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Sue Lowden for the Senate?
Video about the Convention
Another Video about the Convention
The Political Ambition of Bernie Zadrowski
By
Robert Holloway
By
Robert Holloway
February 28, 2009
Boorishness:
Synonyms:
coarse, uncouth, loutish, churlish. Boorish, oafish, rude, uncouth all describe persons, acts, manners, or mannerisms that violate in some way the generally accepted canons of polite, considerate behavior. Boorish, originally referring to behavior characteristic of an unlettered rustic or peasant, now implies a coarse and blatant lack of sensitivity to the feelings or values of others.
The above description applies to two people in the leadership of the Republican Party of Clark County Nevada, including the former chairman, Bernie Zadrowski. Another is Michael Kimpel, who often attends party meetings. On several occasions Mr. Kimpel confronted me in a threatening way and appeared ready to attack me physically. My offense in his eyes was that I supported a different presidential candidate than he did and promoted the alternative convention after the party leadership hijacked the delegate selection process by halting the state convention contrary to the rules. At the state central committee meeting in December of 2008, he approached my table mouthing some foul language directed at me. At that point, someone else at the table told him to shut up. After some harsh words on both sides, Michael was invited to go outside and carry the matter to a higher court - but he backed down. I suspect that Michael is not the brightest light in the forest and may not be playing with full deck, so previously I just ignored his blustering and threatening behavior, but after that incident, I asked an attorney to write Michael a warning letter. That along with the unpleasant experience of slinking away when he was challenged, may serve as a calming influence. A few months earlier, at a County Central Committee meeting, Michael Kimpel was encouraged to make verbal attack on me by Bernie Zadrowski, the county chairman. Some in Nevada, especially Bernie Zadrowski and Michael Kimpel, were not content with the unethical hijacking of the convention election but wanted to make sure that the victims of the hijacking didn't say anything in protest about the theft of the election. Incidentally, a committee of the National Convention called the actions of the state party leaders "inept and unacceptable" but of course that carried no weight with Mr. Kimpel or with Bernie Zadrowski.
Bernie Zadrowski, the former chairman of the Clark County Republican Central Committee, is an attorney who works as a deputy district attorney in Clark County. Mr. Zadrowski is energetic, self confident and apparently has political ambitions. In my opinion though, because of his tendency towards boorishness and his authoritarian personality, I doubt that he would be a good choice for elective office. He is much too inclined to ignore rules and the rule of law when it suits him. Bernie Zadrowski very much fits the authoritarian pattern that is described by John Dean in the video below. In his role as party chair, Mr. Zadrowski has often used bullying tactics to get his way in party affairs. I think the proper name for him is Bernie "Attila the Hun" Zadrowski. It is really remarkable how well his personality fits the description of authoritarian personalities as described by John Dean elsewhere in this article. Mr. Zadrowki once worked in the campaign of Pat Buchanan, another extremely authoritarian personality.
The Nevada Republican Party was involved in a major controversy over the selection of delegates to the 2008 National Republican Convention. The state convention in April of 2008 was shut down and the delegate selection process was disrupted because the party leadership did not approve of the way the election of delegates was trending at the state convention. A few delegates representing one congressional district were elected that did not enjoy the support of Sue Lowden, the party chairperson. The election was halted even while the ballots were still being counted for the remaining congressional district because the party leadership feared the outcome of that election as well. That ballot box has never seen the light of day and no explanation has been given for its disappearance. The National Republican Party, through its contest committee, condemned the actions of the state party leadership.
Although Bernie Zadrowski had no part in the disruption of the election, he has consistently and enthusiastically supported the party leadership in the aftermath of the disrupted election. Bernie is a “go along to get along” type of guy and apparently he sees his future as best being served by currying favor with the state party leadership rather than standing up for ethical standards in this situation.
The contest committee of the national party made a sincere effort to sort out the tangled mess created by the disrupted convention election and eventually named a delegation that consisted of four or five delegates who were legitimately elected just before the disruption of the convention as well as more than 25 delegates drawn from a slate of party regulars who were improperly named by the party leadership. So in essence, it was something of a compromise forced by the national party on an unwilling state party. A state party, whose leadership was willing to resort to unethical and irregular tactics to gain its objectives.
One might think that in the interests of party harmony, and with the national party severely critical of the leadership of the Nevada Party, that some sort reconciliation between the two factions would be a sensible thing to do. However, prior to the final decision of the contest committee, I suggested to Mr. Zadrowski and others in the Clark County Central Committee that a compromise should be worked out, where both factions would be represented in the state delegation. Mr. Zadrowski hotly rejected that proposal. His faction, the regular party faction supporting John McCain, wanted all the delegates, even if that meant supporting a slate named in a manner contrary to state law, contrary to state party rules and contrary to national party rules and even if it meant trashing a legitimate election that took place with the majority support of those in attendance at the state convention.
But that is not the only problem with Mr. Zadrowski’s actions. At the national convention, some of the delegates who were named as delegates from Nevada against the wishes of the state party leadership noticed that they were being followed by security agents hired by those in control of the convention. Not only that but they were harassed in minor ways by being required to sit in assigned seats and were told that they would be ejected from the convention if they did not follow instructions. This must be the first time in the history of the Republican Party that duly elected convention delegates have been placed under surveillance. The motivation for this action seems to have been that the convention was run by the campaign of John McCain and his campaign was willing to take extraordinary steps to insure that no dissenting voices were seen or heard at the convention. I doubt that the surveillance could have taken place without the cooperation and support of Mr. Zadrowski, because the two delegates who were followed were from Clark County.
