O.C. Republican official censured for Obama-chimp email

SANTA ANA — Orange County Republican Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport was censured by the committee Wednesday for forwarding an email with a picture of President Barack Obama’s face on the body of a baby chimpanzee.

“She was censured by the party, which is the highest form of disapproval for an ethics violation,” Republican Party of Orange County Chairman Scott Baugh told City News Service.

“The premise for the censure is she knew the email was controversial before she sent it and she sent it anyway. And instead of owning up to the gravity of it she sought to downplay it and blame others for leaking it to the media.”

Davenport was not immediately available for comment, but a friend on the central committee, Tim Whitacre, criticized Baugh and former California Republican Party Chairman Michael Schroeder.

“It’s no surprise to anybody. This was a predetermined outcome by Scott Baugh,” Whitacre said. “The ethics committee is appointed and controlled by Scott Baugh, so no one is surprised by this outcome. It’s a bogus result.”

Whitacre claimed Baugh and others used the bylaws of the party incorrectly to censure Davenport, who made national headlines when it became public she was forwarding an email to her friends in the party that included a picture with Obama’s face superimposed over a baby chimp’s face with the caption, “Now you know why — No birth certificate!”

Whitacre challenged Baugh to release his phone records and make his computer available to an expert to prove that he did not leak the embarrassing email to the OC Weekly, which broke the story.

“It was Scott Baugh and Mike Schroeder who caused the media onslaught,” Whitacre said.

Efforts to reach Schroeder were unsuccessful.

Baugh denied making the email public.

“I never communicated any of that email or the contents to Mr. Schroeder through electronic or verbal means or to the media for that matter,” Baugh said. “It’s a convenient ploy to blame others for doing exactly what you did, which was forwarding a racist email to others in the community.”

Baugh said he was trying to resolve the issue privately with Davenport before it became public.

“As chairman of the party it’s my duty to try to handle these things in a discreet fashion when they arise and that’s what I was trying to do in a private email with Marilyn,” Baugh said.

“It was Marilyn who later shared that private email with the media. I wish we could have dealt with it internally before it became a media circus.”

Baugh reiterated his wish that Davenport resign from her elected position. Whitacre said he talked to Davenport on Wednesday and she still has no intention of resigning.

“It’s her call whether she wants to stay or go,” Baugh said.

Baugh said he has received more than 1,000 calls to the party headquarters about the email flap and “95 percent of them are calls to say she should resign.”

Baugh said Davenport probably could have avoided the rebuke had she just stuck to her written apology, which was issued April 18. But her news conference in front of her Fullerton home April 20 undid all the goodwill she accomplished with her written apology, Baugh said.

“She issued that sincere apology on Monday night and then the following Wednesday she went on some media tour suggesting it wasn’t racist and casting doubt on Obama’s birth (in the U.S.) and seeking still to blame others for putting it in the media,” Baugh said.

“The bottom line is she hit the send button. Much of the good accomplished by her apology was undone by her culture of blame.”

Whitacre defended the news conference.

“Marilyn had every right to stand up and tell her side,” Whitacre said. “Up to that point it was Baugh and Schroeder spreading their lies… I wanted everyone to see Marilyn Davenport — a 74-year-old woman unscripted.”

Davenport said at her news conference she wasn’t sure whether Obama was born in the United States. She also denied she thought the email was racist and thought of it as political satire.

“It was inappropriate, and as I say, I would not do that again,” Davenport said. “As I said before, it struck me as just political satire. It’s been around, I guess it’s been around many times, but it was an unwise thing, a very unwise thing.”

Source: LA Wave