Senator Smith Hijacks County Party To Silence Corruption Critics
For decades, the Coos County Republican Party operated with simple rules. Want to become a Precinct Committee Person?
Be a registered Republican, raise your hand at a meeting, fill out form SEL105, and you are on the committee.
That changed when Chair Michael Brainard took charge.
Suddenly, the party that filled only 48 of 198 available PCP positions started rejecting volunteers. Eight PCP applicants were denied at the Central Committee meeting in May. Twelve more were blocked in July, which led to another meeting abruptly ending when attendees erupted in outrage.
Brainard unilaterally decided to go against decades of precedent and create a new procedure for accepting PCPs into the party.
Precinct Committee Persons, or PCPs, are the entry-level officials of the Oregon Republican Party. They represent the people who live within their precinct to the county Republican Party. PCPs represent their neighbors while they debate and vote on the issues that come before the Central Committee.
The reason for the exclusion is not incompetence. It is calculated retaliation.
The Groomers
Senator David Brock Smith, Oregon's second-ranking Republican, has transformed the county party into his personal protection racket. Anyone who exposes their corruption gets blacklisted. Anyone who asks questions gets shut out. Brainard acts as a proxy for Smith inside the county party.
Smith and devotee former party Chair Rod Schilling spent years grooming Brainard for leadership. They needed someone "easily manipulated and willing to follow orders."
Brainard fit perfectly. Socially awkward with political ambitions but no electoral prospects, he craved access to the political class. Smith offered that access through his office as Senator and his position on the state party's executive board.
The arrangement came with payments. Brainard received money from Smith's PAC, "Friends of David Brock Smith," for undefined work.
It creates the perception of impropriety when PAC payments are vague.
The appearance of impropriety is impropriety.
Politicians must be transparent about donor money because if they cheat their financial supporters, they will cheat everyone else. Two Treasurers for the county party left their positions because Brainard asked them to make some questionable entries on the party’s account. One of them was just elected in November and had to be replaced at the July meeting.
The Extortion Machine
Smith's power flows from two sources: earmarks and fear.
He brings state money back to his district while building a network of people who owe him favors. Cross him, and he'll "send the wolves after you."
That is precisely what happened to Dennis Beetham, owner of DB Western and the party's fifth-largest contributor. Beetham once bailed the state party out of bankruptcy, but his daughter, Denesa Rains, made a fatal mistake.
She helped investigate Smith's corruption.
Smith confronted Beetham directly, unexpectedly showing up to his house uninvited, threatening to expose business secrets unless he silenced his daughter. The message was clear: Stop the investigation or face destruction. It is a message Smith has sent to many of his constituents.
Beetham stopped donating to the state and local affiliates. The party's financial lifeline disappeared. Once again, Smith’s political ambitions hurt his preferred political party, the same party whose leadership hypocritically defends and protects his actions.
Election Consequences
Smith's vendetta is cannibalizing the organization he claims to serve. While Coos County Republicans raised $1,390 and spent $4,773, local Democrats raised $42,537 and spent $36,570.
The financial disparity tells the story. Research shows parties with corruption incidents lose one in five voters.
Smith's corruption runs deeper than financial disruption. Stanford research confirms that apex corruption, when politicians at the highest levels misuse public office for private gain, directly undermines public support.
The pattern extends beyond individual greed to systematic organizational capture.
In a sheer act of betrayal, during the Special District Election in May of 2025, Smith endorsed three WOKE leftist Democratic candidates for the board of the Southwestern Oregon Community College over three qualified Republican conservative candidates. The three Democratic supported candidates were running for reelection. The Republican candidates were challenging them because they defended the school Administrator’s decision to hire a registered sex offender, Curtis Buell, to work with high school-aged students trying to get their GED. Buell was convicted of molesting girls of the same age.
Smith claimed he supported the Democratic candidates because they had the attributes of honesty and integrity, two qualities of character absent in Smith himself. Still, he wrote something a little different in a post on Facebook.
Replying to a post from the Chair of the Curry County Republican Party, Angela Jones, Smith responds to one of the Republican candidates, Chris Castleman, “I certainly do not endorse you for any position, Chris. Integrity is important, especially in public service, and you associate yourself with dishonest individuals and perpetuate misinformation even after I personally spoke truth to you.”
