Republicans Tue Oct 05 2010

Dirty Dealings: Infighting & Incriminations Among the Chicago Young Republicans & Chicago GOP

This article was submitted by Michael Volpe.

On June 17, 2009, the Chicago Young Republicans (the CYR) held one of their monthly happy hours. It was a typical night of drinking, networking, and talking politics. When Jeremy Rose, then president of the CYR, woke up the next morning, he thought his biggest problem was the hangover he had from the night before. He didn't know it yet, but the events of the night before would eventually lead to the destruction of his reputation, the end of his political aspirations, and would lead some to call him a "sexual predator."

That night, he and a few others all went back to his place. According to a complaint by an unidentified woman, on the walk home, Rose attempted to put his arm around her and made other sexual advances that made her uncomfortable. Back at his place, Rose continued with more touchy feely behavior that made her even more uncomfortable, and she attempted to leave. Rose attempted to prevent her from leaving, first by taking her cell phone away when she tried to call a cab, then by sitting on her lap when she attempted to leave. Finally, another woman present grabbed her and the two left together.

Nearly two weeks later, the victim sent a formal email of complaint to the head of the Illinois Young Republicans. Rick Veenstra, a high ranking member of the Illinois Young Republicans and an attorney, investigated the matter, contacting the victim as well as Rose. Rose eventually apologized to the victim and the CYR implemented stiffer rules on sexual harassment. Furthermore, Veenstra's report was filed with the CYR where it remains. The victim left the state to take a job and considered the investigation satisfied. All involved assumed the matter was closed with Veenstra's report.

In fact it was, until a special meeting of the Cook County Republican Party apparatus, including its 80 ward committeemen, on June 28, 2010. The meeting was supposed to be about the communication, or lack thereof, between Cook County Republican Chair Lee Roupas and the chair of the Chicago Republican Party, Eloise Gerson. Instead, Gerson used the occasion to accuse Rose of being a sexual predator, to demand his resignation as executive director of the Cook County Republican Party, and to accuse Roupas of ginning up what she characterized as nonexistent problems in an attempt to sweep Rose's actions a year prior under the rug.

The same ward committeemen had met two weeks earlier, on June 12. At the end of that meeting, Roupas held back all the Chicago committeemen who attended for a special "executive session." Even though this was a regularly scheduled meeting, and Gerson is not only the chair of the Chicago GOP but also a committeeman herself, she didn't attend this regularly scheduled meeting. Roupas told the committeemen in attendance that there was a communication breakdown between himself and Gerson. This was a view seconded by Judy Biegelman, a committeeman from the suburbs, who spoke on behalf of the state party. Upon hearing the complaint, many of the committeemen also expressed concerns. For instance, fundraising was an issue. Gerson promised to raise $100,000 for the Chicago Republican Party, but hadn't even raised $1000 over her two years.

Second, ChicagoGOP.com, a site run by Gerson ally Tom Swiss, had run a photo of a naked woman this past April. Worse yet, the event coincided with revelations of another sex scandal at the national RNC. Committeeman John Curry put it succinctly in describing Gerson's reign: "No meetings, no events, no fundraisers." While there were several complaints, the committee people agreed that these issues needed to be held at a special session a couple weeks later, where Gerson could be there to respond.

What Roupas didn't tell the committee people that day was that days earlier, Gerson had complained to him about the case against Rose, now nearly a year old. Gerson's general counsel, Steve Boulton, had known about the complaint for about a year. He'd even once reached out to the campaign of Matt Murphy while Rose worked there, in the fall of 2009, to warn them about it. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, Gerson didn't read the page long complaint until late May.

As soon as Gerson and her allies found out about what Roupas had done at the meeting, they all believed that this was his way of burying Gerson's concern and trying to remove her before she became too much of a problem. Tom Swiss goes further -- he thinks that this is a continuation of a larger ideological war for control of the Chicago Republican Party. He claims that many committeemen complaining about Gerson (for instance Jim Parrilli and John Curry) are "secret Democrats," saying, "We need a civil war in the Chicago Republican Party."

For this reason, at the meeting that followed Roupas' special committee meeting, Gerson responded by accusing Rose of being a sexual predator and claiming this meeting was nothing more than a sham to remove her from the party before she blew the whistle.

Gerson passed out a packet to all in attendance that included the original email documenting the incident a year prior. She again demanded that he resign. Most of the committeemen didn't respond warmly. One said, "Eloise (Gerson), this is wrong. This has nothing to do with this meeting." If the reception was cold, it only grew icier. Upon being questioned, Gerson then stated that she had contacted the victim by phone and that her general counsel, Steve Boulton, was on the call unannounced. Boulton didn't hide his visceral contempt for Rose, though he says they've only met a handful of times. When asked what the source of the contempt was, Boulton cited unnamed individuals in the CYR who told him that Rose was spreading lies about him. He gave no specifics, only vague allegations.

