For the Record: Last Weekend’s Full Exchange Between Chris Barreto and Me

To SCC members: Pati Horton publicly asked about last weekend’s SCC list-serve exchange between Chris Barreto and me. She didn’t receive it. My guess is that some other members are asking about it too, not having received the original letters Becky and I posted (because of ongoing problems with the SCC database accuracy). So, for those curious folks, here is the summary all in one place. The two posts added together here are long but, I think, quite revealing. I have not redacted a single word. Read from the top down. It’s in three parts, headings noted in bold type. This is worth a careful read….

  1. Chris’s message to the SCC (Sunday morning March 15th)
  2. My Response (Sunday evening, March 15th)
  3. Included as an appendix to the end of my Response, #2 above, my original private letter to Chris (Friday March 13th

1. In her SCC message Sunday morning the 15th, Chris said: 

“Friday I received an email from Sam Carpenter regarding the upcoming NCW and NCM elections. Sam asked that I not share his actual email, and while I did not agree to keep it confidential, I will respect his request at this point in time. But I find his points too disturbing not to share.”

“In his email, Mr. Carpenter feigns support for my campaign, even claiming to have asked Marylin Shannon to step aside, and asks for my help in unseating Solomon Yue as our NCM.

“The email makes it clear that Sam is using John Lee in an attempt to dismantle ORP leadership, and John Lee’s communications with the SCC, using Carpenter’s own talking points, makes it equally clear that John is a willing participant in Sam’s scheme to divide the Oregon Republican party. This greatly disappoints me as I have always considered John a friend.

“Interestingly, Mr. Carpenter went on to say that if he is not elected, he has no interest in joining with the ORP to work toward electing Republicans in Oregon, even declaring that immediately following the election he will be returning home to Kentucky, regardless of the outcome of the election. Clearly, Sam has no interest in forwarding the mission of the ORP, but only seeks to tear down its leadership, hamstring its candidates, and sow division among its voters.

“Let me be clear, Solomon Yue has my full support as Oregon’s National Committeeman.  Without him these fundraising events would not have been possible.” -Chris Barreto

2. Here was my SCC response to Chris’s accusations, Sunday evening the 15th:

“To SCC members: Chris Barreto has horribly distorted the personal letter I sent her, the one she critiqued publicly in her SCC message-blast this afternoon. Her interpretation centred around, quite simply, lies and distortions. The treachery begins in her first lines where she says “I will respect Sam’s privacy,” but then she goes on to publicly twist everything I said. I trusted her to be professional. My mistake.”

“(But before you go on with this letter, and by all means you should do that, read the following carefully: Chris’s diatribe against me here is an October Surprise-type political distraction. It comes in the face of the upcoming National Committeeman and National Committeewoman elections that are now just days away. For sure, take the time here to examine her accusations and my defense (below), but don’t let this bickering distract you from what really matters: the HUGE AND VERY REAL problem right now is that the Executive Committee, headed up by Solomon Yue, is attempting to ram through the NCM and NCW elections this coming Saturday with the outcome nearly guaranteed in Solomon Yue’s favor. This is because of how the election is being conducted. This election MUST be postponed, as I described in a previous message to you earlier this evening).

“OK.  Let’s get back to Chris Barreto’s accusations against me:

“Of course Chris didn’t publish my “let’s try to build a bridge” letter! It would have made her interpretations look paranoid and silly. So, I’m publishing that letter right here, at the bottom of this email. (Chris’s “whistleblowing” is right out of the Democrat personal-attack playbook, horribly distorting a hidden, private document that was not at all diabolical, eg, think the Trump Ukraine phone call manuscript which Trump surprisingly published, thus completely disarming his attackers. So, very Trumpish of me, I’ll do the same here. The unredacted letter is below). Our SCC members can review it for themselves as a whole, and for detail, and can draw their own conclusions about me and about my intentions. (Note to Chris: You should have simply talked to me, as I suggested. I had made several attempts to talk to you, contacting you by email, inviting you and Greg to our home as guests, but you did not respond.)

“I’n my defense, here are “open-letter” responses to some of Chris’s accusations:

“Chris said: received an email from Sam Carpenter regarding the upcoming NCW and NCM elections. Sam asked that I not share his actual email, and while I did not agree to keep it confidential, I will respect his request at this point in time. But I find his points too disturbing not to share.
————–Chris: the points were only ‘disturbing’ to you because you twisted them terribly, turning what was clearly a letter of reconciliation/unification into a vicious personal attack on me. (again, SCC members, the letter is reprinted in its entirety, below. See what you think.).

“Chris said: In his email, Mr. Carpenter feigns support for my campaign, even claiming to have asked Marylin Shannon to step aside, and asks for my help in unseating Solomon Yue as our NCM.
————- I did not ‘feign’ support to you as Committeewoman. I thought you had done a good job and I said it. I meant it. In an effort to unify the party I even asked you if Greg would be interested in being ORP Chair should that position become available. (I was just curious. No, obviously I am not in any kind of a position to make that happen, as a future National Committeeman, or from the outside.)  Marylin and I go back and forth frequently. Yes, as one of many options and topics on the table, at one point I offhandedly asked Marylin her thoughts about stepping down. She specifically told me she would NOT step down. Chris, you owe Marylin an apology. You were just being mean. She deserves better.

