San Diego's Political Wars: Cronyism, Bigotry & Corruption Mar East San Diego County School Board Race
A James Hartline Report Exclusive
October 30, 2006
- San Diego's Political Wars -
Cronyism, Bigotry and Corruption
Mar Grossmont School Board Race:
East San Diego County Old Boys Network Launches
Smear Campaign Against Prominent Christian Woman
To Hold Onto Power In GUHSD Educational System
Jim Kelly, GUHSD boardmember
and source of turmoil and cronyism
allegations in the Grossmont School District.
(http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061026/news_lz2e26letters.html)
Priscilla Schreiber:
Well Known Christian boardmember
of the GUHSD who has been the target
of bigotry and a smear campaign
by a corrupt Old Boys Network in
East San Diego County.
(JHRexclusive) Two emails being circulated by Bill Wells, a member of the El Cajon, California, Planning Commission, are generating outrage among Christians in San Diego County, due to the fact that one of them contains a vicious attack against one of California's most prominent Christian elected officials. Priscilla Schreiber, the senior boardmember of the Grossmont Union High School District, has a renowned and respected reputation for standing up for Christian values in the political arena. Several years ago, Schreiber made such a bold stand for Christianity in El Cajon, California, that radical elements of the homosexual agenda were driven from the school board that she is now a member of (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20020314-9999_1m14protest.html). Additionally, Mrs. Schreiber has for years, given financially to a multitude of organizations to help needy children, AIDS patients, pregnant women and Bible students.
Schreiber's valiant stand for moral values on behalf of the students under her jurisdiction has caused her to be the target of many serious threats made by the homosexual community. However, it is not members of the radical left that are now attacking Mrs. Schreiber. Instead, the new attacks against Schreiber are being launched by a group of East San Diego County men who are more interested in holding onto power and self-serving prestige, than upholding the Christian values that they publicly purport to believe in. Their main complaint against Schreiber: she would not "tow their line" and endorse their handpicked cronies for a school board race on the November ballot.
The tragic aspect to Bill Wells attacking Schreiber is that he attends Skyline Church, the same church as Schreiber! Bill Wells is also President of the Grossmont Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee, a group responsible for overseeing audits and public information related to Prop. H, a massive $274 million school bond measure passed by district voters in 2004. Wells may have committed legal and ethical violations for using his official titles when sending out the emails. As a member of the bond oversight committee, Wells is bound by law to remain politically neutral in his official capacity on that committee (http://www.guhsd.net/construction/cboc.php). Due to the fact that the bond oversight committee is responsible for overseeing funds distributed to several schools in the Grossmont District, it is extremely problematic that Wells is interjecting himself in his official capacity on the committee into any school board race in that district (http://www.guhsd.net/construction/ballottext.php).
The City of San Diego has had its share of political corruption in that last two years. The resignation of a mayor, three indicted council members for taking bribes, and a pension scandal that has seen several others charged with crimes, has the entire country focusing on America's Most Troubled City (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/probe/20050720-9999-1n20council.html). The corruption beginning to manifest in East San Diego County, in particular, the Grossmont School District elections, may eventually dwarf the San Diego city problems. Corrosive tenacles extending out of this school board election have now been attached to a prominent Christian ministry, the local Republican Party, and numerous other cash-hungry citizens who have financial interests in the outcome of the race.
Abusing Christ For Political Gain:
The Betrayal of the San Diego County Christian Coalition
When political cronyism finds a way to infiltrate local churches there will be tremendous turmoil and corruption within those various churches, not to mention the potential legal ramifications. An unholy alliance which has developed between the San Diego County Christian Coalition and a small group of San Diego County Republican leaders has created a catastrophic moral disaster for the hundreds of congregations that have had the Christian Coalition Family Values Voter Guides distributed inside of their churches. There is no doubt at all that the San Diego County Christian Coalition has departed from its ministerial mission and has now become an unclean arm of the local Republican Party.
What most Christian voters do not realize is that the San Diego County Christian Coalition has become so overrun with political bias, that the organization is now listed as an official San Diego County Republican Club (http://www.sandiegorepublicans.org/clubs/):
Republican ClubsOur Republican clubs are a great place to go to get involved with fellow Republican volunteers in your community.
