28 January, 2016
Holliston, MA ...Today Marty Lamb, candidate for Republican State Committee, announced that he has won the endorsement of Celeste Wilson, who was the President of the Massachusetts Federation of Republican Women (MFRW) for 8 years before their charter was forced to be removed by the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW).
"I am proud to endorse Marty Lamb for State Committee. He truly cares about the party and will make a great State Committeeman," said Wilson. "Marty did an outstanding job repealing automatic gas tax hikes. His efforts helped the entire GOP ticket."
"The Massachusetts Federation of Republican Women has done extraordinary work for the party over the past 80 years. My heart was broken when the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) was forced to remove the MFRW charter. This action forced our clubs around the state to close down. That has hurt our Republican candidates and the recruitment of female candidates. Marty Lamb has brought this problem to light, and he is the only candidate willing to fight for the Federation," added Wilson.
During last year's election cycle, the Massachusetts Republican Party Executive Committee did a review of charters. One of the conclusions was to deny a permit to use the word Republican in the MFRW title, because the MFRW would not give the Massachusetts State Party Executive Committee a list of their membership and contact information along with the bank account numbers of all their clubs. This would have been a violation of the MFRW bylaws as well as the NFRW refusal to allow outside use of their corporately held documents. Therefore, the NFRW was forced to pull the charter for the Massachusetts Federation of Republican Women to protect the MFRW members from being turned over to the Attorney General's office for criminal and civil sanctions including a $1,000 fine and/or 6 months in jail. Without the MFRW charter, the clubs were forced to shut down and close their bank accounts that have financially supported candidates.
"I am proud to have Celeste's endorsement. And I am even prouder to stand up for all of the MA Federation of Republican Women to get their charter re-instated. It should have never happened," said Lamb.
When elected, Lamb will work to right this wrong. The Massachusetts Federation of Republican Women has not only been helpful to candidates, but one of our strongest GOP Chairwomen, Jean Inman, got her start with the Federation.
In 2013, when the legislature linked the gas tax to inflation so that it would increase every year without a vote, Lamb stepped forward to be a Co-Chairman of Tank Automatic Gas Tax Hikes. He helped build a grassroots team that collected 120,000 signatures within 9 weeks. During the second round of signatures, the team collected another 26,000. When the Office of Campaign and Political Finance prohibited the ballot team from telling the public how legislators voted on the issue, Lamb started a PAC to educate voters.
During the last year's election cycle Lamb helped numerous candidates running for office via the PAC and volunteering on campaigns.
Lamb has also been the Republican nominee for the Massachusetts House and for Congress. In 2010, he won a 5-way primary. For the past 4 years, Lamb has been the Holliston Republican Town Committee Chairman. He has volunteered on numerous campaigns. Most recently, he has been helping Diehl for Senate. Lamb was the only candidate in this race to help the only partisan race occurring in Massachusetts at the time.
Republican State Committee members are elected in March during the presidential primary. There are 2 members elected from each Senatorial district for the 80 member board that governs the GOP within Massachusetts.
