Log Cabin Ally loses close balltle for CRNC Post
California’s Michael Davidson narrowly lost the election to become President of the College Republican National Committee over the weekend:
In an election shaken by accusations of vote-rigging and disenfranchisement, Paul Gourley of the University of South Dakota defeated Michael Davidson of UC Berkeley by six votes.
Davidson’s supporters said some of their delegates were disenfranchised by backers of Gourley, who as the organization’s treasurer has been under fire for what critics call deceptive fundraising practices by the committee during the 2004 political campaign.
The accusations were reminiscent of the contentious fights for Ohio in 2004 and Florida in 2000, elections in which senior White House political advisor Karl Rove helped George W. Bush to victory. And it was Rove who, in 1973, won the chairmanship in the College Republican National Committee’s last contested election.
That’s too bad, because Davidson was vocal in his support for a Big-Tent philosophy within the Republican Party and had built a visible cross-over of Log Cabin members in several of his chapters.