Sources tell PJ Media that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s long-time top consultant, Ray Allen, has “angrily” stated to multiple individuals that he intends to bankrupt the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV), to install his own people throughout all levels of RPV’s State Central Committee, and to rebuild the RPV with money from Eric Cantor’s donors.
Ray Allen is considered the “brain trust” of Eric Cantor’s Young Guns, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and has hired staff with the intention of retaking control of the RPV at all levels. (Eric Cantor and Ray Allen lost control of the RPV in 2012, when Tea Party/conservative candidates won seats at all levels of the party, taking majority control from Cantor allies.) In this effort to reclaim the majority, Ray Allen has helped orchestrate the parliamentary procedure of “slating” at several RPV conventions this season.
Slating involves disenfranchising all properly registered delegates at a district convention in favor of a vote by only a few dozen handpicked delegates. This tactic was employed to protect the incumbent chairmanships of some Cantor allies: hundreds to thousands of Tea Party/conservative delegates have been forcefully ejected from VA RPV conventions over the past few weeks and months.
However, the ejected delegates and others opposed to Team Cantor have since had success appealing the slating attempts, leaving Allen and Cantor with little to show for their hardball tactics other than alienated constituents, a terrible local public relations problem, and worse, a rapidly gaining primary opponent in challenger Dave Brat.
Sources additionally claim that Allen has attempted to meddle in the multiple appeals of his slating attempts — Allen was reportedly looking to guide how the appeals should be conducted.
These bombshell allegations — implying that Eric Cantor’s reelection effort intends to dismantle the Republican Party of Virginia and to employ it as a vehicle for the expansion of Cantor’s power and influence — could not arrive at a more precarious moment for the Cantor campaign for two reasons:
1. Cantor just suffered a game-changing defeat at the Seventh District Republican Convention. On May 10, Linwood Cobb — a powerful Cantor advocate and ally — lost the chairmanship of the Seventh District to vocal Cantor critic Fred Gruber.
Additionally, Cantor’s speech at the convention received boos and heckling when he attempted to denigrate Dave Brat. Cantor, receiving this treatment in his own district, appeared visibly unnerved and needed to interrupt his speech to address the hecklers.
2. Cantor’s own recent comments put him in a difficult position for defending against these new allegations about Allen. Recall, Cantor just asked “kissing congressman” Vance McAllister (R-LA) to resign over his infidelity, which will perhaps be considered a much lesser offense by Cantor’s constituents than these allegations regarding the behavior of Cantor’s campaign.
Said Cantor of McAllister:
I just said, “Look, when we took the majority in 2001, I had said that we should hold ourselves to a higher standard,” … “And that’s why I did what I did and I told him I thought he should resign. Because, in my mind, what happened does not meet that higher standard.”
Additionally — and further undermining the strength of Cantor’s support network — former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling said the following after Linwood Cobb’s defeat and the heckling of Cantor on May 10:
Clearly, there is a battle taking place for the heart and soul of the Republican Party. We are seeing this battle play out all across our state. While the voice of every Republican should be heard, our challenge is to figure out how to be a conservative party, without allowing the most extreme voices of the day to control our party and determine its future direction.
I am contacting Bill Bolling to ask if Ray Allen’s reported behavior fits Bolling’s categorization of “most extreme voice of the day.”
I am also contacting Eric Cantor to ask if Ray Allen’s reported behavior — which Cantor can reasonably be presumed to have known of — meets Cantor’s categorization of a “higher standard,” and if he would have requested McAllister resign following publication of similar behavior by his closest aide.
I am also contacting Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins. Previously, I reported at PJ Media that Ray Allen’s company, Creative Direct, was the single largest recipient of RPV payments last year, receiving $1.13 million from the RPV in 2013. I am now asking Mullins if — in light of Allen’s reported behavior along with the conflict of interest presented by Allen’s contract with RPV — he will attempt to end the RPV’s financial relationship with Allen.
I have contacted Cantor’s primary opponent Dave Brat for comment about these latest allegations regarding the behavior of Cantor’s campaign. Said Brat:
I cannot emphasize this enough: the Republican Party of Virginia will never again be a strong, unified party until it rids itself of Eric Cantor and Ray Allen.
With those two around, forget any talk of mending the rift in the GOP, or of creating a “big tent” — these guys want a two-person tent. And we learn today that you, the constituents, are being treated as an obstacle towards reaching that goal, and not as their employers.
I am here to unify the party, to strengthen the party, to be a powerful representative voice for the Seventh District GOP, and to serve all Seventh District citizens no matter their party affiliation. A public servant, as per the intent of the House’s existence.
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In subsequent conversations with several sources, yet another issue has been raised regarding Allen’s heated statements, and the possible answers to this additional issue might dwarf even Team Cantor’s current headaches.
(Next article: What “money from Eric Cantor’s donors” could Ray Allen have been referring to?)
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