Christian Coalition of San Diego
7675 University AvenueLa Mesa, CA 91941(619) 235-8683
Clearly, the San Diego Christian Coalition is nothing more than a co-opted organism of the local GOP. With tremendous ethical and legal implications, Don Smith, Director of the San Diego Christian Coalition, has turned his ministry into a manipulative tool that places GOP-friendly documents inside of churches with the intent of influencing churchgoers to vote for Republican-endorsed candidates. This disgraceful method leaves other Christian candidates out in the cold when it comes to the Family "Values" Voter Guide.
The James Hartline Report has uncovered an enourmous reservoir of evidence that demonstrates that the San Diego County Christian Coalition is using its voter guides to manipulate church attendees into supporting only those candidates that the local Republican Party has endorsed. In true corruptive fashion, Don Smith has placed his deceptive guides in hundreds of churches throughout San Diego County, giving an unfair advantage to Republican candidates, some who are not even friendly to the very churches being given the voter guides.
Take for example the current voter guide's information on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (www.familyvoterinfo.org/PDFs/6gVGWebAll.pdf). Legislation signed by Schwarzenegger in 2004 made it far more difficult for parents to find out if their minor daughters were getting abortions. The bill, SB1313, removed volunteers at abortion clinics from being mandatory reporters of girls who may have been raped or molested when these same girls come in for abortions. Yet, the Family Values Voter Guide (Page 1) states that Schwarzenegger is for parental notification on the minor/abortion issue. The Family Values Voter Guide also misleads voters on Schwarzenegger's position on marriage, making it appear that the governor is opposed to gay marriage, by stating that he believes marriage should only be between one man and one woman.. This could not be farther from the truth. Schwarzenegger has signed numerous bills which promote radical homosexuality to the detriment of traditional marriage. He has also appointed Carole A. Corrigan, a lesbian justice to the California Supreme Court, making it very likely that the liberal court will legalize same-sex marriage (http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/19521.html).
Smith's use of the voter guides to help the local Republican Party's endorsed candidates for the Grossmont High School District race is perhaps the most blatant example of his gross misues of the voter guide. In the current Family Values Voter Guide, it appears that Smith intended to influence the race for the Grossmont School Board to benefit the local GOP-endorsed candidates (www.familyvoterinfo.org/PDFs/6gVGWebAll.pdf) Page 4.
Smith's voter guide game is one of the most obscene violations of campaign ethics in recent memory. The local GOP has endorsed three candidates for this particular race, current GUHSD boardmember Jim Kelly and two newcomers, Robert Shield and Shari Groce. Smith conveniently left the other Republican candidate, Dick Hoy, completely off the voter guide (http://www.votehoy.com/). Without giving Hoy's name the same recognition access in the churches where the voter guides are being distributed, Smith has given an unethical and unfair advantage for the GOP-endorsed candidates.
Smith may attempt to say that Hoy's name was left off of the voter guide because he did not fill out the questionnaire. That answer will not hold up during inquiries by campaign ethics investigators. Particularly, in light of the fact that numerous candidates, both Democrat and Republican, did not respond to the voter guide questionnaire, but their names are still listed in the voter guide.
This is not the first time that Don Smith has pulled this reprehensible stunt. When radical pro-homosexual Republican Steve Francis was the local GOP-endorsed candidate for mayor of San Diego in 2005, Smith refused to put out a voter guide, even though the Prop. A - Mt. Soledad Cross initiative was on the ballot. Smith, who had endorsed Francis, apparently did not want Francis' radical views publicized in the churches. Earlier this year, when the local GOP had endorsed pro-abortion candidate Brian Bilbray in the 50th Congressional race, Smith completely left Bill Hauf off of his voter guide. Hauf, a favorite of conservatives, may have beaten Bilbray, but his name never made it into the churches like Bilbray's did, thanks to Smith's voter guide corruption.
What makes the absence of Dick Hoy on the voter guide in the GUHSD race all the more disturbing, is that Hoy is a born-again Christian and a Republican. Hoy's biography reveals that he has been a member of College Avenue Baptist Church for thirty years, as well as a Sunday School teacher for years in that same church (http://votehoy.com/bio.html). Hoy would have been a primary name to be included in any Christian Coalition voter guide. Yet, because he is not a Republican-endorsed candidate, his name was left off.
