After about a dozen years as the face and voice of the San Benito County Republican Central Committee, Marvin Jones is no longer heading up the local organization.
He lost out in a 5-4 vote for the chairman role to former State Assembly candidate Robert Bernosky at the Dec. 7 central committee meeting. Elections for offices on the Republican or Democratic central committees occur after the General Election – for the GOP in December and the Democrats in January.
The vote for GOP central committee officers came about a month after the Nov. 6 election, when Bernosky lost a second consecutive bid for the area Assembly seat.
As Jones portrayed it, Bernosky narrowly won the chairman role at the recent meeting after gaining the votes of two “ex officio” committee members – Jeff Taylor and an alternate, Hollister Councilman Victor Gomez, sitting in for State Sen. Anthony Cannella.
Taylor was a GOP candidate for the local Congressional seat, while Cannella, of Ceres, represents San Benito County in the state Legislature. Bernosky is an ex officio delegate himself.
Those two other ex-officio votes would have swung the decision in Bernosky’s favor. Though the process includes a secret ballot, Jones contended he knew which committee members supported his election.
Ex officios are the most current candidates and officers in state or national seats. They are allowed to cast votes for central committee matters in all of the counties where they run for higher offices.
Gomez said he has “no problem with the process at all” and that he shares the same values as Cannella. Gomez said he made the central committee decision himself.
“I’m excited about Robert moving forward as the leader of the GOP locally,” Gomez said.
Jones and Bernosky stressed that both sides followed the bylaws in place for such elections. Jones, though, also contended there was another vote at the same meeting – prior to the election of officers, whether to fill out the committee with appointed members – which restricted some of his supporters from taking part.
“They did their homework,” Jones said, “and they read the rules and brought their people in.”
Bernosky called the vote “party politics.”
“The bylaws of the Republican Party are very specific in how you elect officers,” Bernosky said, “and we followed those bylaws to the letter and the spirit.”
Jones actually had considered stepping aside this year because he’s 75 years old, he said, “and it’s time to do something different.” He had not initially pushed for a run and was nominated from the floor the night of the Bernosky vote.
Bernosky said Jones and other GOP leaders locally “did a great job” and lauded the Republican headquarters that was set up for the November election. Looking ahead, he said the difference between he and Jones is that he has goals for fundraising, mailing lists and registration.
In general, he said state Republicans have allowed Democrats, and the “mainstream media,” to define their message. As for the Democrats, Gregory Rivera remains their central committee chairman, at least until the January meeting.
“The Republican Party right now needs some heroes to jump in and sort of examine what we’ve been doing and make adjustments accordingly so that we can be more relevant,” Bernosky said.
