Campbell County Republican Party Chair Anna Zinkhon has announced her resignation effective immediately.
This comes a year after divisions emerged amongst the party last February. In her resignation letter, Zinkhon said she did not see a path forward to resolve the party’s issues.
“This task (being chair) proved more difficult due to the attitude of a small group of members who tried consistently to use the committee as a weapon to attack any issue that didn’t conform to their ‘beliefs,’” Zinkhon said in her letter of resignation. “This group never considered the good of the whole body. Their actions resulted in animosity and prevented the committee from achieving positive progress.”
Zinkhon refers to a group of people within the party who wanted her and former treasurer Stephen Cunningham removed from their seats. Cunningham resigned from his position, which was announced at the last Campbell County Republican Party meeting held in July 2023.
A written notice was also submitted for Zinkhon’s removal during that meeting. Zinkhon confirmed after that meeting that she had been “served” and the removal would appear on the next Campbell County Republican Party meeting agenda – though a meeting has not been held since.
On Feb. 1, five members of the party, Tammy Nolan, Geraldine Olson, Mirna Eads, David Daudistel and Laura Shanks, signed a petition to call a special meeting to be held in March to vote to remove Zinkhon for nonfeasance. Should Zinkhon not have called a meeting, then the chairman of Republican Party of Kentucky’s 4th District, Jon Park, would have been empowered to call the meeting and was copied on the note.
The divide amongst party members appeared after emails from Feb. 13, 2023, showed the Feb. 16, 2023, meeting was canceled due to a scheduling conflict despite an upcoming Winter Mixer slated to host several Republican candidates running for statewide constitutional offices.
Another email showed updated information for the Winter Mixer, which was scheduled to be held March 2 at the Newport Syndicate — the same night the party was slated to vote on whether to oust Zinkhon and Cunningham.
The Winter Mixer never took place, and the meetings held in March and April where the party voted to remove Cunningham and Zinkhon were ruled invalid by The Republican Party of Kentucky.
“Despite numerous attempts to resolve these conflicts and conducting training on parliamentary processes (for which I used my own funds to have a professional Parliamentarian attend meetings), our meetings continued to deteriorate,” said Zinkhon in her letter. “Abusive language, mean-spirited actions, and a complete lack of decorum at meetings continued and drove away many, if not all, of the well-intentioned citizens who just wanted to improve our political processes.
“It saddens me greatly to say this core group of angry people is only one aspect of a larger problem. Our citizens are deeply upset about the every-day injustices we see in our country. The Republican Party of Kentucky has terribly complex rules which seem designed to confuse and are easily misinterpreted. I have also learned in the past three years that county-level input is not an important factor at the state level. The county party is ‘tolerated’ as a requirement of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”
Here is a timeline of Campbell County Republican Party events from 2023:
March 2: Campbell County Republicans to vote on the removal of chair and treasurer in April.
April 14: Campbell County Republican Party votes to remove leaders; chair claims meetings are invalid.
April 25: Campbell County Republican Party chair removal won’t stand, state GOP says.
May 18: Campbell County Republican Party chair asks nine party members to resign.
June 22: Campbell County meetings to vote out chair; treasurer ruled invalid.
July 19: The first Campbell County Republican Party meeting of the year was scheduled.
July 28: Campbell County Republican Party votes in new treasurer; chair served removal notice.
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Written by Haley Parnell. Cross-posted from Link NKY.
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