In an email today, Former Massachusetts CR State Chairman and current Chairman of the CRNC's Northeast Caucus Mike Miltenberger dropped out of the race for Treasurer of the CRNC. Miltenberger had been a candidate on the New CRNC Campaign team.
Miltenberger also accused Ohio's Brian Siler of deceitful campaign tactics and and money laundering. Miltenberger stated, "Brian has claimed, on video, to have raised over $200,000 dollars for Ohio CRs, yet they have never registered with the FEC or the Ohio Secretary of State as a group involved in elections. Where did he launder the money if he truly had it? No one knows, and Brian refuses to answer."
Miltenberger also acused John Plecnik of being the intellect behind Siler's supposed "shadow campaign of deceit." Plecnik is a former North Carolina College Republican who now works in New York as an attorney.
This comes a surprise to many insiders. One longtime observer of CRNC politics stated, on condition of anonymity, "Plecnik and Siler don't get along. They never have."
Finally, Miltenberger acused former Missourri State Chairman Taylor Burks of making "slanderous phone calls into numerous statefederations". Readers will remember that Burks was impeached as Missourri State Chairman. Details of Burks' impeachment are sketchy, but Miltenberge claimed it was by "three-fourths of the stateboard, and a unanimous executive board."
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Friends and Fellow College Republicans,
This is one of the hardest letters I've written in my tenure in politics, and as such I hope you will excuse my long windedness and bear with me through theduration; this will most likely be the final statement I make to this organization. As many of you know, I have spent the past several months campaigning for the position of Treasurer alongside the New CRNC team. Today,my candidacy comes to an abrupt end. I am withdrawing my name. In politics,we talk a lot about message, about "spin." Today, I am not interested in either; today, I have strength left only for the truth.
I am resigning because in these past weeks a former member of the National Board and elements lurking alongside him have been making calls, hindering the process of reform, attacking me personally and obscuring the truth. As disheartening as that has been, it is only furthered by the fact that they poisoned the ears of people I once called friends and turned them against me. I was informed that the new Massachusetts state chair, influenced personally by Brian Siler, was to remove me as a delegate and from there to further attack me in ways still unclear. I will not run without the support of my state, and I will not allow this negativity to burden those who truly do have the best interests for the future of our organization and our party in their hearts, the people with whichI have felt privileged and proud to have worked.
To my team, and all of our many supporters, I want to offer my apologies and mygratitude. I wish I could be alongside you as you begin what I know will bethe greatest revolution our organization has undergone, but know that I will always support the cause of reform and the principles which our campaign hasfought for since its inception.
With my withdrawal I feel it my duty to pay some outstanding debts. This organization has given me more than I can put into words, and I will never fully repay those gifts. However, my most important obligation, I will fulfill: the debt of untold truths.
We have amongst us people of malice, people of hate, people of vitriol and spiteunlike any I have ever known. Our campaign has doggedly avoided engaging them. Despite the unfounded rumor and the whisper of loathing echo chambers, we have done all within our power to run a positive, idea driven campaign. I am no longer on the campaign trail, and I will not avoid engagement another moment.
Brian Siler is the most apt example of what is wrong with this organization. He lurks in the shadows, whispering in the ears of new state leadership making promises, spitting breathy hatred with a determination fueled by equal parts greed and corruption.
Here are the questions unanswered by Brian Siler, so the next time he calls your state you can find out for yourself what kind of a leader he truly is.
Brian has claimed, on video, to have raised over $200,000 dollars for Ohio CRs, yet they have never registered with the FEC or the Ohio Secretary of State as a group involved in elections. Where did he launder the money if he truly had it? No one knows, and Brian refuses to answer.
Brian brags about $40,000 in block grants he awarded to chapters throughout Ohio, yet he has never been able to provide corroborating tax documentation(there is none online) or present chapter chairmen who will testify to the amounts received. What happened to the block grant money? The only blockgrants that have been independently verified were two grants of between $1,000and $3,000 dollars given to chapters who were planning to oppose his hand-picked successor for State Chairman and himself for National Committeeman at their most recent state convention.
Brian has additionally lauded himself as the most effective chairman in the nation. What he hasn't been forthcoming about is that he in fact took a salary for himself to serve as state chair. While I and my fellow state chairmen worked diligently to elect Republicans with donated time and money out of our own pockets, Brian Siler paid himself a salary.
Rather then sit in the shadows Brian Siler should have exercised what he professes by trying to be a constructive for change. Not once has he called me or anyone else with a tone of cooperation toward achieving a common goal. Hisc alls have been rumor, gossip and worse.
The despicable actions of Brian Siler, however, do not go unaided. Among his most unsavory of counterparts is a name that many of you do not know: John Plecnik. John Plecnik is a lawyer at a New York law firm, and has no business still being involved in College Republicans. One would imagine that he has better things to do with his time, but his actions indicate otherwise. He would, without exaggeration, prefer to tear down the CRNC entirely rather than watch someone he cannot manipulate administer it. He has failed in every one of his myriad attempts to capture power within the College Republicans, and with the good sense of the current members I hope that he will again be rebuffed. While his is a voice you do not hear, he is undeniably the intellect behind Brian Siler's shadow campaign of deceit.
One hanger on I feel compelled to mention is Taylor Burkes, the Former State Chairman of Missouri who performed so poorly that three-fourths of the state board, and a unanimous executive board voted to remove him from office well before his term was completed. I have never seen anyone get so much mileage from accomplishing so very little. Taylor failed his state, he failed his party and since being removed has proven why he was so utterly useless to the College Republicans of Missouri. He has yet to provide a single positive statement or idea about anything, yet he finds time to make slanderous phone calls into numerous state federations. He is a source of unabashed negativity and is not worthy of national recognition.
To watch this tragic comedy unfold has been saddening -- but telling -- of what our organization should not be, but what people like these have made it into. They allege corruption while not offering anything substantial or constructive to correct it. They spend more time trying to score political points then moving the organization forward. Every state within their hold must be controlled within the grip of an iron fist, because without such constraints they know that their support will disappear. They have a core group ofloyalists who have become beholden to them through cronyism and shared hatred. This group has not expanded significantly since the onset of their campaign against a better future for College Republicans. Their actions indicate that they are a cabal empty of ideas, dead set on power, and they will do anythingto achieve their self-serving ends.
I hope that this warning will find thoughtful ears. Regardless of how frustrating this entire experience has proven to be for me, were our organization to succumb to individuals such as these, were the principles of actual reform and transparency twisted so maniacally as to serve this vicious swarm which infests the darkest corners of our organization, then in that moment I, and all of the people who do care about this organization and do believe in something better, have failed. If we stand silent, and allow this on our watch, then all our efforts for a better organization will have been invain.
I have worked a long time to see positive change in this organization, and nowfinally that change is within sight. The influence of old leadership is waning, reforms have been proposed that dramatically eliminate the framework of corruption. Yet at every turn they have opposed progress because of petty desires for control and personal gain. We must not allow them to divide us, we are at the occasion of change but we must now have the courage to reach forward and grab hold of it.
I wish to thank you for your time, your patience, and your friendships. I put my trust in every one of you, because in the end I believe you will all find what is right.
Best Regards,
Michael R. Miltenberger
