Just weeks before the Benton County Republican Party (BCRP) will likely elect all their local candidates on the 2024 ballot, members have turned on each other over May emails criticizing BCRP Chairman Misipati Semi Bird.

The BCRP executive committee suspended Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) John Trumbo and Natalie Whitten for two months over the controversy.

Trumbo, a Kennewick city councilmember, and Whitten wrote emails to area Republicans accusing Bird of a conflict of interest by serving as chair of the county GOP organization while also running for governor.

Whitten, wife of Richland Councilmember Ryan Whitten, listed reasons that Bird should step down in a May 22 letter to the BCRP.  The letter circulated in emails among area Republicans, the Tri-City Herald reported in June.

BCRP is not letting bygones be bygones.

In the August primary, Republican Dave Reichert and Democrat Bob Ferguson defeated Bird and moved on to the November general election, but the BCRP isn’t willing to let bygones be bygones.

In an email written last week that was provided to the Observer, Whitten said she was told by the BCRP executive committee that she had been suspended because she didn’t ‘”go through the proper channels'” to send out the emails.

“This policy refers to official communications from BCRP. Under no circumstances does anyone in BCRP get to dictate who I send emails to when I am speaking for myself. Period,” Whitten wrote.

Whitten also said that according to the bylaws, “You cannot suspend someone until after you have 1st Censored them.”

BCRP executive committee stopped Reichert endorsement.

In addition, in the recent email Whitten questioned the executive committee’s interpretation of the group’s bylaws regarding endorsements.

Whitten supported endorsing Reichert in the governor’s race but was told that a candidate had to personally ask the BCRP for the endorsement, a requirement that Whitten said doesn’t exist.

Whitten did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment.

Trumbo says the matter is unresolved.

The matter is unresolved according to Trumbo. In a telephone interview he told the Observer that if the policy on emails was interpreted as the executive committee had, he’d have to have permission every time he writes a personal email commenting on Republican Party actions.

One PCO thinks time would be better spent working on the election.

About the infighting, Republican PCO Ryan Jacobs told the Observer, “Our time would be better spent working on the election.”