SOUR GRAPES MAKE THE VERY BEST SOUR WHINE
The Boone County, Kentucky GOP Reorganization Meeting Where The Vanquished Returned For Another Dismissal While Hurling More Baseless Accusations Of Criminal Activity
Note bene: This version has undergone an editorial and a legal review. Virtually all editorial comments and all those that have legal implications have been gratefully received and incorporated.
This is about Boone County politics Or Your County’s Politics. All politics are local and sometimes when we are voting in the general election we don’t realize that the race has already been decided at the precinct level. You need to understand that and you need to get involved.
We have been watching what might be called Reagan’s Rise Of The Silent Majority Part II. But it is not Reagan’s Majority it is the People’s Majority and we have been anything but silent. We chose who we chose for a reason — lots of reasons, actually. In the process we rejected all of those whose only contribution to the nation has been chaos, greed, and a lust for power.
We have watched and fought as they wielded their stolen authority to persecute, prosecute, and pander to a culture so aberrant that it could no longer be tolerated. Over the last year I have written pieces on the results of the excesses of those whose only vision for America and the world can best be described as a dystopian boundary free world lacking any moral code.
We have watched the theft of American wealth and the destruction of Her moral authority but not in silence and not without a response. Donald Trump is not a misstep. He is not a fraying in the thread of the American moral authority or in the long string of those who understand the inherent power and authority of our Constitution. Donald Trump is a man of substance, growing faith, and boundless patriotism and so is Chet Hand. You’ll meet Chet in just a bit.
During his first term (2016-2020) as America’s Disruptor in Chief, Donald Trump learned that the “swamp” was far deeper and wider and far more vicious than he ever imagined. But Trump is also a very, very quick study and while the extent and speed with which he is subduing those who would have “fundamentally transformed” America is “faster than a speeding bullet”, the Swamp Dwellers are stubbornly unwilling to accept the command of the People to stop the deceit and the chaos. In fact, they learned nothing from their consistent stream of defeats. Instead they have doubled down with new and more absurd accusations of corruption and fraud in hopes of maintaining their power and their wealth and despite their defeat at the polls in 2024.
So just how deep is the swamp? It runs the length and breadth of America and its epicenters are in an ever dwindling number of voting precincts in a shrinking number of counties still under the control of radical progressive democrats and RINOs. Until 2021 Boone County County was one those counties; firmly allied with Mitch McConnell with a County Judge Executive (head of the county commission) who at one time was simultaneously Judge Executive AND a member of the Board of Directors of St. Elizabeth Heath, our regional healthcare monopoly. But then another disruptor showed up.
Meet Chet Hand, Boone County Republican Party Chairman and Boone County Commissioner. In 2021 following what appears more and more to have been a Deep State orchestrated event of national significance On January 6, 2020, Chet and a small group of patriots decided that a hostile takeover of the Boone County, KY GOP was necessary and possible and so they did it. Needless to say the swamp dwellers headed by Mitch McConnell were and are still unhappy. And that is the next part of this story. But first a bit of background.
The state GOP requires that every four years, in the year following the general election, each County Republican Party must hold a Reorganization Meeting; some might call it a caucus. The purpose of this meeting is for the County Republican Party members (registered voters) to select who will lead the County Party for the next four years. That meeting was held on 22 Feb 2025. It was also a day when the Boone County “republican” swamp dwellers re-surfaced and deployed the same tired tactics of the socialist left that we have been subjected to for eight long years — the politics of personal destruction and false accusations of criminality.
In the politics of personal destruction facts are absolutely irrelevant. That lies are woven into a debasing narrative that describes the Swamp’s opposition is also irrelevant. The swamp will say and do whatever it takes to win. Whether the opposition is in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. or in Grace Fellowship Church in Boone County, Kentucky on Saturday morning in February matters little. Their tactics are the same. We all know what the Swamp aka the Deep State, has tried to do to Donald Trump and this past weekend we saw those tactics deployed here in Boone County. The first time we saw these people attack was during the the May 2024 primary election.
In HERE IN KENTUCKY.....THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (17 May 2024) I described how three “republican” candidates seeking to oust two incumbents and to fill a vacancy for a state House seat shamelessly deployed the politics of personal destruction. Those candidates were Duane Froelicher, Christopher Pavese, and C. Ed Massey. If you will take just few minutes to read “HERE IN KENTUCKY….” you’ll understand what happened this past Saturday and who may have been behind it.
This flyer was handed out Saturday morning to people standing in line waiting to register for the ReOrg meeting. There are two important points to be made here. First Chet hand is being accused of corruption in office. That is a serious charge. In fact, there is an allegation of criminal misuse of Party funds. Second, there is not one single person or organization identified with producing this flyer. Not a one.
In a FaceBook piece I posted on February 23, 2025 I wrote:
“When I write on any of my three FB pages, X, or the cleverly named Larry's Letters I ALWAYS use my name and not a psuedonym. The Boone Conservative and Kentucky For Trump use both my name and the titles of those two pages; figuring out who's taking credit for the content doesn't take a lot of detective work. My view is that if you're going to run your mouth you should be willing to let people know who you are.Which brings me to yesterday and the Boone County Reorganization Meeting where accusations of corruption office were hurled toward Boone County Party Chairman, Chet Hand. I traced down the alleged support for those accusations, more on that tomorrow. But today the real story is the accusers not having the moral strength to identify themselves; to stand behind their accusations.
