After the passing of Louis Gasper, the former Chairman of Legislative District 19 Republicans, a special meeting was held to elect a new Chairman.
Candidates to fill the remainder of his term were his widow, Jo Ann Gasper, and another candidate who was nominated from the floor. When the votes were tallied, Jo Ann Gasper was elected overwhelmingly, by a 158-61 margin.
Gasper was sworn in and will serve until new elections are held at their normal time on November 14th.
After being sworn into office as the new LD19 chairman, a Death Resolution that was passed by the Arizona House of Representatives, in honor of Louis Gasper, was read and presented to his widow.
That led to a tense moment, as the opposition group led by a former legislative chair, Cheryl Caswell, walked out in the middle of the death resolution.
“That was horrible to see, because it was this beautiful salute to Louis, and people were listening with tears in their eyes, and suddenly everything is being interrupted because Caswell and some other sore losers wanted to make a show about walking out of the meeting instead of waiting sixty seconds more,” lamented one committeeman who attended.
Caswell served previously as a district chairman but was voted out because of her constant attacks on other Republicans. She was often referred to as Cochise Democrats’ favorite Republican for the way she spent most of her time targeting Republicans instead of Democrats.
Caswell is now running for State House against Republicans David Gowan and Lupe Diaz. That primary will be July 21st.
Be the first to comment