Clark County Council Chair Eileen Quiring was unanimously elected as vice chairwoman of the Clark County Republican Party at the group’s meeting on Saturday.
Party Chairman Earl Bowerman, who was elected in January, said it has been a goal of his to create more of a link between the party and the county since he took over. One way he thought to do that was to get Quiring on the board.
“We’re ecstatic about it,” he said. “She will give us visibility, prominence and legitimacy.”
Quiring said she’s ready to get to work helping to get other Republicans into office. She doesn’t think her new position with the party will take away from her work as chairwoman of the county council, she said.
“I have some unique skills that may help to elect Republicans to office,” Quiring said. “The vice chair position is not a heavy duty position. I divide my time, and I’ll have plenty of time to do this.”
The meeting wasn’t without some drama, though. The Republicans elected Deborah Larner as the group’s new secretary. That vote came after a vote of no confidence for Park Llafet, the previous secretary.
Llafet feels the group didn’t follow its own bylaws in alerting the larger body to voting him out of his position. He said on Saturday he doesn’t feel like enough time was given ahead of the vote.
“It was a foregone conclusion,” he said. “They were gunning for me anyway. It didn’t really matter what I said. It’s about the numbers of people in the room.”
According to the group’s bylaws posted on www.clarkrepublicans.org, board members can be removed with a vote of no confidence in one of two ways:
• by a two-thirds vote of the board, provided that the person being removed received 10 days notice of intent to remove, or
• a petition calling a special meeting to remove the person has been signed by a majority of precinct committee officers, and the chair calls the meeting “not earlier than 10 days and not later than 21 days from receipt of the petition.”
Bowerman recently survived a recall attempt after a petition alleged he mismanaged the party’s finances, violated bylaws and failed to perform other duties as chair. In August, the party’s precinct committee officers voted 68 to 63 to adjourn a special meeting called to consider the recall petition before it could be debated or voted on.
At that time, Bowerman argued that the petition was invalid because it did not meet a requirement in the county party’s bylaws that it be validated by a local, third-party auditor approved by a majority of the executive board.
Llafet called that meeting, and said he felt like the vote of no confidence on Saturday came across as “highly retaliatory.”
“A certain group of people won,” he said. “I can certainly show evidence that I did everything above the board and above reproach. I am still a Republican and will still support GOP folks.”
