentary procedure in the case for a removal vote.
Over the last week, the drumbeat has grown to a deafening pitch. A dozen top donors to the state GOP penned a letter asking Greer to step aside, and today a group of former legislative leaders repeated the call.
Citing a "crisis of confidence," a "widespread uneasiness, lack of trust [and] lack of motivation," the fundraisers called for "an immediate change of chairmanship" of the FL GOP.
"The best interests of the Party would be for Mr. Greer to resign now. Failing this, he should be removed as quickly as possible," the fundraisers wrote.
FL insiders say the fundraisers' public call for Greer's head could be the death knell. In their letter, the former legislative leaders said the fundraisers' decision to close their wallets until new leadership emerged "essentially emasculates" Greer's "ability to lead the party in any direction but further downward."
Greer is not going quietly into that good night. He has accused his opponents of "treason" and cited a confidence vote in which he won backing from 25 of 27 county party chairs.
"What has transpired in the last week has been nothing short of slander and libel by a group of people bent on the destruction of the Republican Party. A coordinated campaign of misinformation, complete with late night phone calls and e-mails filled with rumors and innuendo, all in attempt to create the appearance of chaos at a time when the party is laser-focused on defeating Democrats," Greer wrote in an open letter last month.
Greer's fate is not solely his: He passed on a bid for RNC chair and stayed on for a second term as FL GOP chair at the explicit request of Crist, and his ouster would be seen as yet another example of Crist's problems in a primary he was supposed to have no trouble with. Indeed, the effort to remove Greer in the first place is a sign that many establishment GOPers are willing to openly clash with a governor they once lauded as their hero.
"The governor has told me I'm not to consider resigning," Greer told a local reporter last month. Crist has not turned on his best ally yet, though his silence -- he has not made a statement on the controversy -- grows more pronounced as this weekend's meeting draws nearer.
A Crist spokesperson did not return several emails and a phone call seeking comment.