Those supposed dishonest individuals are coincidentally the same people who dug up the evidence showing Smith was corrupt. Smith sounds like a leftist. He uses leftist terms like “misinformation” and “spoke truth.” He endorses leftist politicians and votes for leftist legislation like putting tampons in the boys’ bathroom, and he received an F from the Republican Liberty Caucus of Oregon.
Here is the post from Facebook:
For the record, up to that point, Smith had never met Richard Coleman, the Republican candidate for Position #4, and the Senator is supposed to reach out to Republican candidates and promote their campaign. Otherwise, he could have chosen not to endorse anyone, especially Democrats.
Here are some of the responses Smith received from his constituents for his endorsement of a bunch of WOKE leftists:
Smith’s endorsement of three leftist Democrats for the SOCC Board put a chill on the election, causing a form of voter suppression on the Republican voters, which resulted in the loss of the Republican majority in two other school board elections. Between Smith’s corruption and abuse of power and his support for Democratic candidates, he has severely damaged the Republican Party, and it was all so he could protect his precious reputation, which is currently beyond repair.
Blocking Democracy Itself
Brainard's gatekeeping reveals the stakes. He's denied PCP positions to a Myrtle Point City Councilor, a School Board Member, a Fire District Board Member, and a Transit District Board Member.
These are not random citizens. They are elected officials voters already trusted with public office.
The exclusion makes strategic sense. Elected PCPs can vote to choose county party officers, but can only get elected every two years in an election.
In contrast, appointed PCPs can only be appointed by the Central Committee or Executive Committee at any regular meeting, but the Chair has to allow the vote to be put on the agenda. The appointed PCPs cannot vote for executive officers during reorganizational meetings, which is the only restriction on an appointed PCP. That means the person in control of the appointments is therefore in control of the party unless, or until, the opposing PCPs are duly elected.
Smith has created a perfect catch-22. Grassroots patriots need PCP positions to reform the party from the bottom up, but Smith's puppet controls who gets those positions.
The August Showdown
The corruption machine faces its biggest test yet. A sitting County Commissioner and his wife, Rod and Nikol Taylor, who previously served as PCPs, will request to be appointed at the August meeting. They are also going to ask that all applicants for the position of PCP be appointed at the same time.
Brainard faces an impossible choice. Approve the Commissioner, accept the applicants, and lose his authority over the party. Deny the Commissioner and expose the entire corruption network.
Smith has painted his proxy into a corner where following orders becomes politically suicidal. Unfortunately for Brainard, Smith is known for casting people aside when they no longer serve his purpose.
The outcome will determine whether corruption can survive public exposure.
The Long Game
Eventually, the grassroots patriots are determined to succeed in overthrowing the current leadership of the party to reclaim it for the people of Coos County. Brainard cannot stop the election of PCPs in May of 2026. If he chooses to continue obstructing the growth of the party, more people will become angry, which will inspire them to get involved. Once these highly motivated PCPs are elected, they will have the authority to recall the Chair, change the bylaws, and vote people into those leadership positions that are not owed to a corrupt Senator.
Unfortunately, having to wait for the election will put the Republican candidates at a disadvantage in the Primary and General Election of 2026 because a dysfunctional party cannot effectively support campaigns for essential positions. Some of those positions up for election are county clerk, sheriff, and two county commissioners. Smith’s disruption of the party’s purpose will benefit the Democrats, giving them an advantage.
Of course, that might be his intention.
Warning Signs For Every Voter
The situation in the Coos County Republican Party is the perfect case study that offers lessons for voters watching their local parties. There are warning signs that distinguish normal political disagreements from systematic organizational capture:
Leadership starts alienating people who ask questions.
Bylaws get changed to favor existing power structures.
Transparency disappears around financial relationships and decision-making processes.
Bureaucratic barriers are put in place to keep certain party members from participating in the process.
Party leaders unilaterally create their own rules and procedures.
The solution requires treating representatives and party officials as employees.
Check their records, history, and past performance. Review their actions and question the results. Verify their claims, and if they cannot be verified, then it is time to remove them from their position in the party. People can learn to trust, but they must first verify. It is the responsibility of every member of the party to hold their leadership accountable for their actions and decisions, but it takes participation.
Reclaiming the Party
Smith's machine depends on voter apathy and insider protection. When citizens demand accountability, corruption networks collapse under scrutiny.
The Coos County Republican Party's civil war will determine whether political institutions can self-correct or whether corruption becomes permanent once it captures organizational machinery.
The August meeting will provide the answer.
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