Mark Willis (politician)

Mark Willis (born June 11, 1969) is a businessman and former United States Army counterintelligence agent from Dennysville, Maine who was the only challenger to face Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus for the leadership of that organization at the 2013 Winter RNC meeting.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Born in Alameda County, California to Marilyn (née Burgesen) and Glenn Willis, Mark is the elder of two children. His sister is two years younger than he. He grew up in Paradise, California, graduating from Paradise High School in 1987.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from California State University, Chico. He went on to garner his Master of Science in Management Information Systems at Bowie State University in Maryland, and a Juris Doctorate from George Mason University School of Law.^[3]

Military service

Willis was a counterintelligence agent in the United States Army from 1993 to 1999, serving in Haiti as well as Bosnia.

He worked with the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) from 1999 to 2008. During that time, from 2000 until 2005, he served as an IT liaison between INSCOM and the National Security Agency (NSA) personnel divisions.^[4]

He has been an application security manager and analyst for a Fortune 100 company from 2009 until the present time.

Personal life

Willis and his wife, Violet, own Kilby Ridge Farm, in Dennysville.^[5] Kilby Ridge is one of the last remaining small village farms in Maine. They are involved in the ongoing restoration of their 200 year old, 20-acre coastal farm which specializes in Icelandic sheep, heritage poultry, and heirloom vegetables. Mark frequently points out that they have not taken a single penny of government money in their farming and restoration projects, relying instead on a "pay as you go" policy in order to remain independent, in keeping with their principles.^[6]

They have been married eighteen years and have two children. Their son, Declan, is 12, and their daughter, Brynne, is 4.

Politics

Willis served the Maine Republican Party as the Dennysville Town Chair and is also on the Dennysville School Board. He was a member of the Maine Republican Liberty Caucus and has been endorsed by the National Republican Liberty Caucus. Other prominent endorsements have come from LAMBDA Legal, NRA, Maine's Tea Party, and several others.^[7]

He ran for the Republican National Committee based on three of his principles. He asserted that his top priorities were to identify, promote, endorse, and assist candidates in Maine who believe in liberty and the United States Constitution. Additionally, he stood upon his desire to be the direct line between the RNC and the GOP grassroots at the county level, and to work with other like-minded members of the RNC to introduce resolutions and policy which enables the changes he espouse, including the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the repeal of Section 1021 of the NDAA.

He was a Ron Paul delegate for the State of Maine in the 2012 Republican National Convention, leading the delegation in its principled reaction to the controversial removal of half the delegation by the RNC. He additionally led the delegation in a walkout from that convention when all appeals to seat the duly-elected delegates.^[8][9]

Objections to the 2012 RNC Rules Changes

Additionally, he has stated his objections to the rules of the Republican Party, specifically to Rule 12, Rule 16, and Rule 40 of the Republican National Committee,^[10] which were instituted in what many believe to be a dubious manner during the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Rule 12 allows members of the Republican National Committee to amend the party's rules (except for this one) at any time, rather than during national conventions, as had previously been the case. To do so requires a three-quarters vote of the body of the RNC.^[11]

Rule 16 forces individual state Republican Party committees to use statewide "presidential preference polls," such as straw polls or primaries, to determine which candidate delegates will be bound to. This is counter to many of the states' procedures.

Rule 16 also allows the presumptive presidential candidate to disavow or veto any bound or allocated delegate for any reason whatsoever. In other words, the candidate who is most likely to win the vote at the convention will be allowed to remove delegates who are likely to vote for other candidates. This is to be done before the presumptive candidate is elected.

Rule 40 removes the former requirement for a plurality of five states in order to nominate a candidate for President and/or Vice President and replaces that requirement with the requirement of a majority of eight states.

2013 Election of the RNC Chair

After a grassroots organization called for Reince Priebus to step down^[12] and collected nominations from readers, Mark Willis, the front runner, agreed to run for RNC Chair if he were nominated.^[13][14]

The election of the RNC Chair was held on January 25, 2013, and won by Priebus.

Resignation from the Republican Party

In August of 2013, Willis, until then a member of the Republican National Committee, was one of thirteen Maine Republicans to resign en masse from the Republican Party, saying, ""We can no longer associate ourselves with a political party that goes out of its way to continually restrict our freedoms and liberties as well as reaching deeper and deeper into our wallets."^[15]

References