Photo credit: Dave Davidson – Prezography.com
Caffeinated Thoughts learned early last week through multiple sources that the new leadership has been locked out of the party’s social media accounts, email lists, voter rolls email accounts, donor lists and even online access to the bank account. Outgoing chair Danny Carroll provided a spreadsheet of usernames and passwords to incoming chair Jeff Kaufmann and the new executive director, Chad Olsen, but the spreadsheet had incorrect passwords for a number of accounts.
Olsen told Caffeinated Thoughts it has been a slow process getting the information needed. “We are making progress on our own, directly with individual companies, which can be a slow and deliberate process. The previous executive director (Steve Bierfeldt) still has not provided any additional information…. It will take time, but we will get there,” Olsen said.
June 13th is the last day the Iowa GOP Facebook page was updated. The Twitter account has not been updated since May 27th. Bierfeldt’s resignation as executive director became effective June 14th. It appears the new leadership now has control of the website since it has been updated since the leadership change.
Jennifer Jacobs of The Des Moines Register wrote last Friday that Steve Bierfeldt, in an email provided to her by Olsen (an anonymous 3rd party… I reread her story and she did not specifically say Olsen, I apologize for my error) said that he no longer has the passwords and account information after being told to delete all Iowa GOP documents from his computer.
Regardless of how one feels about the leadership change at RPI this type of behavior must not be condoned. It is unprofessional and immature. This is reminiscent of the White House vandalism that took place after George W. Bush was elected President. It is a childish response – period. We should expect smooth, professional transitions when party leadership changes regardless of who it is coming in to take over.