Scott R. Baugh, Chairman of Orange County Republican Party, Gets a Challenger

Chairman Baugh

Scott R. Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, won't get another term in office without a fight.

Longtime party activist Tim Whitacre has announced that he will challenge Baugh for the top slot at the county's most powerful political party.

The news came this morning in an e-mail Whitacre sent to GOP central committee members who are scheduled to vote on Jan. 17 for the party's executive committee candidates.

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Whitacre said in the announcement (obtained by OC Weekly from a high ranking party source) that it's time for “some necessary house cleaning” and that Baugh has led the party “long enough.”

“I love our party and the principles it espouses on paper,” wrote Whitacre. “However, like many of you, I have watched those principles be cast aside time and time again from the national level on down to our beloved county. I believe it is crucial for us to march in a different direction if we are serious about restoring our party's reputation and greatness so that we can bring back those good Americans who rightfully left us in disgust.”
Whitacre, who noted he “has nothing personal against” Baugh, also mentioned that he will push for party bylaw reforms, including a three-term maximum for the central committee's chairman and executive officers.

Baugh–a graduate of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and a glad-handing lobbyist who has cashed in on his undeniable political
influence since leaving the state assembly a decade ago–first grabbed the
chairmanship in 2004 after Tom Fuentes served in the role for 20 years. His admirers say he has done a decent job raising money and settling disputes between Republicans. He can certainly count on indefinite backing from establishment heavyweights like Michael J. Schroeder, Mark Bucher and Dana Rohrabacher.

But in
recent years, there's been mounting internal party dissatisfaction with what some
consider Baugh's cutthroat management style, his backing of disgraced
Sheriff Mike Carona long after it was clear he was a crook, his
refusal to obey party bylaws that call for regular audits of party
finances, his close association to a relentless pedophile who targeted 7th and 8th
grade boys
and the local party's dwindling voter registration numbers.

Indeed, under Baugh's watch near Armagedon occurred in a place once proudly hailed as “Reagan Country”: Barack Obama, a liberal Chicago Democrat, did exceptionally well here in the 2008 elections.

Nevertheless,
Whitacre–a former U.S. Marine known as a stickler on ethics, a proponent of conservative grassroots activism and the man who led the 2003 recall of lefty Santa Ana school board member Nativo Lopez–has a
monumental task to make his case for new leadership at the OC GOP.
Baugh enjoys the knee-jerk support of two partisan online fish
wraps: Jon Fleischman's Flash Report and the Matt Cunningham-tied Red County. You can count on them to fillet Whitacre and champion Baugh in coming weeks. 

–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

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