The absence of Hoy's name in a race that also includes Jim Kelly, the board president of the Grossmont High School District, takes cronyism to a new level. Kelly is also the San Diego County Republican Party's Recruitment Committee Chair: in other words, Kelly is responsible for recruiting new candidates for the county GOP (http://www.sandiegorepublicans.org/about/board/). The incestuous relationship between Don Smith, the Christian Coaltion, which is listed as a Republican Party Club, and Kelly, the Republican Party's candidate recruitment chief, is being well played out in this school board race.
The other GOP-endorsed candidate in the Grossmont race, Shari Groce, has also become the focus of a number of corruption allegations. Several GOP insiders have told the James Hartline Report that Groce has given false information as to who induced her to run for the school board. On three different occasions, they alledge, Groce named three separate individuals each time as the person who motivated her to get into the race. Another prominent Republican leader has claimed that Groce stated to them that she had donated $100 to Debbie Beyer's campaign for the 77th State Assembly Race. It turns out that that was also a fraudulent statement by Groce. Groce did give $100 to Beyer's opponent, Joel Anderson, who is also now listed on Groce's endorsement list (http://www.groce2006.com/).
During an important endorsement meeting with the local California Republican Assembly, whose state group gave over $30,000 to Joel Anderson's campaign, Shari Groce was brought in to be endorsed by the group (http://www.californiarepublicanassembly.com/news.htm?news_id=1&start=0&category_id=&parent_id=&arcyear=&arcmonth=).
California Republican Assembly Endorsements for 2006 General Election:
Grossmont Union High School District
Jim Kelly, Shari Groce and Robert Shield
Dick Hoy has told the James Hartline Report that he received the information that there was a CRA endorsement meeting for the race, less than 48 hours before the meeting, thus making it impossible for him to attend. The same people that arranged for the Groce endorsement with CRA also brought Groce to a large San Diego church meeting to discuss ballot initiatives without Dick Hoy or any of the other candidates for the race being present at the meeting. This illegal move was clearly intended to give Groce an unfair advantage. Those same individuals who engaged in this Groce-Church escapade are also on Groce's endorsement list (http://www.groce2006.com/).
East San Diego County's Old Boys Network:
Dirty Campaign Tricks Take Precedence Over Schools' Kids
Allgegations of cronyism and corruption in the East San Diego County GOP and the GUHSD school board race are swirling about like a tornado. The James Hartline Report has acquired documents which now turn allegations into facts. In a Sept. 7, 2006 letter published in the San Diego Union Tribune, Dick Hoy made it clear that he is committed to the Republican Party, but that he would not be submitting himself to the policies of party chairman Ron Nehring who has been the promoter of numerous anti-christian candidates for San Diego County races (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060907/news_lz2e7letters.html). Hoy describes himself as a faithful and committed member of his church (http://votehoy.com/views.html), thus there would obviously be a conflict between Hoy and the anti-christian bigotry of both Nehring and Party Candidate Recruitment Chair/candidate Jim Kelly.
Dick Hoy's independence from GOP leadership liberals quickly earned him the endorsement of several powerful pro-christian Republican leaders, such as Larry Urdahl, Priscilla Schreiber, and La Mesa City Councilmembers Dave Allen and Ernie Ewin (http://www.cityoflamesa.com/Government/CityCouncil.htm). However, it has only been Priscilla Schreiber, a fellow Grossmont School Board member, who has become the target of vicious and degenerate attacks by Kelly and other cronies within the East San Diego County GOP Old Boys Network. Several attendees from a recent GOP club meeting in East San Diego County contacted the James Hartline Report to complain of a speech made by Jim Kelly where he personally attacked only Schreiber. Another woman's club in the area had members report the same type of speech by Kelly when he spoke before them as well.
That is what makes the attacks that have been launched against Schreiber by Bill Wells, Jim Kelly and their fellow cronies especially despicable. It is clear that gender bigotry has been at the heart of the vicious attacks against Schreiber. Schreiber did endorse Ken Sobel, a Democrat for the GUHSD race (http://www.electkensobel.com/). But then so did Republicans Urdahl, Ewin and Allen, as well as other GOP elected school boardmembers Bob Duff and Penny Halgren. Yet, it has been Schreiber, who has been the focus of a filthy smear campaign by Kelly and his corrupt political partners. Numerous local Republican Party members and candidates have expressed to the James Hartline Report, instances of threats and coercion by Kelly in his efforts to control, not only the Grossmont School Board, but also candidates who are seeking GOP support for their campaigns. The word conveyed from many of these individuals is that if they do not comply with Kelly's demands, then they will be denied support from the local GOP.
