Liz Pike calls for Clark County GOP chair to resign

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With candidate filings less than a week away, partisan politics are already hot. It’s also evident that the local Clark County Republican Party remains fractured.

Some members continue to call for Chair David Gellatly’s resignation, with a renewed effort coming from Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, Thursday.

Pike posted on Facebook that she can no longer support Gellatly as chair citing recent actions as “extremely troubling.” While Pike does not specify what actions she finds troubling, it’s safe to presume she’s referencing details of Gellatly’s ongoing divorce proceedings. Several screenshots of the filings are circling online and in local Facebook page groups.

Pike, who previously announced she won’t be among the candidates filing for office next week, says that public perception plays a major role in politics.

“For the sake of our Republican candidates, the current chair has become too much of a distraction and must now resign,” she said.

Gellatly provided the following response.

Liz Pike is and has been playing dirty behind the scenes for a long time. … While Liz has been able to fool a lot of people into trusting her, she has been successful at hiding her lack of any accomplishments in Olympia.

The small group of radical minded people who infiltrated the Clark County GOP a few years ago and recently lost their influence within it, will always attack me and I never expect to see this change. … If their goal is to help elect Democrats, then they get an A for their effort, but no one is fooled by who they pretended to be anymore.

After a year of constant attacks and lies from the radical group of Liz’s friends, it has certainly worn on me. Having the break in my family was also very hard, and having false accusations against me is never fun. I did not always handle everything perfectly and have been very open and honest about this. A couple times I even let it get the better of me and used poor judgement in my personal life, a couple instances I was open and honest about that I expect to be fully exploited and exaggerated by Pike and her group.

But being a volunteer in my community evidently has put me and my personal life on a target list for Liz and her friends. I will not comment on my personal family matters and those who try to use this in their attacks (will) not be worth even acknowledging. With all the lies and attacks, I have tried to stay on the most positive track I can with things. But to be honest, I find myself very tired, physically and mentally.

I am often asked why. Why don’t I quit? My only reason is the knowledge that although I don’t claim to be perfect by any means, I know that someone has to stand up for what’s right against those who put this type of poison into our community. I might fail from time to time in my life, and if someone else has lived the perfect life and wants to take my volunteer position on, by all means, I will not stand in the way.

With more than 20 partisan offices up for election in Clark County this year, along with 287 GOP precinct committee chairs, it could be a long, hard-fought summer for party members.