Yes, the State Committee Walked Out on Jim Jones Lyons. But Not for the Reason You've Been Told.
Jim lied about his promise to seat a duly elected member of the committee.
CLICK TO WATCH: Jim Jones Lyons called building security on a State Committee member who proposed seating Nicaela Chinnaswamy after she won her election.
In our last issue, we covered Jim Lyons’ complete failure to win a single special election during his first term. His focus was instead on managing State Committee elections in 2020 to try and preserve his rapidly shrinking majority of supporters. So began the battle for a seat in the Second Suffolk.
In 2020, Eleanor Greene (left) and Nicaela Chinnaswamy (right) competed for the Second Suffolk seat on the Republican State Committee.
The Second Suffolk district, which comprises half of Boston, was home to a write-in campaign between Eleanor Greene — Jim’s preferred candidate — and a young Indian-American woman named Nicaela Chinnaswamy. An initial count showed neither candidate obtained the 50 write-in votes necessary to officially win the election, however Chinnaswamy got more votes than Greene.
Without an initial winner, Jim waited nine months until right before his reelection to hold a caucus to fill the vacancy, once again breaking MassGOP bylaws. His committee ally Brendan O’Connell marshaled the vote for Greene, who was temporarily seated. In court, Chinnaswamy petitioned for a recount while Jim’s attorney David Carr said the caucus result would be nullified if Chinnaswamy was declared the winner.
David Carr, the MassGOP attorney, told a Superior Court judge that Jim would seat the winner of the election, Chinnaswamy.
Notice how Attorney Carr said Jim as Chairman has an obligation to fill State Committee seats “expeditiously". Curiously we don’t hear that argument today when up to eight seats are vacant, with some over two years old.
In March 2021, a recount was held showing 65 votes for Chinnaswamy and 50 votes for Greene. A Superior Court judge ruled Chinnaswamy the winner.
A Superior Court Judge ruled in October 2021 that Chinnaswamy won the election.
Jim was furious, and the next morning he issued a press release calling the Boston Elections Commission “incompetent” for finding additional votes during the recount, thereby showing Chinnaswamy met the 50-vote threshold.
Jim knew what Carr had said, so instead he pointed out that Secretary of State Bill Galvin refused to go back and change the election results (we put this next part in bold for easy reading): Jim Jones Lyons worked alongside Democrat Bill Galvin to try and prevent a Republican woman from winning her election.
So Chinnaswamy went to court a THIRD time and got a judge to force Bill Galvin to certify her victory.
Secretary Galvin’s letter to Jim stating Chinnaswamy officially won the Second Suffolk election for the Republican State Committee.
Jim spent the next two state committee meetings deferring business on the Second Suffolk — in other words, a vote to seat Chinnaswamy. He ran out the clock at these meetings with longwinded rants, meaningless resolutions, and anything else he could think of. Before the third meeting, Jim unilaterally declared Greene the winner of the seat and refused to let the committee hold a vote.
The third meeting was held in December 2021, and it was the first time that over half of the committee walked out in support of Chinnaswamy. Then those members did the exact same thing in the February 2022 meeting. Nothing about their approach changed. But when committee member John Miller raised a point of order to seat Chinnaswamy, Jim called security on him.
CLICK TO WATCH LONG EDITION: State Committee member John Miller motions to seat Chinnaswamy, leading Jim Jones Lyons to call for security to throw him out.
The February meeting entailed passage of a party budget for the year, an action that requires a quorum of 40 members. With no quorum due to the Chinnaswamy walkout, the MassGOP Treasurer took the completely legal action under party bylaws of pausing all spending until a vote on the budget could be taken.
We all know by now that Jim only has a passing familiarity with, or interest in, following the bylaws. When he didn’t get what he wanted, Jim chose to sue the Treasurer with his favorite attorney, David Carr.
Jim has used donations to pay his attorney nearly $33,000 in 2022, some from the MassGOP and some from the Question 4 account.
Rather than spend all the money they could on Question 4, which was extremely close, Jim chose to spend over $17,000 in donations to pay his attorney. Why would an attorney be paid by a ballot committee so late in the election? Does the ballot committee have any other outstanding bills to Carr? Was the money spent by the Question 4 account actually used to pay for suing fellow Republicans?
Regardless of the answers to those questions, this ballot initiative was extremely close, and that money could have been used for voter outreach. Maybe it would have made the difference and we wouldn’t have illegal immigrants with drivers licenses starting this year!
Next week, Jim is going to start a statewide tour to tell you all about his so-called “conspiracy” where half of the State Committee walked out to prevent a budget from being passed. Nothing could be further from the truth. These committee members just wanted Jim to seat Chinnaswamy, who won her election fair and square.
But fair doesn’t pay the bills, does it Jim Jones?
Don’t be fooled by Jim’s bait-and-switch. Call your Republican State Committee members and tell them one simple message:
“This month, vote for anyone for Chairman except Jim Lyons.”
CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR TOWN AND CALL YOUR STATE COMMITTEE MEMBERS #DumpJimJones