East County GOP Leaders Need To Be Reminded:
Gender Bigotry Is Not Part Of The "Family Values" Platform
HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Grossmont school board President Jim Kelly,
a one-time Baptist minister, speaking for
Gary Cass' Reclaiming America Conference in 2005.
Now Cass & Kelly have launched a gender-bigoted
campaign against Priscilla Schreiber.
Rev. Gary Cass: after abandoning San Diego
for a ministry in Florida, the former
GUHSD board member is still attempting
to control East San Diego politics.
Cass is the source of a vicious and bigoted
letter attacking Priscilla Schreiber.
(c)photo: Union Tribune
As the President of the Grossmont Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee, Bill Wells is contracturally bound to remain non-partisan. Clearly, however his relationship with Jim Kelly, who he had previously shared a business headquarters with, is not remaining neutral in his bid to help Kelly. This is cronyism in hire gear. Not only has Wells been on a tear to support Kelly by using his title as President of the Bond Oversight Committee in his electioneering emails, but he may have violated law in doing so. That really is a secondary factor in this race though, It is a second mass email that Wells sent out that truly is a degrading spectacle of foul play.
In the second email that Wells sent out, he inserted a letter from Gary Cass, a former pastor of a local El Cajon congregation, who abandoned his church to take a job in Florida with Reclaim America. Cass' former local church is now shut down. In that letter, Cass performs a disgusting act of gender bigotry by claiming that Schreiber's endorsement of Sobel was the result of her having a "root of bitterness" towards Kelly. At no time does Cass attack any of the other male Republicans that endorsed Sobel, only the female Schreiber. The following is an excerpt from the Rev. Cass/Bill Wells degrading attack email against Schreiber:
-----Original Message-----From: Bill Wells [mailto:billwellssd@cox.net]Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 12:30 AMTo: billwellssd@cox.netSubject: An Important Message for Republicans
Please read the following message from Dr. Gary Cass regarding the important election in the Grossmont Union High School District....
Dear Friends:
Reluctantly, because of the confusing events of last week, I feel compelled to enter into the controversy which is Grossmont Union High School District politics. I know and care for all the parties involved, but here is what I believe all my conservative friends deserve need to know.
Why did Priscilla Schreiber endorse the liberal teacher union candidates and not the three conservatives, Jim Kelly, Shari Groce and Rob Shield? In my opinion, based on my insider information, the short answer is a root of bitterness.
Pricilla's new friends on the left are working hard to elect at least one liberal so Priscilla can have her way in Grossmont. Ken Sobel, a labor union lawyer, endorsed by Priscilla, the Democratic Party and Grossmont Education Association, is as liberal as Ted Crooks who was recently repudiated by the voters for his left wing radical agenda. Ken Sobel is effectively the new Ted Crooks.
Vote for those who truly represent your values: Vote for Jim Kelly, Shari Groce and Rob Shield. Turn out is absolutely critical this election cycle. Remind all your friends to value their vote, vote their values!
Sincerely,
Dr. Gary Cass
Former Grossmont Union High School Board Member
Well's email containing this repugnant attack by Rev. Cass against Mrs. Schreiber has been circulated to hundreds of Republican voters in San Diego County. Most of the recepients of this email who have contacted the James Hartline Report have said they are disgusted with Cass and Wells. The slogan by Cass, "vote their values" is especially repulsive. Cass never mentions all of the other Republicans that have endorsed Ken Sobel in the race. The fact that so many Republicans are endorsing a Democrat in the race should tell most voters something about the lack of confidence and respect these other Republican leaders have for Kelly and his croney crew out in East San Diego County.
One GOP activist best sums up the attacks against Mrs. Schreiber by the East San Diego Old Boys Network:
"Priscilla Schreiber is one of our own, and any bully or bullies
that picks on our Christian sister, will have every Christian brother
of hers in San Diego to contend with!"
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