“Chris said: The email makes it clear that Sam is using John Lee in an attempt to dismantle ORP leadership, and John Lee’s communications with the SCC, using Carpenter’s own talking points, makes it equally clear that John is a willing participant in Sam’s scheme to divide the Oregon Republican party. This greatly disappoints me as I have always considered John a friend.
———–No one ‘uses’ John Lee! John is his own man and will make a superb National Committeeman if the election goes his way. John is a “willing participant?” Good grief. As I said, no one tells John what to do or can manipulate him. You owe John an apology too. You demean people personally, Chris. For the record, John and I are both CEO’s and entrepreneurs, and have been friends for many years. Yes, we DO understand each other. Re sharing common “talking points”: The majority of SCC members have these same precise “talking points,” talking points that have to do with the utter failure of the state ORP to accomplish anything meaningful.

“Chris said: Interestingly, Mr. Carpenter went on to say that if he is not elected, he has no interest in joining with the ORP to work toward electing Republicans in Oregon.
——-I NEVER said that! Read the letter (below)! I clearly said that if I was not elected I would not serve on the EC, and that is true and that is all I said! If you and I had talked, I would have explained to you that I am not at my best on a committee (although I have served on many.) Truth is, I’m a CEO; much better at leading a group rather than sitting around a table and jawboning. Call that a character flaw if you want. And Chris, you say I’m “not interested” in electing Republicans? You say that considering everything I’ve done to recruit candidates in the last six months? In 2020 Oregon would again have had 25% House seats without Rewpublican candidates, as it did in 2018, if it weren’t for my relentless efforts online and otherwise. Diana and I worked our butts off, and Oregon ended up at an uncontested level of 10%  Wow! I’ve worked damn hard for six years to elect conservative Republicans and everyone knows it. Chris, this was a treacherous accusation and, really, should be embarrassing for you. Regarding Solomon Yue, yes he needs to, in my opinion, be sent packing. But I did NOT attempt to enlist you in defeating him. Read the letter! As I said above: your tirade is composed of lies and distortion, but I’ll add this here, too: your character assination is standard fare for the Left and your demonstration of it here is another good reason we need an EC regime change. And one more thing, you’re suggesting I “join the ORP” as it is? The current ORP EC has been a disaster on every level (except for some feeble fund-raisers), and everyone knows it. Leadership has to change dramatically if this state is to be saved, and if I am in the position to encourage that change, I’m very comfortable doing that. In fact, it’s my sweet-spot: fixing broken organizations. (And God knows that in a failing organization, the big changes must occur at the very top).

“Chris said: ..even declaring that immediately following the election he will be returning home to Kentucky, regardless of the outcome of the election.
——-Chris, I said in the letter (that I assumed was just between you and me), that Diana and I would be returning to our second home in Kentucky “for a while…right after the election.” We’ll be there for a short time. Diana’s elderly mother and daughter live there. Most people who know us realize that we go back and forth. So what? And for crying out loud, Chris. Diana and I cordially invited you and Greg to be our house guests before we left…

“Chris said: Clearly, Sam has no interest in forwarding the mission of the ORP, but only seeks to tear down its leadership, hamstring its candidates, and sow division among its voters.
——–WOW! SCC members, read my letter carefully, as a whole, and make up your own minds. Everything the OPR brass has thrown at me has been under the single assumption that “Sam is a really bad guy.” But, truth is, there is no evidence of that, and everything I’ve done or said (including the letter below that, as I said, you can read for yourself), supports the opposite interpretation…”

3. Original private letter from me to Chris, Friday the 13th. I had previously emailed Chris several times to chat. (She did not respond.)

Friday March 13, 2020
Off the record…

Chris: I’m writing this off-the-record and am specifically asking you to not share this with anyone except, of course, Greg.

Here’s what I’ve been trying to talk to you about: first, that I support you for National Committeewoman over Marylin. Clearly you are the passionate, hard-worker the ORP needs. (I’ve talked to Marylin, asking her to withdraw, but do not yet have her commitment). Truth is, I think you should be Chair, but I also understand you can’t hold both positions. So, my second point is this: Would Greg consider being ORP Chair? No question, he would provide the sorely missing leadership our Party needs to revive itself and to powerfully come together to change Oregon.

I think John is going to win the Committeeman seat, and if that does happen, my bet is that Bill Currier and Jeff Grossman will step down. And when Solomon Yue loses, he should step down immediately too. It’s what happened in New Hampshire a short time ago when the grassroots took control. (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democracy-2020-digest-longtime-rnc-committee-member-new-hampshire-ousted-by-grassroots?fbclid=IwAR3WLrpmY7s033_c86wUUCDW4HcJZwhGCb3dN_0M1whJNc-zD94mscwBars)

If I don’t win the National Committeeman position, I do NOT want to be on the EC or be involved with internal ORP affairs. My immediate aim has been to remove Solomon Yue and his key lieutenants; for once and for all to give our Party a chance to unite and thus become a power for change.

We have SO much information about what Yue has done to wield his power and finance his lifestyle, that I am certain he can’t survive the election. Those sordid details will be sent out over the next seven days. (He should probably retire to minimize his embarrassment.)

So, with John as the new National Committeeman, and with the other near-inevitable personnel changes mentioned above, I much prefer to step away and continue to blog (or not…) while the EC makes its own way. However I am willing to help in whatever way I can to contribute to rebuilding the party (I have a giant mailing list of passionate followers, my tech guys can quickly straighten out the significant technical problems on the website and in Facebook, etc.).

And of course, if we could drop our defenses and work together it would quickly lead to the unification of the party we’ve all wanted.

If you want to chat about this more, Diana and I can come visit you in Salem. Or, you and Greg can come stay with us overnight in our home in Bend. OR we can just talk by phone. But after the SCC meeting, no matter the outcome, we’re  heading to our second home in Kentucky for a while. We’ll head out just after the meeting.

Again, Chris, PLEASE don’t share this message with anyone but Greg. Thanks.

Respectfully.

-sam