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San Bernardino County Republicans face a problem, when its chairman Philip Cothran Sr., is an absent leader who fails to champion the party, because he is fearful of losing control of the organization. Sharon Lyn Stein, ran for Assembly District 50, as a write-in, in the primaries, 2024. The district is located between Rancho Cucamonga and Colton, which is also includes Fontana, where the chairman has controlled politics there.
Phil was thinking that voters are unwilling to elect Republicans to Assembly District 50, due to it being an open seat because its incumbent Eloise Reyes, wanted to run for State Senate to finish out her term. Adam Perez, a Fontana Unified School Board member was recruited to run for the office, despite him being a registered Democratic Party member. Phil, the GOP chairman, used his independent PAC called the Inland Empire Business Alliance to buy signs and supportive services for DEMOCRAT Adam Perez!
The problem was no Republican filed for office, and Matthew Munson wanted to make sure the more conservative faction won the delegate, and county party delegate spot for the district, instead of the county party appointing the individual. Since the deadline for ballot qualified candidate expired, Sharon Lyn Stein was recruited to run as a write-in, having been a state party delegate, Republican Women’s club President, and member of the local California Republican Assembly. Sharon got her signatures and attained votes on Election Day on March 5, 2024, and was the best performing Republican for the district.
San Bernardino County Republican Party leadership played coy and played ignorant about seating Sharon after the certification of the vote, despite the secretary Ben Lopez, having been seated in the same situation as her in 2014 when he ran as the token Republican in Congressional District 35. Toni Holle was also seated in 2016, when she ran as the write-in for Assembly District 53. The flaw of the San Bernardino County Republican Party is that the bylaws are silent for many key issues when it comes to membership of the body. Even when elected members try to ask for clarification to the chairman, the chairman plays dumb and ignores the questioning about his actions.
On the party front, Sharon was shut out of membership as a delegate due to a misguided state party bylaw, that was regretfully passed on the floor. The author of the bylaw in 2024 did not want unvetted individuals to become delegates, and he preferred that they ran as ballot qualified candidates. Unfortunately, the rules committee committed a serious error, because they made the rule retroactive instead of being for the next cycle. Matthew Munson tried to fix this problem in the March 2025 state party convention, where he wanted membership changes not to be retroactive, but that also failed. This loss of status made Sharon’s delegate status vacant, where Phil Cothran Sr. got control of the appointment, and appointed Joseph Montalvo instead for the ex-officio spot and the state delegate position.
Unconscionable!
The county party and the state party both failed Sharon. San Bernardino County played games because they did not want their sloppy leadership questioned. Their tactless actions are designed to prevent the loss of control of the organization, where they do not want new perspectives, or unwanted new members, who are registered Republicans to participate.
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