MassGOP Chair Jim Lyons rakes in roughly $100,000 per yr as chief of a celebration that didn’t win a single statewide election this November, a wage that two candidates eying his job vowed to not take amid the state committee’s fundraising difficulties.
“I have made a commitment to do the job without a salary,” stated Amy Carnevale, a longtime MassGOP committee member who’s mulling a run for chair.
Jon Fetherston, a former chair of the Ashland Town Republican Committee and longtime host of the “All Politics is Local” podcast, stated he would additionally forgo a wage and work the chair place as a volunteer.
While Carnevale stated she plans to decide on whether or not to hunt social gathering management earlier than Christmas, Fetherston stated Friday he’s “definitely running” and can make a proper announcement within the “next couple of days.”
Per its bylaws, the MassGOP Committee has to elect a brand new chair in January, however the assembly has not but been scheduled, and committee members are listening to that it may very well be pushed till the top of the month, the Herald has discovered.
Given that the MassGOP State Committee has been working with out a finances for the whole thing of 2022, it’s unclear how a lot wage Lyons is taking residence this yr, Carnevale stated.
Carnevale stated Lyons’ wage was budgeted at $97,500 in 2020. MassGOP Assistant Treasurer Anthony Ventresca, who cuts the paychecks, stated the committee “did not vote any increase in salary” since that point.
But Carnevale, citing a dialog she had Friday with MassGOP Budget Committee Chair Patricia Saint Aubin, stated that since fundraising has been down, there have been months that Lyons didn’t take a wage.
Ventresca declined to touch upon what months, or throughout what number of, Lyons was not getting paid.
Lyons has not stated whether or not he’ll run for a 3rd time period, and didn’t reply to a request for touch upon Friday. But committee vice chair Jay Fleitman, who’s jockeying for chairmanship, stated Lyons offered him with a timeline previous to the election.
“Before I decided to run, I sat down and had lunch with him,” Fleitman stated. “I told him if we did poorly in the elections, I was going to run. In our discussion, he mentioned to me that he would make a decision about whether to run some time this month, in December.”
Fleitman, a physician who introduced his run for chair the morning after the election, stated he expects Lyons will decide that’s “appropriate for the party, as well as for himself and his family.”
“I think he respected the fact that I’m going to do this,” he stated. “I think I will respect whatever decision he makes in terms of whether he’s going to run. I think that’s the way we left it.”
In distinction to Carnevale and Fetherston, Fleitman stated he would take a wage if he have been to be elected chair, saying that since he lives in western Massachusetts, he would incur a further expense in having to search out an condominium in Boston or one in every of its suburbs.
“Part of taking a salary would be to accomplish that,” he stated.
Christopher Lyon, a political advisor who declared his candidacy Wednesday, additionally stated he had no intention to work professional bono.
“I would take a salary because I think it’s a full-time job,” Lyon stated. “I view it as a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year job. I think Jim Lyons is getting paid about $100,000. In my opinion, that’s not a lot of money.”
The candidates vying for chair could disagree on wage, however all of them agree that they suppose it’s time for brand new management following final month’s disastrous election.
The heavy losses additional splintered a celebration that for years has been marked by two clear factions led by the extra conservative Trump-supporter Lyons and reasonable outgoing Gov. Charlie Baker.
The candidates attributed an absence of fundraising success, or committee management’s unwillingness to boost funds for or help sure candidates, comparable to Charlie Baker’s endorsed decide for state auditor, Anthony Amore, as a contributing consider these election losses.
“Massachusetts Republicans don’t always agree on a lot, but I think most Massachusetts Republicans acknowledge, at least privately, that we need to make some changes,” Lyon stated.
Fleitman stated there have been quite a lot of issues that have been problematic with the election. The MassGOP committee doesn’t have the constructions in place to help its candidates, not solely financially, he stated, and there have been issues with a few of the chosen candidates.
“I know Geoff Diehl — he’s a really good person, hard-working person,” Fleitman stated of the dropping Republican gubernatorial candidate. “It was clear to many people that when he was endorsed by Donald Trump, his marketing campaign was lifeless within the water in Massachusetts.
“Many of us were concerned that that would contaminate the down-ballot races as well. I think that was part of it.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”