Warren County is Not for Sale: Oppose David Silek’s Vote-Buying Scheme

In the race for Chair of the Republican Committee, my opponent, David Silek, has distributed instructions to supporters where he states that his campaign will pay the membership fee for any of his supporters to join the Republican Committee: “Dues are covered for the first 250 Silek supporter applications — no need to send the $50 fee.”

In other words, as we speak, the Silek campaign is attempting to buy up to $12,500 worth of memberships for people who will vote in an election in which he is a candidate. This raises some serious questions.

First: Is this legal? Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-447 states that, “a person shall be guilty of bribery under the provisions of this article: (1) If he offers, confers or agrees to confer upon another (a) any pecuniary benefit as consideration for or to obtain or influence the recipient’s decision, opinion, recommendation, vote or other exercise of discretion as a public servant or party official.”

I asked an attorney friend of mine who served as a prosecutor in another state. His analysis on this point was, “[f]or [this provision], it would depend on the definition of ‘party official.’”

The beneficiaries of the Silek campaign’s payment are the people who, by virtue of their membership in the party, will choose its leadership. The legal analysis worsens for David if he wants to run for any office during his Chairmanship. If he does, the Committee membership his campaign is purchasing right now will both determine the nomination process for that office and vote on whether to endorse him when he runs. Do these actions make them “party officials” under this definition? They are certainly the decision-makers in the party’s official decisions that matter most to the person/campaign doing the paying, and they are not simply members of the public—they are members of the party. The argument seems pretty strong that they are. Perhaps a jury should decide.

Virginia Code § 24.2-1007 also states in relevant part that, “No person shall […] accept directly or indirectly any money or any thing of value (i) to influence his…vote in any election.” The section applies to “any election and to any method used by a political party for selection of its nominees and for selection of delegates to its conventions and meetings.”

This seems to have implications for the people who accepted David’s offer. My prosecutor friend’s analysis: “[This] statute seems to clearly apply to the facts,” meaning that the people accepting David’s payment seem to be, in his view, violating the law in accepting the payment. How many of these are now serving our County as public officials?

Second: Where is he getting this money? When someone buys committee memberships in bulk, the people who depend on that committee deserve to know who is doing the buying. Is this one man’s personal money, or are other people / special interests contributing? Other candidates? Are they Republicans? Democrats? Who are they? What do they expect in exchange? Surely whoever is paying sees it as an investment that will pay off if he is successful. So again—who is paying?

So, is this corrupt? Of course it is. As a friend (a fellow Republican) says, “I think buying votes is always a scandal when a Republican does it.” The chief asset of a party committee is its credibility. When a candidate purchases the memberships of the people who will vote on his own election, the message to the public could not be clearer: this Committee is for sale. The price is the Committee’s credibility, which gets corrupted in the process. Keep in mind—this is what they are doing out in the open. Imagine what is happening behind closed doors.

I oppose pay-to-play politics. It is corrupt, it destabilizes our institutions, it destroys credibility, it hurts the people our institutions represent and serve, and of course, it is illegal. I am running to be an antidote to this sort of chicanery.

What happens as a matter of criminal law is a question for the relevant legal authorities. Perhaps there is more to come. But there is something you can do about it now. If you are a Warren County conservative, join the Committee the way we’ve always done it: fill out your own application, write your own $50 check, and submit it. Then come to the firehouse primary on August 5 and cast a vote that belongs to no one but you. If you are not a Republican, speak to your Republican friends and, for the benefit of all of us, encourage them to act in opposition to corrupt pay-for-play politics, which, if unchecked, will reverberate through the official decisions of all of our County’s institutions for years to come.

We need to hold Warren County to a higher standard. Send the message loud and clear that Warren County is not for sale.

Scott Lloyd
Candidate for Chairman
Warren County Republican Committee

The Warren County Republican Committee will be holding a Firehouse Primary on August 5 at 4-8 p.m. in the “Old Gym” at the Warren County Health and Human Services Complex: 465 W. 15th Street, Front Royal, VA. Individuals who are (1) registered to vote in Warren County, Virginia, (2) in accord with the principles of the Republican Party, (3) who are not in violation of Article I of the Party Plan (or have completed a renunciation statement), and (4) intend to support all the Nominees of the Republican Party in the November General Election may participate.

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