by Jason Ouimet, Director of the NRA-Institute for Legislative Affairs, is leaving to join Shumaker Advisors. Stephen Gutowski reported it in The Reload and shortly thereafter it was posted on Twitter.
Jason Ouimet is leaving NRA-ILA to pursue other opportunities. We would like to thank Jason for his service to the NRA and on behalf of our freedom. We wish Jason all the best with his new endeavors, and know he will continue to be a strong advocate for the Second Amendment.
— NRA (@NRA) February 21, 2023
We… https://t.co/ZsGom7XdJK
Ouimet replaced long-time ILA Executive Director Chris Cox in 2019.
As to why Ouimet is leaving now just 6 to 7 weeks before the NRA Annual Meeting, nothing is being said publicly. If I hear anything, I’ll post it.
Shumaker Advisors is a division of the law firm Shumaker, Loop, and Kendrick. They have offices in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and DC. Interestingly, Ryan Walker, Shumaker’s Senior VP of Federal Affairs, is a fellow Kent State grad.
If Rocky Marshall’s calculations are accurate, the cash on hand really may be running out before the Annual Meeting. And I don’t doubt for one second that WLP wouldn’t love to raid what’s left of ILA’s reduced finances to keep paying himself and Brewer.
I do think it’s telling that they don’t have anyone willing to step in immediately as interim director. That is either because it happened so fast and the whole world would know when Jason effectively deleted everything NRA-profile based so they better say something or look like they don’t even know what’s happening in their own building, or because having a boss there is either something they can’t afford anymore or they need someone who will 100% always say yes to turning over more and more of the funds to WLP. At least that’s my guess as an outsider.
I’ll have to go check my bylaws on this because the director of ILA is a bylaws-mandated and defined role. Then again, the courts have made clear that they have zero interest in hearing from the members on NRA mismanagement. If the wealthy ones with lawyers can’t even get the judge to listen, then there effectively is no hope that the court will hear that there are thousand and thousands of people who want a full criminal investigation into Wayne’s mismanagement, but would like to save the organization.
Oh, BTW, the Board changed the bylaws again without notice to members. (Anyone reading this who mistakenly believes they can’t do that, read your copy you have on hand. They absolutely can rewrite most of the bylaws without any member input or notice.) I put in a request for a copy, but have not received it. They claimed more than 2 weeks ago that it was still being proofed from the early January vote and wouldn’t be ready for “a few weeks” because of the time to print and ship. So the bylaws may be radically changed and then very conveniently “delayed” in extraordinary proofing times and slow, slow printing with the slowest shipping…and then members won’t know well enough in advance of the Annual Meeting if anything is amiss. Of course, it could be totally minor changes that still takes week to proofread because they’ve laid off nearly all of the staff and they may have fewer vendors willing to take a chance on a big order in case they file bankruptcy again. We wouldn’t know because the bylaws won’t be shared electronically even when they are in a digital file format for printing…
The laid off thing is entirely possible. When I tried to reach out about incorrect contacts published on their website, it was weeks of no one answering phones, no one responding to mesages, etc. Turns out that after someone on Twitter directed me to someone still working, people left in at least division didn’t even know about some voicemail boxes, phone numbers, and email addresses because NRA laid off the people who did the engagement work with people – a whooping 2 years prior. So they had 2 years of unchecked messages and phone call loops that were never answered because they got rid of the people who knew how to do the job.
Good job, Wayne!
Who needs Mike Bloomberg to end the NRA when you have Wayne LaPierre appearing to do a damn fine job at driving the organization to closure?
We need to be spooling up a replacement. Some people have stepped up on the political front though without the incredible reach of the old NRA. There is no umbrella organization that I know of that certifies trainers both in the self-defense field and the hunter safety courses. I am mostly interested in self-defense so I have switched my donations to the SAF though their litigation only strategy is a limit.
“Who needs Mike Bloomberg to end the NRA when you have Wayne LaPierre appearing to do a damn fine job at driving the organization to closure?”
That has to win the Internet for comments this week. Sadly.
And the average age of leadership just went up 8 years