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Richard DeNapoli, the state Republican Party committeeman from Broward, says the county party is rife with personal disagreements, vendettas and score settling.

The county party organization holds its regular monthly meeting Monday night.

DeNapoli emailed county Republicans with his concerns over the weekend, following Fridays resignation of Dolly Rump, secretary of the county party.

In her resignation, Rump cited major dysfunction, division and disorder between officers. She was elected secretary in December after serving as Broward chairwoman for Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

DeNapoli, a former county Republican chairman who was also an early Trump supporter, was elected as the state Republican committeeman by party voters in the August primary. That makes him a member of the state Republican Executive Committee, which governs the state party, and a leader in the local party.

The local party, run by committeemen and committeewomen throughout the county, is formally known as the Broward Republican Executive Committee.

DeNapoli, in his email, said Rump correctly diagnosed what was going on.

I understand Dolly's reasons and can echo her sentiments. It is true that rather than focusing on critical tasks, certain members of BREC are instead focused on personal disagreements and vendettas, he wrote. You may be shocked by what Im about to write, but its all true and you need to be aware of the situation.

Instead of working together, certain members are bent on expelling other members or making their lives miserable so that they resign, DeNapoli said.

Bob Sutton, chairman of the party, could not be immediately reached on Monday. After Rump resigned on Friday, he said he look[ed] forward to the Broward Republican Executive Committee board getting back to work, explaining that within the party theres always disagreements like there are in any large family.

DeNapoli said the situation is far worse than Rump described. Exhibit A, he said, was a call about him to the police on March 8 when he was speaking the Lauderdale Beach Republican Club.

I was falsely accused of assault. I say falsely accused because the police determined immediately that there was no assault, DeNapoli wrote, adding that he was accused of falsely imprisoning someone.

After he was questioned, deputies determined, of course, that I had committed no crimes and did nothing wrong. The matter was closed and there was no further investigation. They knew that this was just a political disagreement, DeNapoli wrote.

He continued:

I've heard through the grapevine that more fake criminal accusations may be coming my way. From whom I don't know. But here's an example of what might happen an ordinary handshake could be portrayed as a trumped-up battery charge.

Clearly, this is a "witch hunt" orchestrated to intimidate, harass and defame me, and you as BREC members need to be aware of this. This culture of intimidation and using the police for political purposes needs to stop, and I call upon Chairman Sutton to do something to stop this ridiculousness. ...

The bottom line is that no one should treat fellow Republicans in such a manner. No one should falsely accuse a fellow Republican, former chairman, and current state committeeman of committing crimes for their own political purposes. You do not try to ruin someones life simply because they disagree with you or you don't like them. You do not waste the taxpayers' dollars by involving the police to solve your political problems. You do not tie up the police from handling other life-threatening matters in the community by making frivolous and false calls to the police. I am an attorney and former prosecutor who has been falsely accused of assault, the crime of false imprisonment, and being under an imaginary FBI investigation. This is beyond ridiculous for someone volunteering for the Republican cause. But these are just a couple of examples of what has been going on over the last few months.

DeNapoli said he was concerned about the prospect of the county party creating a local Grievance Committee on Monday night, even though the state already has a grievance process. He said a local committee could be used to perform witch hunts against BREC members.

aman@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4550

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Another Broward Republican leader says party is plagued with dysfunction, personal feuds - Sun Sentinel