This is going to be short post because I’m tired. I have been watching and corresponding about the events surrounding the Board of Directors meeting all day.
First, just the bare facts. Bob Barr representing the Old Guard did win the Presidency. The vote was 37-30. Then the surprises began. Bill Bachenberg from the reform slate went head to head with Blaine Wade for 1st VP and won 36-31. Following that, reformer Mark Vaughan, president of the Oklahoma Rifle Association, beat Tom King 35-31. King really represented the Old Guard and his defeat was a sea change in attitude on the Board.
Second, and what I consider the biggest surprise, Doug Hamlin, Executive Director of Publications and the reformer’s choice for EVP, beat Ronnie Barrett for EVP/CEO. There is some talk that Hamlin is intended as an interim choice while a nationwide search is conducted.
For a bare bones, just the facts ma’am report on what has happened so far, the NRA-ILA did a decent job. Here is a link to it.
The last I knew was that the meeting was still continuing after coming back from a dinner break. The keys going forward will be membership on the Nominating and Executive Committee. As I noted this morning, there were no reformers nominated for the Executive Committee. That must change.
I just got a copy of the Nominating Committee report. In addition to Bob Barr for President, Tom King and Blaine Wade are nominated as 1st and 2nd VP respectively. As rumored, David Coy was sacrificed.
The big surprise is Ronnie Barrett for EVP. I am sure the argument will be that he has the requisite business experience to run a large organization such as the NRA thanks to his history as CEO of Barrett Firearms Manufacturing. Now that he has sold that company to the Australians, he is free to take on other challenges. Not being in the room, we don’t know if he is being pitched as a temporary fix for the next couple of years or not. He is 70 years old so that might be the case. My objection to Barrett would revolve around him being a “Friend of Wayne” and it gives the anti’s more ammunition to accuse the NRA of just being a tool of the firearms industry. If the NRA was going to take a former CEO of a firearms company as the EVP, I think Mike Fifer of Ruger would have been a better choice.
I would also note that not one single reformer is nominated for the Executive Committee. It the Old Guard or the Cabal in its composition. I am a bit surprised that Marion Hammer was nominated for it as she had broken with the Cabal. Also, I see Joel Friedman who couldn’t even win the 76th Director position but only made it back to the Board by the resignation of Carl Rowan, Jr. is given a seat on it.
In other nominations, both John Frazer and Sonya Rowling keep their jobs with Bill Brewer’s guy Robert Mensinger joining as the Chief Compliance Officer. Seems like a good enough pick but he is tainted by association with Bill Brewer. As to Frazer, I perceive him as a nice – but weak – guy who is in over his head. In no other non-profit or corporation would the General Counsel still have the job after a jury found him guilty of violating his fiduciary duties and submitting false filings to a governmental agency. Rowling is, like Frazer, someone who in the end who will do what they are told. Witness the cutting of a check to Brewer’s law firm this weekend even though it devastates the NRA’s finances.
Here is the full report. Make your own decisions about it. In my opinion, it is a big FU to those who want change, those who want transparency, and those who think the members actually count.
There are times in life when you say, “I’m tired of taking this shit.” Dan Boren had to be there when he resigned from the NRA and NRA Board of Directors yesterday.
Leadership portrait of Dan Boren
Date taken: August 8, 2013
Photographer: Marcy Gray
Boren’s resignation makes the eighth director to resign from the NRA Board of Directors since the beginning of the year.
Tom King, president of the NY State Rifle and Pistol Association and a NRA Board member, reportedly had filed an ethics complaint against Boren. Taken with a grain of salt given he is a LaPierre loyalist, he told Newsweek:
“Mr. Boren resigned in the face of an ethics complaint, which I filed, that cites troubling communications and serious allegations linking him to suspected extortion against the NRA and billing fraud by the NRA’s former vendor, Ackerman McQueen,” NRA board member Tom King told Newsweek in a written statement. “Under these circumstances, this news is not surprising.”
That was just the latest in actions aimed at Boren. In the case aimed at avoiding paying Oliver North’s legal bills, the NRA contended that Boren had somehow conspired with Col. North in the supposed “coup attempt”.
Mr. Boren entered into an agreement, combination, and/or conspiracy with the Defendants for the purpose of carrying out the fraudulent behavior, the attempt to de-railing the resulting NRA investigation, and the attempt to extort Mr. LaPierre and the NRA alleged herein. In addition, there exists a small group comprising former vendors, professionals, and consultants of the NRA whose economic incentives, like AMc’s, were challenged by the NRA investigation and, like Mr. Boren, joined the agreement, combination, and/or conspiracy.
My sources told me after the NRA Annual Meeting, that in their opinion, Boren had hoped to act as an intermediary to try and salvage the multi-decades relationship between the NRA and AckMac. There was nothing unsavory about his actions.
Boren was named Oklahoma president and Chief Banking Officer of First United Bank on October 10th. From The Oklahoman:
Boren, 46, who has spent nearly seven years as president of corporate development for the Chickasaw Nation, will begin work in early January at First United. The bank is based in Durant and has locations in Oklahoma and Texas.
First United CEO Greg Massey said, “I am excited to have Dan join our team. His passion for serving Oklahoma aligns perfectly with our purpose at First United.”
Boren, a Blue Dog Democrat, served four terms in Congress representing a district in eastern Oklahoma from 2005 until 2013. According to The Oklahoman, he had been considering a run for governor of Oklahoma last year. They note he hasn’t ruled out running for office in the future.
Taken on the whole, I’d say the NRA really needed a man like Boren more than he needed them. As a Democrat, he gave them at least some semblance of being bi-partisan. As a Congressman, even though it is now former Congressman, he gave them a strong influence on Capitol Hill. When you add that to his role with a large Indian tribe and his new job in banking, he brought a lot to the table.
What did he get in return for what he gave the NRA? A pile of paranoid crap. I’m surprised he didn’t resign earlier. I sure as hell would have and done so with a clear conscience.
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