Curry says that upon hearing that Gerson and Boulton had conducted this call, he was outraged. Curry says that he considered Gerson calling up the victim as "ginning this up."

Gerson's attempts to get Rose to resign hit a brick wall at the June 28 meeting. Instead, the committeemen approved the creation of the Chicago Chairman of the Cook County Republican Party who would act as Roupas' liaison to Chicago through the election. All appeared resolved at the end of the meeting and, upon request, all the packets of information against Rose were collected so they wouldn't be leaked to the media.

All appeared fine until July 8. That's when the CYR held the biggest event in its history at the Cubby Bear. The event drew about a thousand people, eclipsing the same event in 2009 which drew 800 people. Almost every Republican candidate and office holder in the Chicagoland area made appearances, including Bill Brady and Mark Kirk. Because of the events less than two weeks earlier, the executive committee of the CYR voted unanimously to not allow Gerson and Boulton into the event if they to showed up. Security was told to act professionally but that their instructions were to stop Gerson and Boulton at the door and inform them that they aren't invited in.

Two days after this slight, Gerson circulated a detailed memo by email to the GOP leadership in Illinois. The memo recounts events that begin with Gerson informing Roupas of the Rose incident and ends with the slight. It's detailed and painstaking, often noting when either she or Roupas didn't reach the other and left a message. The point of the memo: Jeremy Rose is a sexual predator that needs to be removed, Lee Roupas is covering up for him, and as such, he's running a campaign to run her out of the Chicago Republican Party. Two days after this memo was circulated, the website Hillbuzz picked up this story. Immediately after that, Illinois Republican Party leaders all began to receive emails from the addressconcernedgop@hushmail.com. One read, in part,

It has come to our attention that a vicious smear campaign is being launched against Chicago Republican Party Chairman Eloise Gerson. This campaign is in retaliation for her demand that an investigation be launched into allegations of predatory sexual behavior by the Executive Director of the Cook County RepublicanParty and former president of the Chicago Young Republicans, Jeremy Rose. These allegations were brought to the attention of County Chairman Lee Roupas by Ms. Gerson in June of this year. Mr. Roupas had already known about the allegations for over one year, but
failed to investigate their validity.

Both Hillbuzz and these emails, like Gerson's initial memo, continued the same three-pronged narrative. Were these a planned and coordinated effort? The only evidence is the timing and, of course, how curiously and remarkably the message from all three is exactly the same. As Leroy Jethro Gibbs of the TV show "NCIS" would say, "I don't believe in coincidences." All of it reached a crescendo at the end of July, and the media pressure proved too much for Rose. He resigned from his position in the Cook County Republican Party, and stepped down as president of the CYR about two weeks later, issuing this statement:

What happened that evening over a year ago was unacceptable. I sincerely regret my immature behavior and accept full responsibility for any misunderstandings that resulted from my actions. I also regret that this has caused a distraction for the local Republican Party at such a critical juncture. ... Nevertheless, my actions never went beyond social hijinks-- no matter what my political detractors allege. It is unfortunate that disgruntled individuals who are part of a fringe group chose to take out their personal vendettas by attempting to publicly smear me with false allegations. Their treacherous actions have yet again sidetracked the resurgence of the GOP in Chicago. I am confident that we are moving forward from this episode, and that the Party can refocus its effort on giving voters in Illinois a better option this November and beyond.

While Hillbuzz has been the driving force in raising the profile of this story, its proprietor, Kevin Dujan, failed to disclose a conflict of his own. He was a Hillary Clinton supporter who joined the CYR to help John McCain get elected. He stayed on after the election, but in June of 2009 he was considered for the position of fundraising director. When that position went to another member, Dujan had a very public blow-up and wasn't seen by the group again.

Despite achieving their goal, Gerson's allies continue to be paranoid. Her supporter Diane Shapiro initially issued this statement when asked for comment: "I have a strong background in journalism and public speaking (I teach the subject),and know how easy it is to twist words for effect. In order to support an argument you need evidence. Gossip, innuendo and third party 'information' do not constitute evidence in any court of law." Then 40 minutes later she followed up to add, "When the truth is revealed, you will find that you have been used and manipulated by people with personal agendas."

There's an old saying: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you aren't right. So maybe Roupas really is secretly trying to take over the Chicago Republican Party, a party that's secretly filled with Democrats. Maybe all the complaints against Gerson are really lodged by Roupas and his secret Democrat allies to accomplish this goal.

On the other hand, maybe Gerson and her allies are just paranoid and all of this is an extension of that paranoia. Then, the problem is Gerson herself. In that case, they've destroyed Jeremy Rose's reputation in a desperate attempt to mask their own incompetence. We all get politics, and control and power within the Chicago Republican Party is important to some. Then again, is it really so important that a young man's reputation should be used as a pawn to control it?