In an e-mail sent to GOP committee members, former chairman Wes Stow calls two colleagues "conspirators."
By AMY WIMMER SCHWARB
Published May 14, 2004
Wes Stow, who pledged to take the high road when he resigned May 3 as chairman of the Citrus County Republican Executive Committee, railed against his adversaries on the committee in an e-mail he sent to committee members Wednesday.
He called two of the county's top Republican Party officials - acting committee Chairman Frank Peterson and state committeeman Ken Chadwick - "two conspirators." He called Peterson "erratic," said Chadwick is trying to "hang on to an office he neither earned nor deserves," and blamed Chadwick for his downfall as county chairman.
Stow, who plans to challenge Chadwick for the state committeeman post, said Thursday that he is only defending himself. "Now that I've resigned, they've accused me of everything but inventing malaria," Stow said. "I'm sick and tired of it, and I'm not going to take this at all from these two people."
State Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon, who employs both Chadwick and Peterson on her re-election campaign, said Stow is making things worse for the Republicans. "He's on a path to try to destroy as many people as he can," Argenziano said Thursday. "But what's going to happen is he's going to destroy himself."
The continuing angst within the Citrus County Republican Party comes when Republicans are flying high locally: They outnumber Democrats, both in registered voters and in local political offices. During Stow's six-year tenure as chairman, Republicans raised more money, recruited more precinct committee people and grew in power.
Then, last month, Republicans presented Stow with a list of allegations against him. He offered to resign quietly, but then someone provided a copy of the politically damaging allegations to the Citrus County Chronicle, and Stow withdrew his resignation. He ended up resigning after all.
The Republican Executive Committee now is investigating how the grievance was leaked.
When he resigned, Stow called Peterson "an honorable man" and promised to run a clean campaign for state committeeman. In his e-mail Wednesday, Stow reminded committee members of Peterson's past failures, including the fact that the speaker of the House fired Peterson as Argenziano's legislative aide when Argenziano was a member of the Florida House.
He went on to write that Chadwick "has proven himself to be a liar." Stow said he has asked a committee member to prepare a grievance against Chadwick for consideration by the Republican Party of Florida.
On Thursday, Stow said he blames Chadwick for leaking the grievance against Stow, which included allegations that Stow played favorites among the Republican candidates, exacerbated disagreements between Argenziano and state Rep. Charles Dean, and tried to get someone to run against Republican U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite.
"The conspirators should have known that when you fire a shot across a Destroyerman's bow, you should expect a broadside in return!" wrote Stow, a retired U.S. Navy commander.
Stow said he decided to publicly denounce Peterson and Chadwick because Peterson told Republican Executive Committee members that Stow was spreading lies about Argenziano. Peterson said he sent that e-mail to committee members after hearing rumors he believed came from Stow.
"Only Wes had knowledge of that. Obviously, he had a hand in it," Peterson said.