Some other things that have caused concern about Mr. Zadrowski are that he sometimes uses his post as chairman in ways that seem to me to be illegitimate. For instance, there are times when he has attempted to pressure members of the executive board to resign from the board even though the executive board members are elected in their own right and do not have to answer to the chairman for their actions. I know that this is of concern to other members of the local party as well. He has also removed names from the party email list of those on the executive committee who are not in his good graces making it difficult for anyone not in his corner to keep up with news about various events. This has happened to several of us. Mr. Zadrowski ignored the bylaws of the party organization by attempting to appoint a member of the executive board when the rules clearly require that a vacancy be filled by election rather than by appointment. This effort failed when the person appointed withdrew her name, after hearing of my objections. She was otherwise well qualified for the post.
It seems to me that Bernie Zadrowski, because of his willingness to support improper and illegitimate methods in state and national politics, should not be supported in his quest for political office. Surveillance of delegates to a national convention is probably without precedent in the Republican Party and is dangerously close to the methods of tyrants of the past. This type of activity should be rejected by all those who want to be true to American traditions that have served us so well for 200 years. I don’t mean to imply that Bernie Zadrowski instituted the surveillance but I think he must have been aware of it and must have cooperated, just as he supported the irregular methods used to select delegates to the national convention. Mr. Zadrowski became a delegate himself due to these irregular methods. Had the election at the state convention proceeded according to the rules of the state and national party, he probably would not have been elected as a delegate.
A few of the Republicans in the Clark County Party seem to fit the description provided by John Dean in his book "Conservatives Without Conscience". One of the things that I noticed about Bernie Zadroski, Michael Kimpel and a few others in the Clark County GOP is extremely authoritarian behavior. They believe they are right and will go to great lengths to see that everyone else accepts their views, using pressure or even force if necessary to gain that objective. In their world, there is little room for diversity of opinion, debate or disagreement. I will expand on this theme when time is available, but for now, here is a quote from John Dean's book that is a brief description of this type of personality:
"It should surprise no one that when conservatism and authoritarianism are joined together the result is authoritarian conservatism. Here too are found right-wing authoritarian followers and social dominators, as well as conservatives without conscience. With science to assist as an analytical tool, the growing authoritarian conservatism can be more deeply probed."
It seems to me that the personality type described in some studies as "Authoritarian" is well represented in the hard core of the Nevada Republican Party. John Dean has some interesting insights about this personality type in his book. Incidentally, there is evidence that Senator Barry Goldwater shared some of John Dean's views and in fact the two had agreed to work together on the book before the Senator's declining health prevented that collaboration. One of the defining characteristics of this personality type is the unquestioning obedience to authority. I have seen that in the hard core of the Nevada Republican Party. Some well known examples of the authoritarian type are Gordon Liddy and Charles Colson. John Dean himself is quite the opposite of this type, as explained in his own words:
"When Milgram invited me to speak at his conference, he explained that it was because the Watergate probes had established that I was not a person who blindly followed the commands of authority figures. To the contrary, I had disobeyed an ultimate and powerful authority figure, the president of the United States, as well as his senior aides. Milgram noted that my breaking ranks and testifying about the Watergate cover-up placed me at the opposite end of the spectrum from people like Gordon Liddy and Chuck Colson, who compulsively obeyed authority. The conference proved to be a learning experience for me, because I discovered things about myself I had not really thought about. More importantly, Milgram's work provided a compelling explanation for why many people obey or disobey authority figures, and the role of conscience in their behavior."
According to John Dean, the study of the authoritarian personality type got its start after World War II, when many people wondered how "in a culture of law, order and reason....great masses of people could and did tolerate the mass extermination of their fellow citizens," a question that was of some urgency after the horrors of World War II.
While conservatism in the tradition of Barry Goldwater is quite respectable and admirable, there has been a dark side to the conservative movement during the last few years. Those who blindly obey authority, as many Republicans in Nevada now seem to do, represent a disturbing trent in American politics. There seemed to be no one who objected to the surveillance of legitimate delegates at the national convention, even though it must have had the approval of state party leaders and very few who objected to the stealing of the convention election in Reno. John Dean had this to say about the hard core of Republicans who voted for Bush in 2004:
"Many of them would attack France, Massachusetts, or the moon if the president said it was necessary "for freedom". And authoritarian followers formed the rock core of the millions who marched to the polls in November, 2004, often at the instruction of their church, and reelected George Bush."
Link to a video about an experiment on cheating
John Dean on Conservatives Without Conscience
In my year or so of involvement with the state party, I have often thought that the actions of the party leadership must be quite like the operation of the NAZI party in Germany in the 1930s. In order to retain the control of the state delegation at the 2008 national convention, the Republican leadership in Nevada conducted a calculated program of demonizing the faction that refused to go along with their plans. Bernie Zadrowski was one of the prime movers behind this demonization effort. It would have been much more intelligent to treat the Ron Paul faction with respect and if they had done that, the party would have been able to minimize losses in the general election. But as it happened, the loss of two state senate seats can be directly traced to the abuse and unfair treatment of the 10 to 20 percent of the party that was disenfranchised at the state convention. In the crucial vote at the state convention, the vote was 750 to 405 to reject the plan of the party leadership. The margin of loss of state senate candidates Bob Beers and Joe Heck was considerably less than the percentage of Republican voters who were abused by the party leadership. The Republican party in Nevada seems to be bent on suicide. I think that this stems from the fact that both Sue Lowden and Bernie Zadrowsksi were more than willing to put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the party as well as the fact that their behavior is very much in the authoritarian style. Bernie Zadrowski's personality seems to be a blend of Pat Buchanan, G. Gordon Liddy and Attila the Hun.
UPDATE: August 2009 - The Clark County Republican Central Committee elected a new chairman at a recent meeting. The new chairman is Richard Scotti, an attorney. My impression of Mr. Scotti is quite positive and he does not have the authoritarian personality of Bernie Zadrowski. I wish him well.