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GOP Men's Club censures party chair

Mark Delk makes a point during a Republican Men's Club meeting Saturday.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 11, 2024

Henderson County Republicans ousted from the party’s executive committee and their allies voted unanimously to censure party Chair Brett Callaway on Saturday morning during a Republican Men’s Club meeting in which members also called for Callaway to resign and aired numerous other grievances.

The meeting at American Legion Post 77 was the first opportunity precinct chairs had to complain publicly about the actions of Callaway and two top deputies, supported by the party’s 11^th Congressional District chair, Michele Woodhouse, to wrest control of the party from the longtime grassroots workers.

Based on Woodhouse’s interpretation of the state party’s review of the county party’s actions, the precinct chairs were ousted for having been improperly elected and a new plan of organization was adopted by Callaway and the few remaining committee members.

“Let me just say something about the precinct chairs,” Club President Bruce Hatfield said. “They’re the closest to the voters that anybody could be. When you eliminate those precinct chairs, the word doesn’t get out. And we need to have those precinct chairs out there working to get the vote out.”

Hatfield opened the meeting with a lengthy review of the past two months of turmoil, starting with a determination by state party officials that Henderson County’s plan of organization was invalid because of “inconsistencies,” followed by the March 23 county convention that erupted into shouting and a crossfire of accusations then a special called meeting of the party executive meeting on April 15 when Hooper’s Creek precinct chair Kathy Maney was ejected and around half the room walked out with her.

(Although earlier reporting of the party turmoil said no one was allowed to speak at the 11th Congressional District convention in Waynesville on April 27, Republicans said Saturday attendees were permitted to speak at that meeting.)

‘If that’s not corruption, I don’t know what is’

Maney’s complaint that Callaway roughly grabbed her arm and tried to take away her cell phone during the county convention resulted in an assault on a female charge against him. The fact that an assistant district attorney on Wednesday insisted that Maney and Callaway attempt to resolve the dispute through mediation drew new howls of protest from her allies at the Men’s Club meeting Saturday.

“We have the travesty against Kathy, which is really a travesty against us all, for intimidation, persecution,” Susane Brown said. “So we have that and the threat that it’s gonna just be dismissed because all the judges in the courthouse except for one are Republicans, because they’re afraid to get involved because they know Republicans vote for them and keep them in office, which they like, and they don’t want to get into the controversy of dismantling the chair.”

“She was required to go to mediation,” added Wayne Garren, who says he witnessed Callaway’s actions. “Our assistant DA was not gonna prosecute. Now if that’s not corruption, I don’t know what is.”

Another Maney ally, Buncombe County Republican Bill Robinson, implored Republicans to stop attacking the former Hooper’s Creek precinct chair.

“The people who are saying, ‘Please, let’s not tear apart the party’ and are talking about let’s stop being hateful and angry, they can start with my friend Kathy Maney. Because the anger and the hate that I’ve seen directed at her by people who either disagree with her or just don’t like her should stop immediately.

“What they’re doing to her — insisting that she go to mediation or they’ll dismiss the case — I’ve never heard that option being enforced against any victim,” he added. “They should be going after Brett Callaway because they’ve got video and 30 witnesses. Any prosecutor worth their salt would relish that opportunity. The whole thing is very perverse.”

Callaway, who did not attend the meeting, did not respond to the Lightning’s phone calls seeking comment.

One executive committee member, Cher Silvius, rose to defend Callaway.

“I go to as many of the monthly meetings as possible,” she said. “I go to the (city) Diversity Equity Inclusion meetings, I go to the City Council meetings, I go to the Board of Education meetings, I go to the county commissioner meetings, and you know who I don’t see there? A lot of you. I am working my tail off. What are you all doing but tearing our party apart.”

A party activist for several years, Silvius called for peace.

“We need to come together as a party,” she said. “I came in when Merry Guy was the chair. She had her way of running things. And Brett has his way of running things. I did what Brett asked us to do. I built my precinct. How many precincts that are here have done that?”

Woodhouse also defended Callaway and the state party's oversight.

"They have the right to censure him if they choose to," she said. "Our focus is 100 percent on getting Republicans elected. We were No. 1 in the state (in voter turnout) in this primary. Henderson County Republicans are getting to the polls and voting. This is sadly and unfortunately a distraction from our work and that is electing Republicans."

Callaway takeover ‘totally illegitimate’

Candler Willis, a former county commissioner and Green River precinct leader for more than five decades, said he is involved in a challenge to the actions by Callaway and Woodhouse. The new plan of organization those two pushed through, not the old one favored by the ousted executive committee members, is invalid.

“And I’ve been advised on good legal authority that our case is sound that the leadership through the chairman acted improperly, acted in violation of our plan of organization and has been thoroughly uncooperative,” he said. “We have operated our plan of organization naming the precinct chairs as members of the executive committee at least as far back as 1971 when I was first elected chair of Green River, and in the more than 50 years since then that has always been our plan of organization. And we’ve submitted that plan to Raleigh to be looked at, and we’ve never heard any objection to it until the 13^th day of March of this year.”

In his account of his own action at the March 23 county convention, Willis said he made a motion to correct the “inconsistencies” in the plan of organization.

“The motion passed, I think unanimously, certainly overwhelmingly, and so the sense of the party was well expressed,” he said. “And based on this and based on the fact that there has not been any statement of retroactive repeal of the former actions, we feel our executive committee, chosen in the 2023 convention, still stands as our executive committee, and this effort to change it in the 15th of April meeting was contrary to the plan of organization and totally illegitimate.”

Woodhouse disputed Willis's assertion.

"That did not correct all the inconsistencies," she said. "It went to the state and they said it did not correct all the inconsistencies. ... Nothing in this process was personal. This was about following the direction of the state party. If people don't like that that's unfortunate."