Here's the bottom line. IF you make accusations, inferences, innuendos, hints, winks, or sly grins about alleged corruption in office you need to do two things
1. Bring the receipts. The real live paper trail that proves corruption. You didn't do that because there is none. It is a complete fiction.
2. Don't be cowardly and hide behind anonymity.”
In many cases primary elections even general elections, are not decided at the ballot box but rather at the county level during these Party meetings. These party meetings are where neighbors in a voting precinct decide who will represent them at the county level. IF enough people can get together and create a voting block they can get their candidate to the finish line. That is what Messieurs Froelicher, Massey, Pavese, and other RINOs who are not worth mentioning at this point, attempted to do. They failed. As part if their attempt someone or some members of their supporting cast created and distributed the flyer reproduced above.
The allegations in the flyer are clear:
“Chet’s cronies (are) controlling the party”.
Chet Hand on his own authority misspent Party funds.
Chet Hand “Put Boone County GOP in legal jeopardy with false claims”.
“Chet refuses to relinquish party leadership even though he was elected to the Boone County Fiscal Court. The Kentucky Executive Branch Code of Ethics stats that public officials should avoid holding both positions.”
This will be quick.
Bullet one: Elections have consequences. Chet Hand was elected to the position of Chairman of the BCRP by a majority of the voters who attended the 2021 Reorganization Meeting. Chet Hand and slate won and the others lost. It is what we call in America the voice of the people or if you prefer representative Democracy. The people who voted for Chet are not “cronies” they are members of the Boone County Republican Party. Period. End of story.
Bullet two: This allegation of Chet Hand unilaterally exceeding his spending authority is allegedly supported by this LINKNKY article published April 22, 2024.
“Based on testimonies from attendees to the meeting, Boone County Republican Committee Chair Chet Hand, who also serves as a Boone County Commissioner, made a motion to earmark about $45,000 (LINK nky was not able to confirm the exact figure) of the local party’s $50,000 operating budget to marketing for primary candidates, a move that, although not necessarily prohibited, is highly unusual and has drawn criticism from certain wings within the party.
The motion passed by a wide majority, 21 to 2, and has prompted one Hebron Republican, John Fredrick, to appeal the decision to party higher-ups.” (emphasis added)
Clearly, there is no support of the statement made in the flyer. Chet Hand’s authority to act was derived from the 21 votes his motion received. Nevertheless Christopher Pavese (See the LINKNKY article cited above) who was present at that meeting also charged that Hand acted unilaterally. C. Ed Massey offered that the money in question should have been distributed to ALL the GOP candidates which included both he, Christopher Pavese, and Duane Froelicher. Again elections have consequences and victors are free to exercise their legal authority as they see fit.
Bullet three: As support for the allegation the Author(s) of this flyer cite an article published in LinkNKY on August 15, 2022. The article explains how long time Boone County political figure Emily Shelton and an opponent of Chet Hand raised the allegation that Chet Hand place the the BCRP in “legal jeopardy” by illegally accepting a donation from a single individual in an amount that exceeded the legal limit established by the state. The article includes a Tweet from Secretary of State, Michael Adams who noted that such a contribution IF MADE was illegal and the persons making and accepting such a contribution would be committing a felony. But it wasn’t true and charges were never brought against either the donor or Chet Hand. Nevertheless it appears that either Ms. Shelton or someone else thought that it was worth raising this false allegation again.
Bullet four: The Kentucky Executive Branch Code of Ethics applies only to public servants who operate under the authority of the Executive Branch of the State of Kentucky. Chet Hand is not subject to the authority of the Executive Branch of State of Kentucky in either his capacity as member of the BCFC OR as Chairman of the BCRP. Those who crafted this flyer must surely know that and, therefore, they must also know that this allegation is lie. Period. But even if he were subject to the authority of the executive branch he would not have been require to comply with this guideline.
Massey, Pavese, and Froelicher were candidates in the 2024 primary and they lost their races dramatically by margins in the range of 3 -1. Further, Massey, Froelicher, Shelton, and Phyllis Sparks were all candidates for precinct positions at this Reorganization Meeting and they each lost their race in votes cast by their neighbors. More importantly each of them had reason to cast doubt on Chat Hand’s fitness for office, however, whether they participated in developing or distributing this flyer will never be known.
Political differences will always be with us and that is healthy because it causes us to examine our own political positions and to modify them as we grow in wisdom. Unfortunately, false accusations by anonymous parties in order to deceive the voting public into siding with the will also always be with us. As I wrote elsewhere, anonymity in a public forum where false allegations are made is often the main tool of the coward.
Does Chet Hand have grounds for a defamation or libel suit? I don’t know but even if he does the authors of this despicable flyer will never be known with enough certainty to hold them accountable. I am not a lawyer but I can find laws that may be applicable. When used properly the internet is a valuable tool which allowed me to find this:
18 U.S. Code § 1038 - False information and hoaxes.
All y’all who engaged in the production and distribution of this flyer may want to find another strategy by which to negotiate life. You’ll feel better about yourselves and so will God.
Union, Kentucky
25 February 2025