Ringgold, GA — In spite of severe threats to intimidate and coerce, none of the brave Catoosa GOP leaders were forced to spend time in jail as a result of their refusal to obey an unlawful order from a local judge attempting to force them to qualify RINO candidates. For the third time this week, Judge Don W. Thompson‘s bias was on full display this morning as he refused to let the Catoosa County GOP present any oral arguments in legal defense of their decision not to qualify these candidates as Republicans in the Republican Primary for county commissioner. The first courtroom hearing was held at 9:00 am Tuesday morning, but the Catoosa GOP’s attorneys were not made aware of the first hearing until it had already happened. The judge at that time ordered the Catoosa GOP to allow the candidates to qualify as Republicans in the primary.
No one was preventing them from running as a Democrat, third-party, or Independent. They were simply denied the Republican label. The Democratic Party of Chattooga County rejected a candidate seeking to run as a Democrat commissioner back in 2014, thereby setting a precedent for this decision.
The Catoosa GOP had previously adopted a rule that invites candidates to be interviewed, and their voting records in office examined, along with their public statements, prior to the members of the Executive Committee holding a vote to qualify. The votes were cast by secret ballot. Those who were allowed to qualify were issued affidavits, in accordance with the rules of the local party. In the view of the majority of the members of the Catoosa GOP Executive Committee, four candidates, with a voting history from previously serving on the county commission, advanced several policies contrary to the principles and policies specified in the Republican Party platform. The four candidates are Vanita Hullander, Jeff Long, Steven Henry and Larry Black.
“When you do things such as pass two tax increases, pass restrictions on citizens’ raising chickens on their private property, publicly endorse a Democrat, and tell folks that they can only get their freedom back if they get a COVID vaccine,” said GRA President Nathaniel Darnell, “you shouldn’t be surprised when the local GOP leadership considers you a RINO and doesn’t want to re-qualify you to run as Republican with their stamp of approval.”
While these candidates complained that the Catoosa County GOP leadership was trying to help their favored candidates, that accusation was disproven when the Catoosa GOP qualified two or more candidates for the same race for various seats. The Catoosa GOP clearly stated, “The Catoosa County Republican Party proudly welcomes all county citizens who share our common conservative values and support our Republican principles.”
Judge Thompson held a second hearing at 1:00 pm Thursday, but again the judge refused to allow the Catoosa GOP’s attorneys to present oral arguments. Instead, the judge only allowed the attorneys for the complaining candidates to cross examine Catoosa GOP Chairman Joanna Hildreth on the witness stand. Three of their five attorneys took turns hammering her, demanding that she identify the names of the other members of her Executive Committee, and asking how she personally voted in the secret ballot. One attorney accused her of “celebrating” the denial of the candidates at her monthly county GOP meeting Monday evening, even though the matter never was mentioned at all there.
At the conclusion of that second hearing, Judge Thompson offered to let the attorneys for the Catoosa GOP call for other witnesses. When attorney Catherine Bernard said they had no other witnesses, the judge proceeded to give his ruling. Bernard attempted to interject, asking why they had not been given an opportunity to present closing oral arguments on the legal merits of their client’s position. The Judge said he was in the middle of his ruling, and would not be interrupted.
He doubled-down on his order to the Catoosa County GOP, specifying that each of the six members of the Catoosa GOP Executive Committee would be fined $1,000 per hour for each of the four rejected candidates, and face up to 20 days of jail time, until the candidates were allowed to quality as Republicans in the primary. Yes, these courageous GOP volunteers were staring jail time in the face, all for standing on the constitutional right of freedom of association, that says government may not force a private entity to associate with someone against their will. He also specified that two police deputies wearing body cams would accompany the candidates as they attempted again to qualify.
As he was concluding Thursday, the Judge remarked to the attorneys for the RINO candidates that he didn’t think the Catoosa GOP would comply, and so he asked if they had any other remedies that could be pursued. Attorney Bryan Tyson replied that there was no other way they could qualify apart from the Catoosa GOP complying because state code O.C.G.A. § 21-2-153(c)(2) specifies the local board of elections office can only qualify if a three-day notice requirement is met, but there was only one more day left to qualify.
After the second hearing adjourned, the four candidates did attempt once again to show up at the Catoosa GOP qualifying office and demand to be approved. They were accompanied by the police deputies. The volunteer notary on duty said she could not allow them to qualify without the affidavit required by the rules.
Since their effort to intimidate the GOP leaders failed, Tyson and the other opposing attorneys showed up Friday morning in court in Catoosa and contradicted their admission from the previous day that they had no recourse to go around the county party. The Judge ruled in favor of that approach, and told the opposing counsel to draft the order, and let him approve it for issue. The written order admits that they are violating the notice requirements in the state code, but alleges that they have no choice but to break the law.
Many wondered if any of the Catoosa GOP leadership would be arrested at the third hearing. No arrests were ordered, but a new hearing has been scheduled for March 27th.
Before the written order had been drafted, approved by the judge, and issued for the Catoosa GOP to be able to respond with any contrary motions, the local elections superintendent had already acted to qualify the the complaining candidates. It is yet to be seen whether a majority of the Catoosa Board of Elections will vote to approve the qualifying as Republicans in the primary or deem it to be against the law. If they do approve, then there will be other legal remedies available. The Catoosa GOP pledged to continue to work with their legal counsel to appeal Judge’s Thompson’s order and take the case before a different court.
Support the Catoosa County Republican Party in this law-fare case by donating to their GiveSendGo here: https://www.givesendgo.com/supportjoannahildreth/.
Comments: 7
Hold the line Catoosa GOP.
We are praying gor you
We will!
Man, those poor chickens! 🤣 At this point, I think you might just need to try and qualify the chickens as official Republican voters as well, because the RINOS are clearly winning this one. Brother Trump must be pretty disappointed. I think he was really holding out for you guys 🤣🤣🤣🤣 You’re not going to start an insurrection though, are you?? 🤣🤣🤣
This article is bullshit!!
That was THE MOST unethical Judgement I have ever seen. GOP’s attorney asked a question of the Judge. Judge turned to the opposing lawyers and asked “what do you want ?” The judge then answered accordingly.
Lawfare! Pure and simple. The appeal will overturn this unjust ruling! A private political party determines through their governing committee which candidates meet qualifying standards to represent the GOP on the election ballot, only those who identify closely with Republican principles and precepts as outline in the GOP Platform!
The Elections Superintendent was given a letter of intent that this county’s Republican party would qualify their Republican candidates. That’s an issue. The plaintiff’s lawyers first told the judge that the Catoosa County Republican Party had not filed their qualifying rules with the courthouse in which the party had, and that was the plaintiff’s lawyers’ failure to make sure, and that’s another serious issue. The extremely disturbing issue is this judge circumvents state election laws and decides to make his own. This is highly illegal and he should be reprimanded for knowingly “breaking the law”. He is to UPHOLD the law in his decisions; no matter the politics- it is the law. Judges don’t make laws they must uphold them. How disappointing this is. The judge refused the defendants’s due process. I think this should be appealed to the highest court of the land. This article isn’t bullshit, this ordeal is (lawfare). This should be appealed to the Supreme Court if the appellate court doesn’t go by the law and already legal standing cases that prove “political” parties have their First Amendment rights to freedom of association and party business then appeal it to the highest court.