Pasco GOP's squabbles leave it leaderless

Three party officials, who had been feuding for months, resigned and will be out of the Pasco GOP for two years. The chairman's job is open.

By MATTHEW WAITE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 16, 2000

The Pasco Republican Party is without a chairman after a weekend state party meeting in Orlando ousted three combatants in a local power squabble.

Chairman-for-a-week Jeff Lucas had predicted he could lose his job quickly, and that happened when a state GOP committee ruled on a former chairman's grievance. Zoltan Mayer's removal from the chairman post in April was overturned by the committee, and then Mayer and Bill and Ann Bunting were asked to resign from the Pasco County executive committee at a meeting of the state party's Grievance Committee in Orlando, party officials said Monday. The three, who had been feuding for months, resigned and will be out of the Pasco GOP for two years.

None of the principal people involved in the meeting were commenting on the party's decision Saturday. Mayer and Ann Bunting both said "no comment" when asked about their fate before the committee.

Portia Palmer, a state party spokeswoman, would not comment on what happened in the committee meeting, but she said the job of Pasco County chairman was open.

"We expect an election at the next regularly scheduled meeting in June," she said Monday.

The dispute began about a month ago and ended with three members voting to retain Mayer, 13 abstaining and 64 voting to remove him, according to Bill Bunting, the Pasco committee's vice-chairman.

The fight had sparked a dozen no-holds-barred letters to the editor, in which Mayer called state committeeman and Bill Bunting supporter John Renke II "queen of the termites." Other Republicans accused Mayer of "childish name-calling."

Lucas was elected chairman last weekend by acclamation, pleasing both Mayer and Bill Bunting, they said in interviews.

Roland Quinn, a former chairman of the Pasco GOP and current board member, said Monday that he thought there would be little reason for Lucas not to be elected again in June.

"My hope, for the rest of the year, is that whatever this was, is over," Quinn said, adding that it was time to focus on elections. "Normally, we have a way of getting these things behind us."

Also part of the squabble is the Buntings' Second Amendment Republican Club of Pasco County. In one of his last acts as chairman, Mayer asked the state party to take the "Republican" out of the club's name.

Party officials said the Buntings were asked to come up with a new name this weekend.

The Second Amendment club has 275 members, including 80 of the 110 state GOP executive committee members and many of Pasco's Republican elected officials, according to Ann Bunting.

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