Missives From The Davidson County GOP Listserve On The Matt Collins Affair

By Kleinheider Posted on October 29, 2009 at 6:46 pm

On Tuesday night, the Davidson County GOP moved against one of its more controversial party officials. Wednesday, the story broke. On Thursday, Republican bloggers reacted to the story — but not on their blogs.

Rod Williams today in an email on the party’s listserve:

It wasn’t I who leaked it to the press, but I was afraid this would happen. You can’t keep something like this a secret. Not many people read the Nashville Post, but I expect to see it in the Tennessean soon. It may make the 6 PM news. Did you see the 50+ comments on the Nashville Post website? This is very bad PR. What I wish is that Matt would be contrite and agree to be more circumspect and cooperative in the future and we could say a misunderstanding and an internal dispute was resolved in an amicable manner. We are a very small minority fighting among ourselves. This is not going to grow the party. Maybe, it had to come to this; I don’t know, but I hate it. Is there any room to negotiate? Is there anyway to delay action and see if this can be resolved in a less drastic manner?

Kay Brooks in an email on the party’s listserve responding to Williams:

Precisely, Rod. This news was going to get out PDQ. It’s too juicy a political tidbit to get ignored. I think Lynda acted wisely in having a prepared statement ready so there were facts available and couldn’t be painted has having to scramble to respond to press inquiries. Please notice that AC Kleinheider at the Nashville Post says: “A spokeswoman for DCRP chairwoman Kathleen Starnes would not elaborate on the statement.” So obviously, Lynda didn’t provide Kleinheider with any additional fuel. Kudos to her for her professionalism.

There are now over 100 comments at the Nashville Post and many are very supportive of the DCRP. I suggest we just maintain radio silence for now and let the process go forward. Under the oversight of the State Party evidence against Matt will be presented and Matt will have a chance to make his case in his defense. Personally, I’m not afraid of the scrutiny. Yes, it’s messy and embarrassing but I think we can recover and move on and be stronger. It’s not like the Dems have never had their issues. The Republican’s I’ve spoken to since the event has become public have not been unhappy at the motion.

Re: Negotiating: Rod, I have made several suggestions to Matt but it’s my understanding that he will not compromise. Without his willingness to move I don’t see how we can work this out.

And just for exactness the statement was originally uploaded to the website about 5:20 am Wednesday morning during my routine on-line time. There is no RSS feed to alert folks that the website had been changed. Nothing was posted to Facebook or Twitter which do feed automatically. It wasn’t uploaded to the clearly marked ‘press release’ section but placed blandly, without headline. And I didn’t give Kleinheider the heads up either.

UPDATE: Rod Williams reacts:

Let this be a lesson. Don’t post anything on a listserv that you do not want to see published in the newspaper. Actually there is nothing to be embarrassed about in these exchanges. Actually, I am surprised that the Post found these email exchanges newsworthy.

I do, however, feel that a trust was violated and that someone forwarded what we thought were private conversations to the press.

permalink | 1 Comment

Tags: Davidson County GOP, Kay Brooks, Matt Collins, Rod Williams