by Just before noon, I received a press release from the NRA. At first, I expected it to say what a success the Annual Meeting was and how the officers had all been re-elected. Instead the first paragraph contained a shocker. Willes Lee had been replaced as 1st Vice President and replaced by former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA). Whoa!
From the release:
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) announces the election results from its Board of Directors Meeting held in Indianapolis, IN. Charles Cotton was reelected NRA President, former Congressman Bob Barr was elected as First Vice President, and David Coy reelected Second Vice President.
In recognition of his extraordinary leadership these past two years, the NRA Board of Directors voted unanimously to amend its bylaws to allow Cotton to succeed himself for a third term. In addition to his responsibilities as NRA President, Cotton is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a transformational leader.
LaPierre was re-elected by the NRA Board of Directors, who annually elect the CEO/EVP. The Board of Directors are elected by NRA members. This followed a vote at the NRA Members Meeting on April 15, 2023, where members expressed confidence in Mr. LaPierre.
I have to laugh when they said Charles Cotton was a “transformational leader”. That would be true if you meant the leader who helped make the NRA a defunct organization. As to the members expressing “confidence” in Wayne, about 1/3 or so of those in attendance at the Meeting of the Members including me voted FOR the resolution offered by Jeff Knox expressing “no confidence” in LaPierre.
As to why Willes Lee was dumped, it is speculated that his resignation from the Special Litigation Committee was considered “disloyalty”. As a Florida politician who had voted with Marion Hammer 95% of the time noted, she considered him a “traitor”. I had understood that he felt blindsided when the move to let Charles Cotton have a third term was floated. He was not consulted nor told in advance of this move. I heard other speculation that his resignation from the Special Litigation Committee could have been due to a disagreement with Bill Brewer on litigation strategy.
Lee found this under his hotel room door on Sunday night prior to Monday’s Board of Directors meeting.
Again, the friends of Wayne blindsided Lee. A former director told me that Bob Barr was a true, blue supporter of Wayne. I was also told by another former director that he was surprised that it wasn’t Ronnie Barrett who also supports Wayne. What is surprising is that David Coy was not moved to the 1st VP position with Barr becoming the 2nd VP. This makes Barr as the presumptive nominee for President of the NRA in 2024.
The Facebook page of Lee contains some interesting stuff. He even included an article by Jeff Knox criticizing the Special Litigation Committee. Mind you it was Jeff who offered the resolution of no confidence in Wayne at the Meeting of Members. Normally, something like Jeff’s article would have been ignored as if it never happened and not worthy of comment. Lee also said that he believes in transparency and will never “keep secrets” from the Board.
In other Board news, Carrie Lightfoot reportedly has resigned and will be replaced by Charles Beers. I understand her resignation was due to a need to take care of a family member and to give more attention to her business.
In an ironic twist, Lee reports that the best text he has received today was one that said, “Oh. No. They Ollie’d you, at annual meeting, in Indianapolis. lol.” He even acknowledged how he was part of those who did it to Ollie in 2019.
I’ll put this out there. If any member of the Board of Directors wants to contact me, either on or off the record, my blog email is gunsandmoneyblog AT gmail DOT com.
With “Lightfoot” out, that means just one more resignation or death (with so many 80 or older, this is likely) and they are on their last available replacement. We again end up in a place where they can’t fill a board if they have any openings after that.
Considering how I expect the upcoming suits to go, I expect they’ll be operating at partial capacity. Which would be another good reason for petition candidates to consider running. They will be required to fill all of those seats with anyone who makes top spots on the ballot.
While the Nominating Committee will try to nominate enough people so it’s not an issue, they are going to have a much bigger battle on their hands trying to find people willing to do it. This year, they only found 3 extra people, and 2 are already on the Board. Last year, trying to deter Frank Tait, they managed 5 extra people and yet Frank still ended up on the Board because one died during the election, one dropped out, one had to be 76th director, and they still had enough deaths & resignations that used up every other extra nominating committee selectee.
They are desperate and their pool of willing names to be thrown onto the board is getting smaller because everyone who breathes the wrong way in the direction of Florida is part of “an enemy within” and the only friends they have are literally dying.
Finding 5-25 people who would willingly place the burden on themselves is tough. The liability issue alone.
Marion rules the roost even when she sits in Florida the whole week.
Yes, that is very true.
Though I suspect Marion is getting easier to ignore, and likely with the quiet blessing of headquarters in the future if not yet. She’s already had to be publicly (to the Board anyway) corrected on her instructions to violate court orders, and she does NOT take kindly to learning she’s in the wrong in my experience. I would love to see her real feedback to that public correction. And look at her insane lawsuit against an anti-gunner who sent obnoxious emails – she kept fighting that up to the appeals level when it was clearly not a violation of any law. Her behavior in her advanced years (84 later this month) seems to be getting more unhinged in regards to professional responses to these issues, and I don’t see how even Wayne can afford to keep her working as his attack dog if she becomes a risky legal liability more than her big bucks as a Board member already are.
Liability is hard to escape because Wayne’s group will fight back to cut off indemnification, but I also think it’s less likely anyone entering the Board as an explicit reform candidate will be subject to much, if anything, unless Wayne goes scorched earth and starts having friends file lawsuits. However, they’d have to do so against all Board members, particularly those not doing their duty. But the unknown risk there is definitely of concern to reasonable folks. That said, maybe there are some recent past directors who know a thing or two about options for a discussion with anyone interested.
I am so disgusted with the NRA I can’t find non-four-letter words to express it. They are lucky the original founding members can’t come back. It would get noisy.