By Elmer
Whittaker
Shortly after
Cindy Lake had joined the Libertarian Party of Nevada back in October 2013,
Cindy and me had a little chat on Facebook messenger about whether she might be
interested to run for party office in the upcoming convention. We were talking
about running her for Vice-Chairman to which Cindy showed immediate interest.
However, we both thought that after all this time it would be unfair to Jason
Smith who was running already for Vice-Chair in Brett Pojunis’ slate, and so we
scrapped the idea.
Sometimes later this subject came up in a chat between Brett Pojunis who was not surprised at all and revealed to me that Jason Smith already approached him with the idea of Cindy Lake running for Vice-Chair while he was going to run for a different position. With this knowledge we agreed to approach Cindy directly and ask her to run for Vice Chair.
At Ted Moody’s
very first fundraiser, Jason, Brett and me had a chance to talk about Cindy
running for Vice-Chair in more detail. Jason assured both of us that he was
most supportive of this idea and had no objections as he would run for one of
the newly created “At-Large” positions. He explicitly assured us that he did
not care about the title of “Vice-Chair” because I told him that I would
consider it of high importance that Cindy Lake held this title.
To assure
Cindy that Jason had no problems with this, he was chosen to confront Cindy
with the question to run as Vice Chair at her party for Jordan Page and I was
supposed to use my determinedness and persuasive abilities to help further the
process. As we now know, Jason Smith for unknown reason never showed up to Cindy’s
Jordan Page party and Brett suspected immediately that he might have been too
drunk to come. So Brett and I decided that I was going to ask the question of
Cindy running for “Vice-Chair”, which I most certainly did.
Cindy Lake at
this point was not prepared to give a definite answer and wanted to consult
with husband and friends and so the issue remained open that night.
In the coming
weeks Brett and I had many chats about the progress of Cindy’s nomination for
Vice-Chair and again I was continually and repeatedly assured that Jason
remains in full support of our endeavor. During that time I also remained in
constant contact with Cindy talking about the issue.
If my memory
doesn’t fail me there were at one point even direct conversations and messaging
between Jason Smith and Cindy Lake, but I would have to research this to say
with certainty.
When it got
close to the convention and no positive answer from Cindy was forthcoming and
after several more chats with Cindy about this subject, in which she eventually
informed me of the reason why she decided not to run in confidentiality and so
I was sure Cindy was not willing to run. Due to the sensitivity of Cindy’s
reasons not to run as Vice-Chair I did not share the details with Brett and
only informed him that it does not look like Cindy is going to run.
Although
Cindy originally citied personal and family problems for her hesitation of
making a commitment as Vice-Chair she revealed to me that she really did not
want to be associated with Brett Pojunis for fear that his reputation as conman
and charlatan would drag her name down along with him especially reciting Brett’s
alleged defrauding of activist Berry Johnson.
As I was well
aware of Brett’s reputation and the many people who have alleged him to be a
fraud from the very beginning I was also most familiar with the Berry Johnson
case and could not really blame Cindy for being overly cautious in becoming
closer associated with Brett.
When I
finally ask Cindy then under what conditions she would be willing to run for
the Libertarian Party, she immediately replied that she would be willing to run
as Chairman alongside her husband Jay Lake as Vice-Chair while Brett Pojunis
could still run for a position at the newly proposed Clark County Libertarian
Party.
However, as I
personally found those conditions as unacceptable in spite of Brett’s dubious
reputation I did not relay this part of the conversation to Brett either. No
matter what they said and alleged about Brett I thought he more than deserved a
chance to prove himself as Chairman of the Libertarian Party and I was
committed and determined to help make that happen.
Brett not
knowing of this conversation I had with Cindy Lake, however wanted to make one
last ditch effort to maybe persuade Cindy to run and so he called me and asked
me to post the proposal openly in the Libertarian Party of Nevada’s Facebook
group. Although I knew this last ditch effort would not be successful and was
hesitant and concerned about using too much pressure on Cindy I posted this
last effort publicly to the group.
To my
surprise, I found myself attacked now in public by Jason Smith for wanting to
cut him out and thought of my posting as highly inappropriate along with some
more insulting words and lies. He acted as if he knew nothing about our
combined effort to recruit Cindy Lake. In fact he acted so angry that he even
left my group Clark County Politics with a few choice words and any attempt of
communicating was abruptly ended by him saying that “we have nothing to talk
about”.
In spite that
Brett even posted to let him know that it was his idea to make this last effort
posting, no apology was ever forthcoming and instead he repeated his stinking
lies on several other occasions. However, Brett never openly posted that Jason
was part right from the very beginning along with Brett and me to recruit Cindy
Lake as Vice Chairman.
I could only
speculate on the reasons why Jason Smith chose to attack me so viciously, why
he never even acknowledged that it was Brett who asked me to post this last
ditch effort and why he to this day continues to repeat the very same lies
about me. To me a person who is willingly and purposely determined to use
completely fabricated lies publicly to either hurt or harm another person, in
this case me, or to simply seek to further himself and seek advantage through
his lies while running for party office, is unscrupulous and corrupt before he
even takes office.
As this
happened only a few days before the Libertarian Party of Nevada convention and
I wanted in no way jeopardize Brett Pojunis’ slate and the change to remove the
then tyrannical Chairman Joe Silvestri and his minions from office.
Brett Pojunis
knew all along about this situation and knows the truth but refuses to this day
to set the record straight and tell the truth, as he claims that he does not
want to become involved in a disagreement between two other people. Brett Pojunis repeatedly as well as Cindy
Lake and Tasha Heath were made aware of this situation in detail and in writing
before Tasha Heath for Southern Nevada Watchdogs endorsed Jason Smith for Clark
County Commission District F, but chose to ignore it and never questioned me
about more details and other dubious issues I have discovered about Jason.
Just recently
now Vice-Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Nevada and Candidate for Clark County
Commissioner District F Jason Smith fabricated and added some more lies about
me publicly for exposing some of his lies in hopes to lessen my credibility.
Jason Smith
now claims that I dislike him because I have a sinister “Quasimodo” crush on
Cindy Lake and wanted him out of the way for Cindy to become Vice-Chair.
Although
Cindy Lake assured me several times that she knew that this was not true and
that she told Jason that she didn't like it and it was wrong to do, and that
she did not appreciate it, she herself has now become an accessory of his lies
by not telling the truth publicly because she claims that she thinks that going
against another liberty candidate would hurt her. At least so Cindy claims.
This all makes
a true mockery of Clark County’s Liberty Movement and there is little that I
would not find deeply troubling and disgusting. Fighting an alleged corrupt
establishment with yet more lies and corruption is not the path to liberty and
justice.
