INTERNAL ARIZONA REPUBLICAN PARTY MEMO

DATE: January 23, 2019

TO: Kyle Pierce, Executive Director

FROM: Robert Maxwell, Deputy Communications Director

SUBJECT: Unethical Use of Party Resources & Systematic Failures That Will Lead To 2020 Defeat

Let me begin by making it abundantly clear that I love the Republican Party, love the Party activists in
our state and love the work that President Trump is doing on behalf of all Americans, especially
Arizonans. As a proud black Republican, I stand resolute in my belief that conservative principles and
the planks contained within the Republican Party platform are the only way to empower ALL individuals,
regardless of their race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and so on, to achieve
prosperity and truly keep America great. It is for these very beliefs that I am saddened to write this
memo.

I have witnessed systematic failures within the Arizona Republican Party that not only led to the most
significant Republican losses in a generation in 2018, but if allowed to persist will cost President Trump
Arizona in 2020, thus costing him our electoral votes. President Trump should not be forced to worry
about Arizona turning blue, yet if the AZGOP doesn’t do something to radically shake up its strategy that
is exactly what will happen.

Here are just a few of the issues I’ve personally witnessed that have left me gravely concerned for the
future of the Republican Party in our great state.

• Absent Staff: More often than not, both before and after the 2018 general election, the AZGOP
office is entirely empty except for a single low level staffer or volunteer.

• Failure to Recruit & Support Republican Candidates: While I have tremendous respect for
Governor Ducey and have been energized by his pledges to make Arizona the most prosperous
state in the nation, I do not believe that the AZGOP should have operated as his personal political
operation, especially given that it did so at the detriment of other important Republican
candidates like Martha McSally, Frank Riggs, Jill Norgaard, Frank Schmuck, and Steve Gaynor,
 among many others. The AZGOP, for whatever reason, failed to provide any substantive support
to our top tier Republican candidates, which significantly contributed to their losses.

• Extended Vacations: Since the 2018 general election, the majority of AZGOP staff took extended
3, 4, 5, and 6 week vacations while still collecting their paychecks and consuming Party resources.
The AZGOP got out worked and out spent during the 2018 election, yet in the aftermath of the
election nothing has been done to right the ship. I cannot reiterate strongly enough that if we
don’t make serious changes, Arizona will go blue in 2020.

• Wasted Resources: The AZGOP continues to spend hundreds of thousands each year on vendors
that provide zero creativity or value to the mission of electing Republicans.

• Absent Chairman: Chairman Lines has been absent and largely unavailable to staff and
grassroots leaders before, during and after the general election. This has been arguably the most
common complaint I have heard from our own staff, as well as, activists throughout the state
over the past few months. Consider that staff has held a regular meeting to “come up” with
things we could credit to Chairman Lines so he would appear to be engaged in the business of
the state party. This charade is a lie both to ourselves and the grassroots who mistakenly believe
that he is active and engaged, when the reality is he is not.

• Most concerning, by far, is that AZGOP resources, most specifically staff, paid consultants and
headquarters, are being misappropriated for the benefit of Chairman Lines’ reelection bid. On
numerous occasions in the past weeks, and presently, AZGOP resources have been used to
strategize and run his campaign. This is a blatant abuse and misuse of power and resources. The
AZGOP headquarters has been turned into a de facto war room for Chairman Lines to win his re-
election. Can you imagine the outcry that would ensue if a city councilmember, legislator or the
governor were running their campaign out of the office they had been elected to steward?

Given these serious indiscretions of those tasked with running the Arizona Republican Party, I can no
longer in good conscience continue to serve in my current role as Deputy Communications Director. I
cannot remain a part of a system so broken and focused on self-interest rather than Party interest. I
hereby tender my resignation, effective immediately.

Sincerely,

Robert Maxwell
Deputy Communications Director